Lisa Myers

Correspondent Leaves NBC News After Three Decades  A correspondent who has been with NBC News for more than 30 years is leaving the network. TVNewser reports that political and investigative correspondent Lisa Myers announced she's headed out. “I have had more than 30 fascinating years at NBC News, learning from and working alongside the best of the best, including journalists who paved the way for many of us: Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert,” she wrote in a note that was sent to NBC News employees from Washington bureau chief Ken Strickland. In the note, Strickland writes that Myers is leaving to “start a new chapter.” While Myers writes that she appreciates “the company granting my request to change gears and pursue new horizons,” the note doesn’t say what she plans to do next. Myers joined NBC News in 1981 from The Washington Star, where she was the publication’s White House correspondent.

Attribution: TVNewser

The District library’s Washingtoniana division is a treasure trove of D.C. history

Among the pictures catalogued at Washingtoniana is the photo archive of the Washington Evening Star.
The Star is on microfilm at Washingtoniana, too, along with The Post and such defunct papers as the Washington Herald and the Washington Times (the original Washington Times).
African American papers are there, too. You can scan city directories, which once were like super-detailed phone books, complete with the occupation of each resident.
Some of the material is digitized and searchable on your computer from home. That includes the Evening Star from 1852 to 1952, once searchable only via a handmade index. (All you need is a D.C. library card, which you can get even if you don’t live in the District.)
“People are loving having the Washington Star,” said Kim Zablud, special collections manager and boss of the 12-person department. (For decades, the Star was the city’s leading newspaper, often besting the rag you’re reading.)

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-district-librarys-washingtoniana-division-is-a-treasure-trove-of-dc-history/2014/01/11/0ccf52c2-7942-11e3-af7f-13bf0e9965f6_story.html

Attribution: John Kelly, washingtonpost.com

Focus on: Lexington artist Susan Harb transforms found objects into one-of-a-kind pieces

Why you should know her: Susan, a Lexington-based artist who’s lived in the Rockbridge County area for roughly 15 years, unveiled the new month-long exhibit “Lust for Rust” — featuring a mix of sculptures and assemblages made from found objects indigenous to rural Virginia — at the Academy of Fine Arts last week.

Background

The Indiana-born admirer of avant-garde expression was reared about 35 miles west of Orlando in the former citrus hub of Groveland, where she spent much of her childhood playing the part of resident tomboy, often hanging out around her father’s tractor business and sweeping up his welding shop once a week.

That early introduction to heavy equipment and all things metal served as a breeding ground for her future profession in the art world, one that’s rooted in the scavenging of automobile graveyards, refuse piles and decaying dump sites for the right materials to fashion her unconventional pieces.

But her obsession with the discarded relics of the past came later.

After earning her bachelor’s degree in news and editorial writing from the University of Florida, she set out on a 15-year career as a journalist, covering the arts for publications like the Washington Star, the Virginian-Pilot, the Gainesville Sun and others.

ONE SOUFFLE AT A TIME: A MEMOIR OF FOOD AND FRANCE By Anne Willan

There are many food writers in the English-speaking world who have made it their mission to bring French food back to their unawakened compatriots. Some, such as Julia Child, became media superstars. However, among them and animated by an almost missionary zeal, Anne Willan is unique.

For one thing, she not only brought France to her native England and her adopted homeland the United States, but she indulged in a kind of interactive cross-cultural pollination by bringing them to the school she established in Burgundy, "La Varenne":

"I was learning that great cooking is so much more than recipes . I wanted people to leave saying what one student early on remarked: 'When I go home I will never look at food the same way again.'"

The core of this warm-hearted memoir is the lengthy, multipronged process by which Ms. Willan's attitude toward food evolved from its roots in good taste and good cooking to the stratosphere of cuisine.