NPR: Don't Call It a Comeback. We Just Don't Do Shows on the Weekend.

Don't Call It a Comeback. We Just Don't Do Shows on the Weekend.

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Credit: Win Rosenfeld/BPP

This old newspaper on Mike Pesca's desk inspired us to dig into the latest on former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Tomorrow we'll do another story inspired by a different old paper on Mike's desk.

Tricia wrote up this post but I (Dan) am posting it because her login hasn't been set up. Here's Tricia...

Hey, everyone, this is the new BPP editor, Tricia McKinney. I'm a long-time listener, first-time blogger. We put together two fun-packed hours of the Bryant Park Project for you, so stow those tray tables and put your seats in their full, upright position.

On today's show:

--President Bush announced his pick to succeed former attorney general Alberto Gonzales. It's this guy, retired federal judge Michael Mukasey. The last time he was big in the news, the story got eclipsed by coverage of this other guy. It's happening again.

--Which brings us to the latest twist in the strange story of one Orenthal James Simpson. The Juice is no longer loose. He's cooling his heels in the slammer, accused of felonies in connection with the theft of sports memorabilia. And today, celebrity news website TMZ.com posted some audio they say is of the robbery.

--Meantime, a year-and-a-half-old headline laying around on Mike Pesca's desk (see photo above) caught Luke's eye. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been in a coma since January 2006. We'll ask a correspondent from the Jerusalem Post whether Israelis have forgotten their former leader.

-- We talk about the news from the weekend in a segment we call While You Were Out (Possibly Drinking). We'll cover a big anti-war protest in Washington, DC, that resulted in about 190 arrests, and we'll play a bit of this amazing testimony from the young woman accusing religious sect leader Warren Jeffs of facilitating her rape.

--We also get into the latest developments in the story of the Jena Six, a case that's raising allegations that justice is not colorblind, at least not in one small Louisiana town. And we'll feature one reporter's quest to document every homicide in Los Angeles County. That's about 620 so far this year. We caught Jill Leovy of the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report blog just before she headed off to the funeral of one of the victims she has profiled.

--Then there's the Philadelphia restaurant critic who's being sued over a bad review. But that's not necessarily the worst part for Craig Laban. Another local publication showed his picture, and now his food critic cover is blown. We get the scoop on whether being outed as a professional eater makes it hard for him to do his job.

--And we talk to the guy who counted to a million on the internet. It took him about three months to do it. We ask him if it was worth it, and whether he hears numbers in his head all the time.

Dan Pashman

4:28 PM ET | 09-17-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

I really like a lot of the songs you play during the show. It would be nice if you could mention somewhere on the site what music you use. If they are original tunes made specifically for the show, would it be possible to make them available on the blog? Otherwise, artist names and song titles would be really nice so I could track them down for myself.

Sent by Will Kistler | 7:04 PM ET | 09-17-2007

Alison, I caught the beginning of Countdown tonight. It was fun to see and hear you on the tele. Hopefully, Keith will recover from his surgery quickly.

It's been about a year and half since Ariel Sharon went into his coma? This is a great story to follow up on, and it is interesting to hear the medical angle of the story as well.

I second Dan's suggestion for recipes on the BPP!

Great mix of segments during the first hour.

$400,000 are spent a day in extra transportation costs as result of that Minnesota bridge collapse? How do they calculate figures like that?

The LA Times homicide blog is a very interesting story. During it I was thinking about a new BPP segment -- The Week in LA, but we soon learn that homicide rates in LA County aren't that out of the ordinary. Great segment. There were so many topics and a lot of texture brought up.

The second hour was good as well.

Sent by Steve Petersen | 11:29 PM ET | 09-17-2007

When I saw the photo of the newspaper I thought it had been photoshop'ed to represent your contingency plan in case your executive producer - Sharon Hoffman - were suddenly not available for one reason or another.

Sent by andy carvin | 2:48 PM ET | 09-18-2007

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Alison Stewart

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