thomas a. allen is the author of "george washington spiremaster" chosen by the new york public library as one of the 100 best children's books of 2004. and co-author of "spybooks, the book of espionage," the principle sourcebook for the international spy museum. also a member of the press club, he's written extensively for national geographic society and has appeared on television as an authority on military and intelligence subjects. please welcome paul dickson and thomas a. allen. [applause] >> thanks a lot. we're extremely happy to be here tonight. this has been a long odyssey for tom and myself. and people always said, how did this thing start? how did you get this idea? and i think i was probably the one that first started to think about this. i kept -- the question that came to me was, why was this big event, this -- i thought turning point. why was it always sort of margin liesed? >> and one night, tom and i were at a writer's party in georgetown. and we both lived in montgomery county. so i d

here is a "behind the breaks" reality moment from the july 9th edition of the show. it begins with allen kohns asking cal thomasuestion we all knew the answer to already. >> cal short for calvin? >> yes, it is. >> your name is -- your calvin would be your -- >> that's my middle name, yes. >> what's your first name? >> john. i was named after coolidge's sons. >> why did you go with cal rather than john? >> i wanted to identify with the cal ripken jr. >> okay, so that is a great example of what you could learn during a talkative commercial break. i knew cal was short for calvin but didn't know calvin was actually cal thomas' middle name, didn't know he was named after coolidge's two sons and i didn't know that cal thomas doesn't know why he calls himself cal instead of john. that's a wonderful example of what "behind the breaks" could be at its very best, trivia revelations about the cal thomases of the world. but then cal thomas made the mistake of thinking because they were off the air and just talking for the internet, it was safe to bring up the subject that no one at fox news could talk about. >> anybody wan

a predator. thomas, back to you. >> brian allen, thank you. >>> coming up for you, "entourage" wraps up the filmingthe next season. we will have more on that coming up with courtney hazlett in the scoop. >>> and you may not believe it, but something has been accomplished in the halls of congress. the 76 women who serve the halls of congress finally got their own restroom on their floor. for the last decade, they have had to walk down two floors to their own restroom. and there was a tweet called flotus, which stands for first lady of the united states sends articles to a menu item which does not fall in with the first lady's healthy eating initiative and it is a doughnut burger stucked between a glazed burger and sliced and grill and in case you are wondering that adds up to 1,500 calories and those are the things that we thought you should know. [ drew ] give me volume. not clumps or gaps. the answer... it's all in the wrap. covergirl introduces new lashperfection mascara. "the secret" -- the lashwrap brush perfectly wraps each lash for up to 3x more volume. individual volume for "every little las

a predator. thomas, back to you. >> ron allen, thanks so much. >>> and stay with us. much more ahead right here on msnbc. congressman luis gutierrez will join me. [ cat ] i am beautiful... [ vet ] your turn max. [ cat ] inside and out. and i'm not the only one who thinks so...right doc? [ female announcer ] vets agree, a healthy check up starts inside. our breakthrough iams premium protection formula is developed with vets... ...with cutting edge ingredients for the lifelong health of your pet. [ cat ] what a surprise... straight as again! [ female announcer ] iams premium protection. our most advanced iams nutrition. ever. [ cat ] oh, i'm not in your way, am i doc? i...[yawns] am an iams cat. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000