'All Things Considered' Wants You to Pick Lyrics

With a song in my heart... Never mind, I won't sing.

First, Hillary Clinton had a contest to pick a theme song for her presidential campaign. Now, All Things Considered has the bug. The show last month asked listeners to write lyrics for its theme (I'm humming it now, in case you can't remember it). Nearly a thousand people took the plunge and tried their hand at being this generation's Ira Gershwin ... well, maybe not. Apparently, some submissions were more like a bad version of "Weird Al" Yankovic. But hey, it's the thought that counts, right?

The show's producers have chosen four finalists. You can hear them here, sung by the charming songstress (and Supreme Court connoisseur) Nina Totenberg. Then, click on the link above the final four to register your vote.

My favorite line comes from Steve Ledford's version: "Could be worse, it could be pledge week."

10:46 AM ET | 09- 5-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Thank Goodness No One Important Was Hurt!

Most of the time, spokespeople respond to the media in a very careful, guarded way. But every once in a while, you run across someone who doesn't beat around the bush. For instance, Reuters reported Monday that 11 people were injured in Berlin while shooting Tom Cruise's new film about a plot to assassinate Hitler. They fell from a truck when it rounded a corner and the side panel gave way.

"We have no findings to suggest anyone famous was involved in the accident," a police spokesman told the media, giving everyone what they really wanted to know and showing that extras in movies are called that for a reason -- because you can always get extra extras if they, well, fall off a truck.

11:09 AM ET | 08-21-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

It's National Relaxation Day ... So Relax

Before I leave today, I just wanted to remind you all that it's National Relaxation Day -- designated for just chillin' out. Here are experts' recommendations for relaxing:

*Get a massage at a local day spa.
* Treat yourself to a manicure or pedicure.
* Curl up in a comfortable pair of pajamas and read a good book.
* Slip into a soft bath robe after a long soak in the bath tub.
* Take a nap.
* Light a scented candle and take a bubble bath.

Well, I'm not metrosexual enough for a pedicure. But I like the sound of a nap. I hear it also can help you live longer.

5:31 PM ET | 08-15-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Do Reports on the Stock Market Rot Your Brain?

I'm going to rant for a second, so bear with me.

Reporting on the ups and down of Wall Street has become like the coverage of a car chase on an L.A. freeway. It's all quite exciting and unnerving at first, but in the end it seems small potatoes.

It normally goes like this. The Dow falls by, oh, 200 points by noon. It's doom, despair and fear in the media for hours!

Then the next day, the Dow goes back up, and the crisis is over faster than a Lindsay Lohan vow to stop drinking. We hear it was a minor correction because the market had actually "been too high." Or that the mortgage problem isn't quite so bad because the rest of the economy is just fine, thank you. Or that traders were trying to "take some profit." Or that the moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars. Who knows!

Last week, for instance, the Dow dropped sharply one day, and yet when all the weekly numbers were examined on Friday, the Dow had actually experienced a modest gain.

I know all this economic stuff is important, and complicated factors are at work. The mortgage problem is not one to be dismissed lightly. But sometimes it all just gives me a headache.

4:27 PM ET | 08-13-2007 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Top 10 Signs the Fellow at Your Door Is a Zombie

Torn clothes, drool... It might be a zombie.

iStockphoto

I usually try to open each blog day with the most pressing, useful information I can find on the whole wide Web. It's clearly a Friday in August. So here goes:

An artist at Ask MetaFilter wants to know how to depict a zombie. The answers?

1. Deeply sunken bloodshot eyes.
2. Rotting flesh.
3. Slack mouth.
4. Asymmetrically balanced posture.
5. Lack of steamy breath on cold days.
6. Torn clothes. Their shoelaces would be untied as well, since they lack the motor skills or inclination to tie them up again.
7. Emerging from a covered grave. That would probably be a pretty good tip-off.
8. Emaciated, although nothing is creepier than an obese zombie.
9. Low, throaty growl. Imagine Stevie Nicks first thing in the morning.
10. Drool.

I expect this to appear in the next press release from the Department of Homeland Security. Add your own zombie warning signs in comments.

- Robert Smith

9:25 AM ET | 08-10-2007 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

I'll Be Kicking Off Early in the Name of Science

iStockphoto

After a hard day toiling in the blog-field, I was happy to finally find something useful. Researchers in Canada (naturally) are studying the physics of beer bubbles. Maybe I'm already too tipsy, but I can't understand any of the calculations. The scientists, however, say that by measuring "multiply scattered acoustic waves" in beer, they may someday be able to predict volcanic eruptions and monitor the structural health of bridges.

Or at least that's what they tell their lab assistant when they send him for another case of Molson's.

There's a Nobel Prize waiting if the team can just confirm the existence of the elusive deliciousness particle. Time to build that beer accelerator. Prost!

- Robert Smith

5:46 PM ET | 08- 6-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Proofreading Your Way to Fame and Fortune

As a blogger for a news organization, I'm frequently asked about being edited. Although some bloggers think that writing a blog should be a pure stream-of-consciousness experience, I'm a firm believer in editing. I think the best blogs are the best-written blogs -- and editing makes a blog better in so many ways.

We don't all have editors, but anyone can fall back on good old-fashioned proofreading. One of my favorite blogs, Daily Writing Tips, offered a fun post Wednesday about "The Impotence of Proofreading" (complete with 12 intentional mistakes).

"Let's be honest, misspelled words are defiantly a sign of ignorance," the post reads.

You should proofread virtually any written piece, from emails to blog posts. Proofread your homework as well, since you don't want to drive the principle of your school crazy.

Look, typos happen. (I make my fair share.) No one is saying you have to join the grammar police. But if you need help, maybe you could turn to blogger Kate McCulley. Earlier this week, Talk of the Nation interviewed McCulley, Boston's self-proclaimed "grammar vandal," who corrects errors on signs in public places. It's just another reminder that people really do care about clean copy -- on a blog or on a sign.

5:55 PM ET | 07-26-2007 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post

And Now for Something Completely Different ...

Watch the karate chimp.

YouTube

... A chimp doing karate.

No, I'm not joking. It's been a long and news-packed week, so I thought I would leave you with this karate-fighting chimpanzee.

He's actually pretty good. But it works a lot better if you hum "Kung Fu Fighting" while you watch the YouTube video.

Have a good weekend. Remember, if you see anything interesting, drop us a note at newsblog@npr.org.

5:06 PM ET | 07-13-2007 | permalink | e-mail post

A Totally Subjective Top 10 Movies List

Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly star in Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Paramount Pictures/Archive Photos/Getty Images

After I posted an entry late Friday on the American Film Institute's top 100 films of all time, commenting that the list was just too subjective to be taken seriously, a friend at NPR challenged me to name my 10 favorite films and then ask you guys to send in your nominations.

So here goes. My top 10 desert-island films, in no particular order:

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: Absolutely the best (and darkest) of the six-movie set.
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: The best trilogy in film, but this one gives the other two that feeling of magic.
Wings of Desire: Wim Wenders' version, not the dumb one with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan.
To Kill a Mockingbird: Atticus Finch for president!
Rear Window: Hitchcock's best. But who could look out the back window with Grace Kelly in the room?
Three Kings: A great, flawed film about the first Gulf War.
Casablanca: More great lines per minute than any other movie ever made.
Toy Story 2: The only cartoon film with a message deeper than "buy our toys."
The Life of Brian: Brilliant, brilliant satire.
Apocalypse Now: I can still remember walking out of the theater with several hundred other people, all of us completely speechless.

Close but No Top Ten Cigar: When Harry Met Sally, It's a Wonderful Life, Bull Durham, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange, Singin' in the Rain.

Now, over to you ...

4:39 PM ET | 06-25-2007 | permalink | comments (87) | e-mail post

They Still Walk Among Us, 60 Years On

Maj. Jesse Marcel from the Roswell Army Air Field with debris found 75 miles northwest of Roswell, N.M., in 1947.

U.S. Air Force/AFP/Getty Images

It all began in Roswell, N.M.

In 1947, a rancher found some strange debris while checking on his sheep. On July 8, a military press release said a crashed "flying disk" had been recovered. Of course, the military quickly changed its tune, saying it was just a weather balloon.

Since then, Roswell has become ground zero for alien enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists, supposed abductees, and just about everyone else who thinks that the truth is out there. This year, from July 5-8, that truth will feature a band with an alien drummer, a costume parade, a carnival, skateboard and BMX stunts, oh, and, of course, those conspiracy theorists and supposed alien abductees. It's all part of the "Amazing Roswell UFO Festival."

Some of my favorite scheduled talks: "UFO Secrecy & The Death of Marilyn Monroe," "Nephilim Stargates and the Return of the Watchers" and what seems to be a great pairing on Saturday morning: "Why The American Government Must and Will Tell The American People The Truth About UFOs," followed shortly by "Why The American Government Will Never Tell The American People The Truth About UFOs."

I am so in.

- JJ Sutherland

2:01 PM ET | 06-13-2007 | permalink | comments (10) | e-mail post

CSI: Alexandria, Va.

I may not have TV anymore (see my post Tuesday about babies and television), but who needs it when I can experience my very own "CSI" episode in real life?

Yesterday, my wife and I were moving my belongings from the house in Alexandria, Va., where I had been staying to my family's new home in Falls Church. As we walked out the door, my wife spotted someone in our minivan with her purse in his hands.

My wife screamed at him, and I dropped everything I was carrying and chased him. I followed him for several blocks, but he was younger and faster. I did get a good look at him and the direction he was headed. Apparently, he jumped a fence into a backyard, because the owner of the house saw him, watched him start to change his clothes and called the police.

With the information from my wife, the neighbor, and me, the Alexandria police were able to find the thief, my wife's purse, her belongings and all her credit cards. Happy ending.

And then came the fun part -- watching how they actually put the case together. The CSI guy came (that's what he is actually called) and took pictures of the scene, dusted for fingerprints, put on gloves and asked a lot of questions.

At one point, they spotted my wife's driver's license down a grate near the purse. No one could figure out how to get the bolted grate open. Then, one officer disappeared into a nearby building and came back with two curtain poles lashed to a flag pole. Another officer literally stuck a piece of gum on the end, lowered the pole, jammed the gum on the card and lifted out the ID. The other officers started calling the woman who created the contraption "MacGyver."

I hadn't been involved in anything like this in years, and I had a certain expectation about what might happen, based on what I had seen on TV. But everyone involved was professional, friendly, courteous, answered every question I had and treated me like an adult. (Although I did get a pretty stern lecture from one senior officer about the wisdom, or lack thereof, in chasing a suspect.)

1:30 PM ET | 05- 9-2007 | permalink | e-mail post

A Paris Hilton post

I promised myself when I started this job I would never, ever blog about Paris Hilton. They could stick hot pokers in my eyes, pull out my fingernails, make me watch an entire season of "The View" re-runs. I would not crack.

Crack. I didn't even make it past the blog's first day.

But this is just too good to pass up. The Associated Press is reporting that prosecutors in Los Angeles want Hilton jailed for 45 days for violating terms of her probation for an alcohol-related reckless driving conviction.

In documents filed Monday in Superior Court, prosecutors said they also want Hilton to stay away from alcohol for 90 days and wear a monitoring device that will chart whether she complies. And they are seeking to have her license suspended for an additional four months.

Oh, this is too good to be true -- she would have to wear a monitoring device to make sure she doesn't go clubbing. (What will Lindsay do? Maybe this is why Britney went back to performing.)

I realize we're looking at a certain amount of Schadenfreude here, but I don't care. This woman has taken up WAY more than her allotted 15 minutes of fame.

6:14 PM ET | 05- 3-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post