Fantasy Colbert League: September 13-September 16

Welcome back for another installment of the Fantasy Colbert League. I hope you all enjoyed the special shows for the troops, “Been There: Won That.” I just love how Stephen goes above and beyond to honor those deserving men and women. Now we are back to a four show week (!) and here is who we are going to see.

Lisa Birnbach is the author of the new book, True Prep: It’s a Whole New Old World. True Prep looks at how “preppy” people have evolved in everything from how they view school to how they view clothing. Birnbach is the co-author and editor of the 1980 book, The Official Preppy Handbook. In addition to editing and authoring books, Lisa has written for a variety of print publications such as the New York Times and Rolling Stone, as well as serving as the deputy editor of SPY magazine. Along with Patricia Marx, Birnbach has authored a series of books about “1,003 Great Things.” These span from getting older to things to smile about to things about teachers.

Follow Lisa on Twitter here.

Fract: Successful start: Upon debut, The Official Preppy Handbook spent 38 weeks at number one on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Sean Wilentz is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor of History at Princeton University who has a new book called, Bob Dylan in America, chronicling the life of the musician since he first made it big in the 1960′s. Wilentz grew up in Greenwich Village and went on to attend Columbia University and Oxford as an undergraduate, as well as Yale for his graduate work. He has extensively written and edited books on American historical figures including Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Pierce, and Andrew Jackson. Sean is also a contributing editor for The New Repubilc and received a Grammy nomination for his commentary in the liner notes of his work on Bob Dylan.

Fract: Books run in the family: Wilentz’s father and uncle owned a famous bookstore in NYC called The Eighth Street Bookshop.

Wednesday, September 15: Saul Griffith

Saul Griffith is an inventor from Sydney, Austrailia. He is well-known for designing an inexpensive way to make prescription eyeglasses using flexible surfaces and pourable resin. With a Ph.D. in Programmable Assembly and Self-Replicating Machines from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Griffith has co-founded a number of inventive companies. These include: Low Cost Eyeglasses, Squid Labs, Potenco, Instructables.com, and Makani Power. His current projects are OtherLab, Onya Cycles, and HowToons. Griffith concentrates his research on minimumal and constrained energy surfaces for new manufacturing techniques. He has received the MacArthur Genius Grant and his smart electronic rope was voted one of the top inventions of 2005 by Time.

Fract: Young Success: At 36, Saul has already been inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame.

Thursday, September 16: Christiane Amanpour

Christiane is a friend of the show with her third appearance. Her last appearance was a year and a day ago, on September 15, 2009. Christiane is the anchor of ABC news-program, This Week with Christiane Amanpour, which debuted in August. As a child, Amanpour spent time living in Iran and England as her father and mother were of those nationalities, respectively. She came to the United States to study Journalism at the University of Rhode Island, graduating with highest honors. Throughout the 1980′s and 1990′s, Christiane travelled the globe reporting on everything from the fall of Communism to the Persian Gulf War. From 1996 through 2005, she was a reporter for 60 Minutes, and won a Peabody in 1998 for her work on the show. She has interviewed such world leaders as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. In October, Amanpour will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Follow Christiane on Twitter here.

Fract: High-power hang-up: In 2002, Yassar Arafat famously hung up on Christiane during a telephone interview.

Enjoy the show!