Black Magic

Few other women in rap have a firmer grip on the in-your-face concept of machisma than this spicy three-female unit. They seldom deal in heavyweight social matters but when it comes to voicing a swaggering sense of selfhood, Salt-N-Pepa delivers. "Negro Wit' An Ego" has strong comedic energy. "Expression," written/produced by Cheryl (Salt) James with a power-to-the-individual emphasis, is one of the wittiest rap tracks to emerge this year.

Young Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) can no longer walk. But as we see in Episode 22 (“Dark Wings, Dark Words”) of the HBO hit “Game of Thrones,” the Stark lad has the rare ability - in his “black magic dreams” - to run like a wolf or fly like a raven. Also possessing the gift of seeing through the eyes of animals is fellow “warg” Jojen Reed (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), who joins Bran's entourage on their flight from Winterfell. Protecting Jojen with her blade and wits is older sister Meera (Ellie Kendrick)

The Rev. Alberto Juarez has seen a young woman erupt in an angry man's voice and growl like a dog. Father Enrique Maldonado tells of houses where locked doors flew open and objects moved about. In these days of high technology and lunch-hour therapy sessions, many people think of exorcism as a relic of the Middle Ages. But the ritual to drive away the forces of evil is alive and well around the globe, perhaps no more so than in Mexico.

For inquiring Ivans worried about the future, the organ of the Communist Party produced a presumably qualified source: the official spokesman of the 400-year-old Russian Order of Sorcerers. For the record, the sorcerer prophesied to Pravda on a recent weekend that the Soviet Union would overcome its economic difficulties within five years, possibly assisted by beings he said were circling the globe in flying saucers.

Oh it's a long, long time from July to December, but vacation is coming unless the Big Raider in the Sky intervenes in a big way and quickly. Vann McElroy was asked this week if he had any show-biz projects coming up for the off-season. Since the Raiders are alleged to have gone Hollywood, all of them get asked about it these days, down to the most down-home of them, this bearded urchin from Uvalde, Tex., nattily outfitted in a T-shirt and baseball cap. "Yeah," McElroy said. "A sitcom.

Oh it's a long, long time from July to December, but vacation is coming unless the Big Raider in the Sky intervenes in a big way and quickly. Vann McElroy was asked Wednesday if he had any show-biz projects coming up for the off-season. Since the Raiders are alleged to have gone Hollywood, all of them get asked about it these days, down to the most down-home of them, this bearded urchin from Uvalde, Tex., nattily outfitted in a T-shirt and baseball cap. "Yeah," McElroy said. "A sitcom.

Margaret Whiting, a pop singer for television, film, cabaret and Broadway whose recordings of such standards as "That Old Black Magic" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" sold millions of copies in the 1940s and '50s, has died. She was 86. Whiting died Monday at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J., said Jordan Strohl, administrator for the retirement home. The cause was not given. Blessed with a distinctive voice and a warm, insightful singing style, Whiting had a career that stretched over seven decades.

On the day that Liberace was supposed to draw his final breath, and for the eight days preceding that, George Finney and his wife were camped in their '74 Dodge in a parking lot across from the entertainer's home in Palm Springs. Unlike the other people who gathered there by daylight waiting for the man to die, George was not a fan, and in fact, as the vigil wore on he was coming to dislike Liberace even more, because his own dream of redemption was dying in that hacienda, too.