Before he became the most trusted man in news, Walter Cronkite was the host of CBS’s coverage of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif.

Amid Blizzard, Cronkite Helped Make Sports History

Stewart Cink won a four-hole playoff by six shots when Tom Watson’s swing finally came undone.

Cink Ends Watson’s Open Dreams in Playoff

In a stage that may have revealed who will win this year’s Tour, Alberto Contador conquered the steep Swiss Alps and won Lance Armstrong's support.

With a Late Climb, Contador Controls the Tour de France

The Bravo network held a casting call in New York City for a show in which 13 artists will compete to win a gallery show and other related prizes.

Hundreds Try Out for Art-World Reality Show

At a time when celebrities typically employ a team of professionals to control their images, Wikipedia is a place where chaos rules.

Wikipedia May Be a Font of Facts, but It’s a Desert for Photos

On the British stage this season past, present and future are one nation indivisible.

Time, and the Green and Pleasant Land

“The Wanted,” a series that purports to send its own team to hunt down accused terrorists and war criminals, so far has mostly brought NBC News unwanted scrutiny.

TV-Ready Manhunt Finds Prey at Home

The only thing cooler than a pool party on a summer night in New York City is a secret pool party in a pool made out of a Dumpster.

Forget the Trash Bag, Bring a Towel

The lender approved a deal with major bondholders to help it avert a bankruptcy filing through a $3 billion emergency loan, people briefed on the matter said.

CIT Is Said to Obtain Loan to Avert Bankruptcy

Democrats as well as Republicans are concerned about being handed costly new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them.

Governors Fear Medicaid Costs in Health Plan

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” took in an estimated $159.7 million in five days in North America.

A Wizard Is a Whiz at the Box Office

You are West, defending against four spades. You start the defense with your two top clubs, partner signaling a doubleton. When you cash the club queen, partner discards the heart jack. What would you do now?

A Congenial Champion, Reading Signs

Diane Paulus is directing an opera, Ana Gasteyer joins the cast of “Royal Family” and Adam Guettel gets a new commission for a musical.

In the Wings

It looks increasingly as though Sony Pictures will emerge as the buyer in a Hollywood auction of film rights to the rehearsal videos of Michael Jackson’s aborted concert tour.

Sony May Get Videos of Jackson Rehearsals

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2009-10 concert series will include not only classical chamber music but also some rock ’n’ roll, thanks to Patti Smith.

Patti Smith to Rock the Met Museum

The British director Ken Loach has withdrawn his film “Looking for Eric” from the Melbourne International Film Festival in protest against the Israeli government’s sponsorship of another filmmaker, Agence France-Presse reported. The Israeli government provided airfare for Tatia Rosenthal, whose film “9.99” is an Israeli-Australian co-production. In a letter to the festival director, Richard Moore, Mr. Loach, right, wrote that he was protesting not Israeli films or filmmakers, but Israel’s “illegal occupation of Palestinian land, destruction of homes and livelihoods,” according to The Age, a newspaper in Melbourne. Mr. Moore said the festival would not revisit the sponsorship agreement. “It’s like submitting to blackmail,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse. In May BBC News reported that the Edinburgh Film Festival had returned an Israeli grant for a filmmaker’s travel expenses after Mr. Loach called for a boycott. With a lot of action but almost no romance, the first feature film produced by Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, had its premiere on Friday, playing to a segregated audience of men and women at Islamic University in Gaza City, The Associated Press reported. (Above right, a billboard, at top center, for the film, in Gaza City.) “We are trying to make quality art that is Islamic and about the resistance, without provocative scenes,” said Fathi Hamad, Hamas interior minister and producer of the film, a biopic about Emad Akel, a military commander who was killed by Israeli troops in 1993. The two-hour film took 10 months to make and cost $200,000.

Hamas Tries the Film Business

Ken Loach has withdrawn “Looking for Eric” from the Melbourne International Film Festival in protest against the Israeli government’s sponsorship of another filmmaker, Agence France-Presse reported.

Ken Loach Withdraws Film From Melbourne Festival

A picture caption last Sunday with an article about two fatal shootings involving a Miami Beach police officer misidentified the man shown in a security camera photograph just before the first shooting took place. The picture showed Samer Shehada  not his brother, Husien, who was fatally shot. 

Corrections

A listing in the New Jersey Calendar in some editions last Sunday omitted part of the name of a music event held at Princeton University. It was the 2009 Golandsky Institute International Piano Festival, not the International Piano Festival. The error also appeared in listings on June 28 and July 5.

An article last Sunday by The Associated Press about the United States men’s soccer team’s 2-2 draw with Haiti in Concacaf Gold Cup group play misstated, in some copies, the distance of the tying goal by United States midfielder Stuart Holden. He made the goal from 25 yards away, not 25 feet.

An article in The Times Magazine this weekend about the argument for rationing health care in the United States misstates the number of years it would take under the current system for the country to spend nearly a third of what it earns on health care. It is 26 years from now, or 2035, not 15 years.

The puzzle solutions last Sunday gave an incorrect answer for the 7x7 KenKen puzzle on July 5. The sixth line should have read, across, 7,2,1,5,6,4,3  not 2,6,5,1,7,3,4, which was a repeat of the solution shown for the fifth line.

More than 70 bands on seven stages performed during the 15th annual installment of this punk roadshow.

Screamers, Whiners and Synthesizers: There’s a Rave Going On

Starter Joba Chamberlain, who had been inconsistent before the All-Star break, performed well in his six and two-thirds innings and the Yankees moved one game out of first place.

Chamberlain Helps Yankees Sweep First-Place Tigers

Francis McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Angela's Ashes, a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood.

Frank McCourt, American author and educator (born 1930)

Frank_McCourt

Henry John Surtees was a British racing driver and the son of John Surtees. He died during a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch when he was struck by a wheel which came off another car which had spun into a wall.

July 19, 2009

Headlines from July 19, 2009

Amid Blizzard, Cronkite Helped Make Sports History

Cink Ends Watson’s Open Dreams in Playoff

With a Late Climb, Contador Controls the Tour de France

Hundreds Try Out for Art-World Reality Show

Wikipedia May Be a Font of Facts, but It’s a Desert for Photos

Billboard 200

NOW 31

American Saturday Night

Cradlesong

Wilco (The Album)

The E.N.D.

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for July 19, 2009