For many Americans who thought it was okay to stop "following the political news" for at least a few weeks after the election, the controversy over "Susan Rice" has been very confusing. Didn't we just have a lady named "Secretary of State Rice," as secretary of state? Then what's the big deal? That particular glass ceiling is shattered, right? Why does John McCain keep trying to turn back the clock, to when he was young?

Throughout modern history, the popular consciousness has been regularly baffled and confused by stars who share the same surname. The 1990s, for example, are perhaps best remembered as a time of great confusion for [...]

On Monday morning in Tampa, I stepped out of a bathroom stall and into a large bald fellow in a blue suit. I didn't even have time to wash my hands before saying good morning to the most important Republican of our time, and my personal hero, Mr. Karl Rove. "Morning," I said. "Morning," he said. It's morning in America, again. And then walking out of the bathroom, I saw a grown, suit-clad man trying to mount a five-foot tall red, white and blue raffle-prize elephant. "Get a picture!" the guy yelled to no one.

The Marriott Waterside Hotel was Fort Romney RNC. The Marriott family are Mormon, are [...]

Cat shows are far more populist events than dog shows. Having a show dog can cost a fortune. Beyond paying large sums for the creature’s pure bloodline, there’s also training, kennel fees, handler salaries and all sorts of other costs. Less so with the kitties. You can get a purebred cat for well under a thousand dollars and because cats aren’t bred to do much more than live in total domesticity (lying about, sunning themselves, sprawling out inappropriately on piles of work papers, kneading air muffins) the rest comes rather cheaply. The owners of show cats mostly consider themselves to be hobbyists and regard an event like the Cat Fanciers' [...]

Last Friday, July 1, photographer Andrew Piccone traveled to four neighborhoods in New York City. He spent an hour in each, to document the people, the looks and the sultry, lazy heights of summer. He brought back seven photos from each neighborhood, as he moved along from Rockaway Beach to the Upper East Side.

Rockaway Beach, on Beach 96th Street, 2 to 3 p.m.

Have you been outside? Sure you have—gotta go buy Wheat Thins and cigarettes sometime. But have you really been outside? These in particular are the short weeks that genius NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe has set up to make New York City a ridiculous and tawdry explosion of plant reproductive techniques. Central Park—where that delicious little bit of forest above is—is like a tree orgy; it's sort of embarrassing! And elsewhere around the city, it's a testament to the City's impressive investment to intelligent planting and plant care. Sure, the argument could be made that it just gives the homeless somewhere nicer to sleep, or it makes a nice backdrop [...]

A reader writes: "So, my friend found these old pictures in a box from a dead relative. We scanned them in, cropped them, and she's getting them printed now for her house BECAUSE THEY'RE SO ADORABLE it's kind of damning. The plates are from Minnesota, where we are, but no idea where pics were taken. Nor any idea of year…'30s?" I don't know either, but OMG VINTAGE BEARS!

Part of a series about monsters and other scary things happening here through Halloween.

This spring, while traveling cross country, I spent a few days exploring the alien culture of Roswell, New Mexico, and Rachel, Nevada, aka Area 51. I visited museums, alien-themed restaurants, and truck stops, and then made a stop at the "black mailbox" on Nevada SR-375. I didn't come across anything extraterrestrial but I did get couple great coffee mugs and some photos.

"Here are 84 pictures of abandoned or failing or flat-out dead malls across America."

Food porn is one of the Internet's veritable viral cornerstones. Pictures of wacky cupcakes, fusion fried chicken or an incredible, competitive array of deviled eggs get reblogged viciously by legions of salivating fans. In an attempt to tap into the zeitgeist and assess what's to be the next "hot thing all the young, hip and/or upwardly mobile people are doing," I filmed my first amateur food porn.

The food porn party creates two works of art at once: the edibles, and the documentation of that which is eaten. The dishes are chosen for their potential attractiveness. The food, after it is created, must be styled—and then it must be [...]

Do you know what New York City's most photographed attraction is? Rep. Anthony Wiener's penis! Kidding, it's the Apple store uptown. Of course. Nerds.

Most people spend their app pennies and time on effects apps for photos. Everyone has Instagram, so they can put scratchy, slightly out of focus, over-saturated pictures on their Tumblrs, and it looks so meaningful. This is a thing that people really like doing, and even those of us who disapprove must learn to accept it. Instagram is the top free photography app in the Apple store! So the people have spoken. Go on, download it, I know you want to.

Likewise, Hipstamatic is the #3 paid app right now. Hipstamatic also "processes" your digital pictures to make them look old-timey film-ey. So this is a look [...]

A reader from North Carolina writes: "This picture was taken fifteen minutes ago [Note: This is now several hours old. Scheduling, she is so difficult! --Ed.] from our back door. Seriously. On any other occasion I'd be a little alarmed for the dog and cat, but today it's just adding to the pixilation." And how. What a bear!

Everything about this photo is absolutely heartbreaking, but I think, in particular, the mix of sadness, concern and resolve on the face of Christina-Taylor Green's father as he looks over at his son is in some strange way an affirmation of our ability to withstand even the most unfathomable tragedies. In an oddly uplifting way it reverses the liturgy—in the midst of death we are in life. For those of us who lapse too easily into cynicism or self-pity, it's a powerful reminder that where there is sorrow there is also strength, and that's something we need to consider more frequently.

"The Greeks aren't the only ones sick of the euro crisis. Photographers are reaching the end of their tether too, struggling to shoot images of euro coins in various states of distress to illustrate the story. Though some of the photos are absurd, they still get published — because news outlets are equally desperate…. [Photographers] have resorted to using children's toys, arranging a plastic shark to look like it's eating a Lego man holding a Greek flag. They have photographed coins in a free fall. Rumor has it that one photographer poured gasoline on coins to try to make them glow with heat."

I met Bill Nye, the global warming guy.

Herman Cain went from "That guy who debated Clinton?" to candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States of America to frontrunner in that race to the "Cain Train!" to walking embarrassing quote machine to "Sexual Harassment Train" to "Whatever happened to that guy who debated Clinton and then ran for president?" That took place in about nine months.

But all was not lost. Along the way, Herman met a great gang of people. And as they say, what's important is the journey, not the destination. Let's look back on a scrapbook of Herman Cain's two [...]

Ladies, do we have a problem? We kind of… do. Rebecca Traister weighs in on SlutWalk. I wanted to love SlutWalks, the viral protest movement that began this spring after a Toronto police officer told a group of college women that if they hoped to escape sexual assault, they should avoid dressing like “sluts.” In angry response, young women (and men) have marched in more than 70 cities around the world, often dressed in bras, halter tops and garter belts.

But at a moment when questions of sex and power, blame and credibility, and gender and justice are so ubiquitous and so urgent, I have mostly felt irritation [...]

WWD surveyed six photo editors and designers about the soon-to-be iconic photo of the Obama team's briefing during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. This is definitely one of the more interesting things you'll read all day; each interviewee brings something different to the story.

"It may be a small group," said Sharif, a 29-year-old Coptic Egyptian, looking out the windshield of his BMW into the line of traffic that streamed down the highway in the mid-afternoon sun. “No station on television talk about this. I don’t know why—it’s not fair. All the stations are afraid of Tahrir."

On this dusty highway, celebration was in the air. A flood of Egyptians were packed into flat bed trucks and traditional third world, go-cart passenger cars. Horns honked. Hands flashed victory signs out car windows. Alongside Sharif, three teenagers on a motorcycle sped between lanes. The center passenger held an eight-foot Egyptian flag high in the [...]

Gordon Reynolds, our man in Cairo, sends along photos from yesterday's protest. (For real-time dispatches, follow him here.)

Egyptian police blocked both sides of Tahrir Square, pressing the protesters.