Scott Simon, Weekend Edition Host

John Hope Franklin, who died Wednesday at the age of 94, was a great teacher, and a family friend. He was a friend of my stepfather, Ralph Newman, who owned the Abraham Lincoln Bookshop in Chicago, during all the years that John Hope taught at the University of Chicago, and they shared a love of history, Lincoln--and baseball.

Continue reading "Remembering John Hope Franklin" >

Gemma Watters, Weekend Edition

* Deadline for entry is March 23rd noon ET.

We are still searching for great Easter garlic recipes. Please send us your wacky, wonderful and strong-smelling ideas, and we'll send them to California garlic farmer Chester Aaron. He will choose his three favorite recipes, which will be tried and tested by a panel of chefs and food writers.

For the second week running, Chester has been busy in his kitchen making your creations. Listen to this week's show to see which recipes have made it to the top of his list. He also wrote to tell us about a garlic recipe for honeymooners. Who would have thought that garlic would be an aphrodisiac?

The winner will be invited to go on the air with Liane Hansen and Chester Aaron on Sunday, April 5th. Please, submit your recipes below.

Kathryn Dalrymple, Weekend Edition

The Alliance of Concerned Men in Washington, DC helps turn around the lives of young people who have gotten in trouble with the law. The organization counsels those recently released from prison, trains at risk youths and finds them jobs. Brandon Forrest--who was released from parole earlier this month--is one of the Alliance's biggest success stories. You can hear a bit about his life in this audio slideshow.

Thomas Pierce, Weekend Edition

On March 28, 1979, residents in and around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania awoke to warnings of an emergency at the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility. The plant's cooling system had failed. The uranium fuel core in Unit 2 overheated, and there was a partial meltdown. The threat of a massive radiation leak loomed. As nuclear experts raced to fix the problem over the next few days, Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh advised pregnant women and young children to evacuate the area.

President Jimmy Carter visits the control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania on April 1, 1979.Associated Press

 

Five days later, President Jimmy Carter -- a former nuclear engineer -- visited the site to demonstrate to the American people that it was safe. While the visit temporarily calmed fears, it did not assuage larger concerns about nuclear power. In fact, no new nuclear plants have been built in the United States in the 30 years since the accident.

Weekend Edition will mark the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident next Saturday with a discussion about the safety of nuclear power and its prospects for the future.

But first, we'd like to hear your recollections of the Three Mile Island. Did you know someone there? Or maybe you were there? Are you living near Three Mile Island today? Share your stories and your memories.

Thomas Pierce, Weekend Edition

We just finished talking to Mary McDonnell, star of "Battlestar Galactica." On the show, she plays Laura Roslin, an ailing president who guides 50,000 human survivors of a nuclear attack through space on their search for a new home planet.

She offered up her thoughts on the end of the series and its relevance to what's happening in the world (Earth, not Caprica) today.

At the end of the interview, our engineer, Parris Morgan, couldn't resist the opportunity to tell McDonnell how "frackin' awesome" the show has been. Her response:

"Frackin awesome to you, man. You're going to be so excited tonight. It's really, really, really something."

The interview airs tomorrow morning, but we promise not to spoil the plot for anyone saving up the last few episodes on the DVR. That's what I'm doing.

But I can't help but wonder: where will we turn for politically-culturally-philosophically relevant Sci-Fi entertainment once the show concludes? Your thoughts?

Jason Sparks, Weekend Edition

Fourth grader Antoinette Lee and her classmates at Glen Burnie Park Elementary School aren't fans of their state song, which calls Northerners scum and Abraham Lincoln a despot. During a lesson on state history, the students learned that the lyrics to "Maryland, My Maryland" are from a poem written during the early days of the Civil War by Maryland native James Ryder Randall, a confederate sympathizer. The first and last stanzas are among the lines that just don't sit well with Antoinette and her pals:

I
The despot's heel is on thy shore,
Maryland!
His torch is at thy temple door,
Maryland!
Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore
And be the battle queen of yore
Maryland! My Maryland!

IX
I hear the distant thunder-hum,
Maryland!
The Old Line's bugle, fife, and drum,
Maryland!
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb-
Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!
She breathes! she burns! she'll come! she'll come!
Maryland! My Maryland!

Inspired by letters from the class, Maryland General Assembly Delegate Pamela Beidle is co-sponsoring a state bill to change the song. You can follow the progress of the bill here:

http://mlis.state.md.us/#bill Just type in HB1241 in the blank space.

Tell us about your state song. Is there anything in it that is similarly dated, or that you'd change? Let us know!

Gemma Watters, Weekend Edition

Weekend Edition is searching for the most knowledgeable Elvis fan on the planet! The person we pick will be quizzed by a panel of Elvis experts... So if you know what Elvis' height was on his driver's license, the color of his first car, or his parents' names, then put on your blue suede shoes and shake, rattle, roll and scroll down and post your story! You could be doing the Jailhouse Rock on Weekend Edition with Scott Simon.

LAS VEGAS - MAY 25: Elvis Presley impersonators arrive at the 17th annual Reel Awards at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino May 25, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show honors the world's top impersonators, tribute artists and celebrity look-alikes. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Ned Wharton, senior producer

We enjoyed a visit recently from QQQ, an avant-Norwegian-fiddle-folk-band. Band leader and Princeton University Music Professor Dan Trueman plays a traditional Hardanger fiddle, distinctive for its inlays, carvings and resonant strings that give it a full and often haunting sound. Here's a "behind-the-scenes" video from NPR's Studio 4A as the group warmed up for the broadcast recording. Tune in Saturday (yes, SATURDAY, Liane's hosting Weekend Edition Saturday AND Sunday this week!) for the full interview and performance, and we'll also post full audio cuts and another video of Dan playing a solo number.

Jacob Soboroff, Field Vlogger

Greetings from Austin, Texas and SXSW 2009. South by Southwest is a 22-year-old festival featuring music, film and an interactive component that focuses on the web and technology. Yesterday I spent time roaming the halls and caught up with Steve Garfield, one of the very first video bloggers, Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf of the popular video blog EPIC FU, blogger Robert Scoble, Fred Davis, part of the "brain trust" that founded and launched Wired Magazine, and Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig. I spoke to them about everything from publicly financed elections to web video formats. I'm in Austin until Monday, and you can follow me at @jacobsoboroff on Twitter while I'm here for more.

Steve Garfield

Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf

Robert Scoble and Fred Davis

Lawrence Lessig:

Gemma Watters, Weekend Edition

* Deadline for entry is March 23rd.

We are searching for the perfect Easter garlic recipe. Please send us your weird, wonderful and strong-flavored ideas for consideration. California garlic-farmer Chester Aaron will pick the top three submitted recipes. They will be tried and tested by a panel of chefs and food writers.

Chester's already been hard at work crushing, pressing and chopping copious amounts of garlic to make the entries you have already submitted. On this week's show you can hear Chester tell us which recipes are currently at the top of his list. He also shares a rather interesting garlic recipe that he came across when visiting the country of Georgia.

The winner will be invited to go on the air with Liane Hansen and Chester Aaron on Sunday, April 5th. Please, submit your recipes below.

Kathryn Dalrymple, Weekend Edition

Join us as we go behind-the-scenes in our studio 4A to see a live performance by India.Arie. She joins Liane Hansen, along with reggae artist Gramps Morgan and guitarist Blue Miller, to perform a few songs from her new album Testimony Volume 2: Love & Politics. Listen for the interview on tomorrow's show!

Hear part of the live performance with some pictures below.

Davar Iran Ardalan, Senior Producer

We're working on a fun segment and we need your help! Do you have a favorite Easter brunch, lunch or dinner recipe featuring garlic? As our food essayist Bonny Wolf notes, "Green garlic appears at farmers' markets just as Easter approaches, so they must be meant to go together. Think garlic-encrusted leg of lamb, asparagus with garlic, garlic mashed potatoes."

We would like to know what YOU do with garlic for Easter. If you have a favorite recipe featuring garlic, please share. California garlic farmer Chester Aaron will choose the top three recipes, which will then be tested by a panel of chefs and food writers. The winner will be invited to go on the air with Liane Hansen and Chester Aaron on Sunday, April 5th. Submit your recipes below!

Photo by Andrea Young

Kathryn Dalrymple, Weekend Edition

Seventy-seven and still going! Model Carmen Dell'Orefice made her debut Vogue appearance at the age of 15 and has been knockin' 'em dead ever since. Ms. Dell'Orefice joined Liane Hansen from our New York studio to discuss the fashion industry and how it's faring during the recession. With a long life in the fashion world that's still progressing, she offers a unique view from a model who's seen and worked with a full spectrum of economies, styles and designers. Born in 1931 during the Great Depression, and coming from a time when modeling wasn't exactly considered a career, Ms. Dell'Orefice's original goal was to become a ballerina. Ending up with rheaumatic fever for a year was just enough to completely end her ability to practice. Then one day after she had recovered, she was discovered on the 57th St. crosstown bus- and so began her true career as a model! Below is a more recent photo of Ms. Dell'Orefice taken by Fadil Berisha. Mr. Berisha is a good friend of Ms. Dell'Orefice and has photographed her on multiple occasions, most recently for the national ad campaign for Taryn Rose shoes and for Rolex ads worldwide.

Photo by Fadil Berisha

Ned Wharton, Senior Producer

I'm not much of a guitar player... but I've long been a fan of guitar music of all kinds and I'm especially fascinated by the gear of the electric guitar culture. So I was very excited to see the latest book by Andy Babiuk (author of "Beatles Gear," which we featured on this program in 2002): "The Story of Paul Bigsby: Father of the Modern Electric Solidbody Electric Guitar." Them's fightin' words to some gearheads, because there are other guitar pioneers who could certainly lay claim to that title ... Adolph Rickenbacker, Les Paul, and Leo Fender to name a few. But listen to our interview on Sunday's program (March 8th) and Babiuk will explain his position.

I never really gave much thought to Bigsby before seeing this book: I only knew the name from seeing it emblazoned on the famous vibrato devices found on the tailpieces of Gretsch and Gibson guitars. But it turns out he's famous to a few for the steel and pedal steel guitars he made in the 1940's for people like Speedy West and Joaquin Murphy. He would hot-rod acoustic guitars, too, putting Bigsby necks on Martins and Gibsons for people like Lefty Frizzell and Hank Thompson, but Babiuk's book focuses on the solidbody electric.

The first solidbody he made was for country star Merle Travis. There are many pictures of the instrument with Merle's name inlaid into the pick guard -- but good luck finding a recording of it. Problem is, musicians often come to the studio armed with many guitars, but liner notes rarely document equipment used in the sessions. I put in calls to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville and left messages for Merle's son Thom Bresh, to no avail.

But we do know that Hank Garland played his Bigsby on the 1951 recording of "Seventh and Union," we see Joaquin Murphy on film with Spade Cooley playing a Bigsby lap steel, and here for your viewing pleasure, an oldie but goodie from 1957 featuring an actual Bigsby solidbody electric in action, played by Billy Byrd as he backs up singer Ernest Tubb.

Listener Stella Shaffer of Salem, Oregon wrote an email she calls, "Tweeting Scott Simon -- TweetNot."

"I will not tweet you, Scott You Are.
I will not text you from the car.

I do not care for every thought,
So save them up you really ought

To organize your thoughts and call
When you can tell me of them all.

Or better yet, withhold such crumbs,
This constant contact yearning's dumb!

Talk radio just makes me groan
The programming is some guy's phone.

I want informing radio.
Not us all chatting with you, no.

Besides, like Facebook, there's a curve
We take it up, we post, we swerve

Straight into boredom and ennui
And after weeks we vanish, see?

I cannot wait until you quit.
See, tweeting makes you just - a twit. "

Scott Simon, Weekend Edition Host

Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons are from different theatrical traditions. Mr. Irons trained at the Old Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing the Bard's works in the classical tradition and fencing in tights. Joan Allen is one of the founding players of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater, where the actors are told to dig deep, pull out their hearts, and fling them onstage.

Photo by Joan Marcus

The two are returning to Broadway, for the first time in many years, in a new play called "Impressionism." Ms. Allen plays a gallery owner who cannot bear to sell what's on her walls, because they remind her of stories from her own life. Mr. Irons plays a world-weary photojournalist who has recently returned from Africa, and is tired of stories: they hurt too much. He goes to work in her gallery.

Continue reading "Allen and Irons" >

Kathryn Dalrymple, Weekend Edition

Syrian clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh with Scott Simon in our Washington DC studio 2D. Listen tomorrow as Azmeh gives us a sneak preview of one of the tracks, Ibn Arabi, during the interview. His new album with pianist Dinuk Wijeratne, "Complex Stories, Simple Sounds," will be released later this month.

Photo by Kathryn Dalrymple/NPR Weekend Edition

Jason Sparks, Weekend Edition

When you think of school, you may think of students sitting in rows of desks in a classroom while a teacher lectures up front. But, what if you could go to class in your pajamas while lying on your couch? Dr. Michael DeMers is a geography professor at New Mexico State University. While he does teach in a traditional classroom, he also invites his students to join him in an online virtual world called Second Life. At least once a week, their avatars (digital versions of people) head to an island in this virtual terrain to review class notes. Host Scott Simon's avatar paid a visit to this online virtual island to meet with Dr. DeMers, our Second Life guide. While there, Scott asked for a cup of coffee, but what he opened was a can of worms instead:

Produced by Jason Sparks,Thomas Pierce, Sarah Beyer Kelly Weekend Edition

All of this may sound fun, but does it benefit students academically? You can hear Dr. DeMers' answer to this and other questions on Weekend Edition this Saturday, but what do you think? Is this a waste of time or do you think it really works?

Photo by Jason Sparks/NPR Weekend Edition

If you'd like to create your own avatar, go to Secondlife. Follow the steps listed to create an account, download the program, and you'll have an avatar you can customize. Change its hair, body shape, whatever you'd like! And keep in mind...it doesn't have to look like you. Oh, and if you'd like to be friends with Scott, here's his avatar's name: ScottSimon Hansome and here's Liane's: LianeHansen Zeplin