Tonight on Extension 720: Belief in spectral presences and other paranormal occurrences still persists, but tonight we welcome two members of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) to explain the reality behind the seemingly supernatural. Our guests will be PAUL KURTZ, chairman of the committee, and JIM UNDERDOWN, executive director of the Center for Inquiry West.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File is taking the day off, but will return Monday.

Tonight on Extension 720: In As You Like It, Shakespeare wrote: “One man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.” Though we may be familiar with his works, the seven ages of Shakespeare the man remain mysterious. Tonight, we explore how Shakespeare went from country burgher to one of the greatest artists of all time with renowned Shakespearean scholar STEPHEN GREENBLATT, University Professor of Humanities at Harvard and author of the new book Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File is taking the day off, but will return tomorrow.

Tonight on the show: Extension 720 tonight helps the Lyric Opera of Chicago celebrate its 50th anniversary with a program featuring the best of this gala season and seasons past. BILL MASON, general director of the Lyric Opera, ROGER PINES, historian and dramaturg at the Lyric, as well as soprano ERIN WALL and mezzo-soprano JUDITH CHRISTIN will join the program to play and discuss highlights from the history and current season of the Lyric.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

SHOULD ANNAN RESIGN? A cabinet minister in the U.K., if faced with embarassments similar to those detailed here by Claudia Rosett, almost certainly would. The column is from today's Wall Street Journal.

FROM THE FELLOW WHO REALLY FOLLOWS THE POLLS: That's our friend and frequent program guest, John McIntyre of Real Clear Politics. Here's his latest (as of yesterday) reading of the presidential polling haruspices.

SAFIRE ON THE KERRY CAMP FEARMONGERS: The redoubtable first-chair conservative at the New York Times is offended by the patent insincerity and visible cynicism of the scare-a-day campaign style now being employed by the Dems. We, to say the least, agree!

THE CANDIDTATE-ENDORSEMENT GAME: What's a commendation by the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune (or the Morrisville Bugle) really worth? These days they turn off as many voters as they turn on--according to this from The American Journalism Review.

PAT BUCHANAN SWALLOWS THE BULLET...and, despite his two-year-long fit about Iraq, neo-cons, Sharon and the "Zionist Amen Corner," finds that he must endorse Bush for a second term. He remains, as always, an interesting presence and a skilled controversialist.

IN PURSUIT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Philosophers (of "Mind") have been arguing about it for years. Engineers, according to this jolting interview with one of the most esteemed, are just going forward to create machines that "think." The U.K. Philosophers' Magazine is the source of this intruiging piece.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE BISHOPS CONFERENCE...the leaders of American Catholicism are still trying to navigate through the storm to a safe haven. Most of them talk to Father Richard Neuhaus, editor of First Things, whose reports continue to enlighten and fascinate.

IF DEMOGRAPHY IS DESTINY...as Auguste Comte (thr "father" of sociology) said it was, then things are looking rather copacetic for the United States. So says one of the editors at The Walrus, in this recent article from that sprightly new Canadian magazine.

WHAT DOES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION ACHIEVE--AND AT WHAT COST? Tom Sowell has scanned the empirical evidence evaluating such programs around the world. This article, drawn from his new book on the subject, finds the "social costs" high and the beneficial results not terrible beneficial.

WHO GETS THE GLITTRERING PRIZES...more particularly the National Book Awards. Roth, Ozick, Oates and Updike are not in the running! Who is? The New Yorker tells you who and tries to explain why.

A LAST WORD ON DERRIDA...or maybe not. This time we hear from a former disciple who wasn't sure she understood but, in the wake of his being called to the great nothingness, reflects on what she thinks she may have learned. Actually, this amusingly written article from The American Prospect does as well as any academic essay in explicating Derridaen thought.

REVERBERATIONS FROM THE NEW LIT CRIT SECTOR OF THE ACADEMY: If you care about what the post-mods are up to in the English, French, Philosophy or Cultural Studies departments of your university--or anybody else's--this article of a few years ago by Elaine Showalter will either enlighten, amuse or infuriate you.

A GREAT AMERICAN BAND LED BY A MASTER MUSICIAN: Benny Goodman was a superb performer--even of Mozart. Here is a generous collection of his classic swing recordings including some great vocals by Peggy Lee and Helen Forrest.

Tonight on Extension 720: The question of nature versus nuture has long plagued developmental psychology, and tonight we again ask the question: how are personalities formed? Joining Extension 720 live from Boston is eminent psychologist JEROME KAGAN. Currently the Daniel and Amy Starch Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Harvard, Kagan is the author of many books on psychology, including his latest The Long Shadow of Temperament, which examines the role of temperament in developmental psychology.

More information on this show is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File is taking the day off, but will return tomorrow.

Tonight on Extension 720: The scandal at CBS News involving Dan Rather and the forged memos relating to President Bush’s time in the National Guard has brought new attention to the American news media and television journalism. With the growing popularity of cable news from the likes of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, has the networks’ drive to be competitive and score the ever-elusive scoop undermined their ability to create accurate and unbiased reporting? Discussing these matters and more tonight is BOB SCHIEFFER, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News, host of Face the Nation, and moderator of the third presidential debate just a few days ago. His latest book is Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award-Winning News Broadcast.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

CHINA RISING...AND INDIA TOO: Fareed Zakaria strikes a possibly obvious but--in the light of Iraq--rather neglected note about the long-term foreign policy problems that loom for the years immediately ahead.

THE ONCE (AND FUTURE?) PRESIDENT OF PAKISTAN...Benazir Bhutto is still waiting in the wings and remains forcefully critical of the Musharaff government, as she told them in Texas the other day. The report is from the national "reform" newspaper of Pakistan, The Daily Times.

THE DEN BESTE REANALYSIS OF THE POLLS: This was all over the blogosphere on Sunday--and for good reason. NAMELY: there has apparently been some serious distortion (in both sampling and analysis) of the presidential polls. It may have been merely "wishful" or, in some instances, it may have been "intentional." Either way, Bush's lead over Kerry seems to have been obscured.

BUT IF YOU WANT ANOTHER POLL...here's yesterday's report of the USA Today/CNN/Gallup survey that was done from October 14-16. For "likely voters" its now: Bush-52%, Kerry-44%. This run-down features lots of additional valuable detail.

THE DECLINE OF THE TEXAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY...apparently has a lot to do with a paranoid fix on the Bushes. So says--and documents--Andy Ferguson in this article from the current issue of The Weekly Standard.

A STEM-CELL PRIMER: We tried to supply just that at the beginning of our program last Friday--and then went on to discuss and debate the imposed limits on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. Today we came upon this simple but informative review of the same matters in The Star of Malaysia.

A FRENCH "TAKE" ON THE MODERNITY OF ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM: The Economist here reviews two recent books on Islam in the West and seems a bit surprised at the news that fundamentalist movements utilize the tastes and instrumentalities of the societies they inhabit. Still, the article is full of fascinating particularities; our favorite was the demand for "halal hamburgers."

OH TO BE IN ENGLAND...if you are an American masochist!! Otherwise, says this ex-pat resident of St. John's Wood, be prepared for foul-mouthed rage against Americans and Jews. She is both of those and, in this account published in the U.K. Guardian, she tells her "hosts" how deeply inhospitable they have become.

PRIAPISM, THY NAME WAS GREENE: Or, at any rate, that seems to be the main impression that Paul Theroux has formed while reading (and now reviewing for the New York Times) the concluding volume of Norman Sherry's biography of Graham Greene. What his sexual life had to do with his great achievement as a novelist will, undoubtedly, persist as a "literary topic" so long as middlebrow revue journals are published.

DERRIDA DECONSTRUCTED...by Steven Plaut, a strongly spoken Israeli conservative intellectual writing, last week, in Front Page magazine. Clearly, he does not fully endorse the old Roman rule: de mortui nil nissi bonum.

WHAT DO PICTURES MEAN? If they are the paintings of major artists they are, these days, likely to have "politically correct" meanings projected upon them by the reigning critics and art historians. So says Roger Kimball, contemptuously but persuasively in a new book that he discussed with us and is here reviewed for Commentary magazine.

THE CASE OF RICHARD WAGNER DOES TEST THE LIMITS OF THE GENETIC FALLACY: The latter is the proposition that you can't judge a work of art by the odious personality and behavior of its creator. But a new biography of the Master of the Ring--reviewed here for The Scotsman--tempts one toward fallacy commision.

ANOTHER FINE CONCERT FROM LUGANO: On this night at the Argerich Festival (June 21, 2004) works by Schubert, Brahms, and Prokofiev. The latter's Overture on Hebrew Themes is superbly performed by a chamber ensemble, as originally intended.