Fox to bring back 'In Living Color'

Remember Homey D. Clown? And Fire Marshal Bill?

Well, Fox has announced it will revive In Living Color, the sketch comedy series which

became famous in the early 1990s thanks to characters like Damon Wayans' Homey and Jim Carrey's Bill. Keenen Ivory Wayans, the original series' creator, will serve as host and executive producer of the new episodes. And even though the show helped launch the careers of Wayans' own family as well as those of Jamie Foxx, David Alan Grier and Carrey, the rest of the cast will be new faces.

Our Unpaid, Extra Shadow Work

THE other night at the supermarket I saw a partner at a downtown law firm working as a grocery checker, scanning bar codes. I’m sure she earns at least $300,000 per year. Even so, she was scanning and bagging her purchases in the self-service checkout line. For those with small orders, this might save time spent waiting in slower lines. Nonetheless, she was performing the unskilled, entry-level jobs of supermarket checker and bagger free of charge.

This is “shadow work,” a term coined 30 years ago by the Austrian philosopher and social critic Ivan Illich, in his 1981 book of that title. For Dr. Illich, shadow work was all the unpaid labor — including, for example, housework — done in a wage-based economy.

Census: The new U.S. neighborhood defined by diversity as all-white enclaves vanish

Around the region and across the country, the archetypal all-white neighborhood is vanishing with remarkable speed. In many places, the phenomenon is not being driven by African Americans moving to the suburbs. Instead, it is primarily the result of the nation’s soaring number of Hispanics and Asians, many of whom are immigrants.

The result has been the emergence of neighborhoods, from San Diego to Denver to Miami, that are more diverse than at any time in American history.

Daniel Fawcett Tiemann “The Paint King Of New York,” From The Village Of Harlem

Once upon a time there was a village called Manhattanville, a small, originally Quaker community that planted itself between a bustling but still bucolic section of Bloomingdale Road (later Broadway) and the Hudson River. A remnant of the old village remains in the small neighborhood that shares its name today, north of Morningside Heights between 122nd and 135th streets on the west side.

Founded in 1806 the village grew due to its proximity to a major artery that led to the city of New York, but its fortunes really multiplied due to a developing port industry along the water. Together with its sister village Harlem, they grew into healthy rural communities.

Black buying power nears $1.1 trillion

Black buying power is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, according to The State of the African- American Consumer Report, recently released, collaboratively by Nielsen, a leading global provider of insights and analytics into what consumers watch and buy, and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a federation of more than 200 Black community newspapers across the U.S.

“Too often, companies don't realize the inherent differences of our community, are not aware of the market size impact and have not optimized efforts to develop messages beyond those that coincide with
Black History Month,” said Cloves Campbell, NNPA chairman. “It is our hope that by collaborating with Nielsen, we'll be able to tell the African-American consumer story in a manner in which businesses will understand,” he said, “and, that this understanding will propel those in the C-Suite to develop stronger, more inclusive strategies that optimize their market growth in Black communities, which would be a win-win for all of us.”

Taco Bell Terrorized As Man demands More Beef

A disgruntled customer apparently threw a Molotov cocktail outside the drive-through window of an Albany, Ga., Taco Bell after complaining that his two XXL Taco Bell chalupas weren’t living up to their promise of having extra meat.

The man, whom police and Taco Bell employees were unable to identify because of poor-quality surveillance footage, called the Taco Bell around 4 a.m. demanding more meat for his chalupas, the police report stated.

Assad predicts disaster if West meddles in Syria

Western powers would cause an "earthquake" in the Middle East if they intervened in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Sunday, after protesters demanded outside protection from a crackdown that has killed 3,000 people.

Syria, as Assad noted in his interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph, sits at the heart of the volatile Middle East, where it borders Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.

"It is the faultline, and if you play with the ground, you will cause an earthquake," he said. "Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?"

White fruits and vegetables may lower stroke risk

Every 25 grams per day of white fruits and vegetables consumed led to a 9 percent decrease in the risk of stroke, and apples and pears were the most commonly consumed "white fruit," according to the study, published in the November issue of Stroke.

"Green, orange/yellow and red/purple fruits and vegetables weren't related to stroke. However, the risk of stroke incidence was 52 percent lower for people with a high intake of white fruits and vegetables, compared to people with a low intake," said study author Linda M. Oude Greip, a postdoctoral fellow at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.