Screenings

DUCK AND COVER

Readers who enjoyed our Cold War coverage in the September issue and wish to return to those stirring days can do so through the offices of Something Weird Video , a Seattle outfit that preserves immense amounts of motion-picture ephemera, from 1940s B movies to feature films made in pornography’s 1970s “golden age.” The company is offering three cassettes of Cold War-era instructional films, among them: Survival Under Atomic Attack, Duck and Cover (which begins with an animated turtle using its shell to protect itself from a dynamite-wielding monkey), Radiological Decontamination of Ships , and You Can Beat the A-bomb (if you should get radiation poisoning, “lie down and rest”). Something Weird Video, P.O. Box 33664, Seattle, WA 98133; www.somethingweird.com .

THE MEN WHO INVENTED AMERICA

Examining the personal lives behind the legends who fashioned our country, the four-part series Founding Fathers (History Channel, premiering November 27-30, 9:00 P.M. EST ) includes such sensational details as the purported manic depression of John Adams, James Madison’s anxiety attacks, and the sex scandal that almost ruined Alexander Hamilton. A cast of historians weighs in on why American independence mattered to each of the 10 men profiled.