Ok, maybe it hasn't gotten quite that bad, but now is not a great time to put your home on the market. Sure, it may be tempting, with prices dropping, to upgrade to something larger or with a better location, but beware... unloading your current digs may be more trouble than it's worth. Those houses just sitting on the market with the great low-low prices are just like the one you'll be trying to sell, and if you can even get an offer, you're not likely to get a great price. Are you selling your home? Are you offering crazy incentives? I remember a local couple offered a free car if you'd buy their home last year... and now there's a couple offering a free house... buy it now, and get your money back when they die!

In just a few short days, we'll be able to say that the 2008 election is only a year away. "Only a year away," you say? Indeed. We have twelve more months of debates and primaries and caucuses. Are you thrilled? (Over this transom, I can sense your excitement). Could the campaign be any longer?! Next week, for a few precious minutes at least, voters in some cities, in a handful of states, will get to focus on other elections. They'll go to the polls to vote for governors and congressmen and mayors and council members. At the very least, they'll get to try out new voting machines. Our "Political Junkie," Ken Rudin, will be here to talk about the 2007 elections. Is there an election in your neck of the woods next week? What's at stake? For whom are you planning to vote? And have you even had time to think about these upcoming elections?

Piata Fintinele, Romania

Source: Eric Nuzum

Vampires are a peculiar bunch. They only come out at night. They sleep in coffins. And, oh yea, they suck the life out of you. Literally. I always thought vamps were just fodder for scary stories. But, turns out, there's actually a solid number of people in real life who identify as vampires, only they refer to themselves as the "undead." Now, I don't know if they bite into the necks of virgins, but they have been know to drink their own blood. Yum. Read about this and more in Eric Nuzum's new book The Dead Travel Fast. And tell us, what excites (or disgusts) you about vampires? And to all the undead out there, what's it like to be a vampire?

PS -- Check out that sexy picture... it's the first one I've posted all by myself! This is a big step for me. I feel like I'm growing.

New Orleans has seen it's share of problems since Katrina paid a visit two years ago... including the near collapse of it's criminal justice system. And plenty of people pointed a finger at District Attorney Eddie Jordan. Under the weight of the criticism, a $3.7 million discrimination verdict against his office, and accusations that he let a wanted robbery suspect stay in his home... he's decided to call it quits. Nobody's saying his leaving will fix the office overnight, but they're hoping it's a start. We'll talk with a reporter in NOLA about his tenure, and what his resignation means for the city.

It's the battle of undefeateds that everyone's talking about: this weekend, the New England Patriots head to Indianapolis to try their tricks and treats against the Colts. It's the battle of young quarterbacks Manning and Brady, the matchup of Reggie vs. Randy, and I really hope it lives up to the hype. There are so many factors to bandy about (Colts coming off a bye week, Patriots outscoring everyone into oblivion), but when it comes down to it, I just hope it's a good game. Something few seem to be talking about, though, is the other two teams with perfect records... perfectly awful records, that is: the Miami Dolphins and the St. Louis Rams, both winless. Here's a pretty hilarious send-up of those two standouts... imagine that matchup!

Hello, All. Here's what's happening today:

In our first hour, we'll talk about homeowners who are going to great (extreme) lengths to sell their house, in what is clearly a buyer's market. Granite top kitchen counters, fully remodeled bathrooms, and curb appeal just ain't cutting it anymore. Nowadays, sellers are offering up fancy cars, free trips, and if you buy from one couple in Pittsburgh you'll receive a full refund when they die. (Nope, not kidding.) We'll talk to Washington Post real estate columnist and author Elizabeth Razzi, Sell this House co-host Tanya Memme, and My House is Worth What? host Kendra Todd about the challenges facing homeowners to move that house! Following that, Ken Rudin will be here. In this week's Political Junkie, we'll focus primarily on the upcoming November 6th elections, the candidates who are running, and the issues voters are talking about.

Eric Nuzum is a pop culture critic and a director of programming here at NPR. Turns out, he also knows a thing or two about vampires, and has written a book about them entitled, "The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula." Nuzum immersed himself (literally) in the unconventional underworld of the "undead" and gives an often hilarious recount of traveling across Transylvania, spending hours in a coffin and drinking his own blood. Is he afraid of garlic, I wonder? As I type, our producers are hard at work for a second hour ender topic. You gotta admit, it's hard to top Dracula! Stay tuned, folks.

Enjoy the Show! And Happy Halloween!!!

Metaphor.

Source: BarrieJH

I'm a Generation Nexter, part of the group born between 1981 and 1988 ('84 to be exact). Our rentals,* the Boomers, raised us with one clear message: do what makes you happy. Previous generations were largely told to find a stable job in order to make money and support a family. But now there's a new requirement thrown into the mix: pursue a career that you enjoy, nay, that you love. Easy, right? So naturally, it's taking us Nexters a little longer to figure things out. And social scientists, cultural analysts, or whatever you want to call 'em, have even come up with a term for this period of discovery: The Odyssey Years. They are years marked by uncertainty and fluctuation. Many of us bounce around from job to job, trying to figure out what "fits." Some may go back to school for a second (or third) degree. And the lucky ones travel in search of some larger life purpose, or just for a good time. But it's not laziness or even procrastination. We're sifting through life's possibilities. We're trying to discover who we are and who we want to be. It's a genuine effort to be happy, rentals' orders. And anytime I'm hit with the "slacker!" insult, I just come right back with J.R.R.Tolkien's "Not all who wander are lost." So, humph.

What do you say TOTN bloggers? Is there a shred of truth to this, or am I just romanticizing?

* That's my new term for "parents," derived from "parental units." It'll catch on. Trust.

Sometimes, this is how the fire starts.

Source: 96dotsperinch

Whenever I hear news of a wildfire breaking out, my first assumption is that it was some sort of accident, an unfortunate and unpredictable combination of an innocent spark flying off of a piece of machinery and a particularly dry season. As authorities in California consider to search for a white Ford truck in connection with one of the largest fires, though, it seems I should know better. Most fires may not be set deliberately, but there are enough that are to inject a degree of skepticism into my assumption. So what motivates an arsonist? Control freak that I am, the thought of setting things in motion that I'll never be able to manage makes fire-starting sound darn scary to me... but that's clearly not true for everyone.

Last week, Flynt Leverett joined us to talk about the potential for an attack on Iran. Simply put, he believes that strikes are imminent. We'll get another view today, from David Frum. He is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and a senior policy adviser to Rudy Giuliani. During President Bush's first term, Frum worked in the White House as a speech writer. He does not believe that the Bush administration plans to strike Iran soon. "No, alas," he writes on his blog today. In March, in the National Post, he suggested some alternatives to war.

Our hope is to continue these conversations, about Iran, with experts from across the political spectrum, in the future. If you heard Leverett last week, did your opinion change? What questions do you have from Frum? And feel free to suggest other experts with whom we could talk!

I've always been fascinated by dreams. Partly because I like to psychoanalyze myself to death, and partly because I'm secretly convinced that my dreams are premonitions.* Nightmares, though, are a particularly interesting subset. They represent our greatest, albeit subconscious, fears; and are often characterized by panting, sweating, and, in some cases, a loud shriek. Ever wonder why you jolt upright in bed at the pinnacle of the chase, or what that furry man dressed like a peacock carrying a pitchfork is supposed to represent? Today, we'll talk to The New York Times science columnist Natalie Angier about why we have nightmares in the first place and the evolutionary function they serve; and to Kelly Buckeley, dream interpreter extraordinaire. So tell us: what was your worst nightmare? Do you have any recurring dreams? And who secretly thinks their dreams are premonitions? Be honest.

* Two of them have, in fact, come true. Sort of.

This is how they roll in Kansas. (No fishnets.)

Source: Steve Lickteig

Halloween has never really been close to my heart. I was "Fairy Barrie" for more years then I care to count, and Raggedy Ann for the rest. It always bugged me that I had to wear a coat over my costume, especially as a fairy, for gosh sakes. (Fairies don't get cold!) But I will say, I had a few outstanding years in my early twenties when I definitely did not care about the weather. In fact, there were Halloweens when my costume was just a well-placed assortment of sparkles and chiffon. Of course, I was gainfully employed and far from the watchful eyes of my folks. Lately, I've been shocked by the twelve year olds showing up as "sexy Girl Scout," "sexy Doctor," or "sexy Founding Father." And I'm not the only one. And I'm trying not to be a prudish thirty-something. I think you should get to eat candy, and never hand out apples.* But my goodness... should a nine year old be wearing fishnets? What are your challenges this Halloween?

*But I'm flexible on toys vs. candy.

Authorities investigating the cause of the wildfires that swept through California suspect arson in at least one of them. In our first hour, we'll speak with an arson specialist who will profile the personality and motive of an arsonist, and a fire investigator talks about how he determines whether or not a fire has been deliberately set. Following that conversation, David Frum will join us. He is a former speechwriter for President Bush and the author of The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush. Last week, we discussed the United States' relationship with Iran with Flynt Leverett, a former Bush administration official who worries that President Bush will order attacks on Iran before he leaves office. This week, David Frum gives an opposing view and will explain why he does not think the Bush administration is heading towards war with Iran.

Normally, on any given night, I don't dream. Or rather I don't remember my dreams. But I have occasionally suffered through a vivid nightmare or two. Usually they are of the "live in the studio" variety. I point to Neal and he can't speak. I yell to the engineer to push the button and the engineer screams back "We don't have that button!!!!!" The nightmare ends when I pop up in my bed dripping with sweat, pointer finger in mid-air ready to cue ANYBODY. I need no Freddie Krugers or Jasons chasing me in my dreams. Fudging a live radio program in front of millions of people is horrifying enough, thank you. But what do our nightmares actually mean? And why do we dream in the first place? New York Times science reporter Natalie Angier is among our guests who can provide insight about what our dreams, and nightmares, are trying to tell us. Blog us about your worst nightmare (was your boss watching?). Then we jump start Halloween with syndicated columnist Amy Dickinson. We'll talk about everything from skimpy Halloween costumes to giving out real apples instead of candied ones. Are we slowly taking the fun out of trick or treating?

The old way of doing things in DC.

Source: Daquella manera

Tomorrow's Halloween, but it sort of feels like an afterthought to me. For the past two weekends I've attended spooky bashes, and I have to say, the costumes have been great (I was a pretty standard cowgirl, so present company excluded). One friend came as the Washington Monument (Winston thought it was a perfect kitty house), and another was the ubiquitous gyro girl whose vacant smile and '80s style greet you from the window of every Greek restaurant I've ever been to. That said, tomorrow's the proper big day, and in DC the holiday takes on two forms... there's the traditional trick-or-treating and jack-o-lanterns from about 6pm till 9pm, and after that, things get decidedly more adult as college kids and young professionals pack the bars in costume and carry on till the wee hours (I mean, I think that's what they do). In years past, DC cabbies have offered free rides on Halloween and similarly saucy holidays in an effort to keep drunks out of the drivers' seat. This year? Nope, not only no free rides, but they may even strike. There's a pretty contentious taxi system in DC known as the zone system, whereby your fare is calculated based on how many zones you pass through, not how long you're in the car. If you've been here, you know, it's incomprehensible to even the most veteran Washingtonians. New Mayor Adrian Fenty has decided it's time to switch to meters, and cabbies are not happy. That's fine -- while I'll be happy to have a fare I can watch climb, as opposed to one that's a complete mystery -- strikes are a time-honored way to express displeasure, and the drivers have a right to demonstrate. But on Halloween? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Some disasters move quickly, like the floods of Katrina, and the leaping wildfires in California. But I'll wager you haven't seen much coverage of the "epic" drought in Georgia. It may not play as "Breaking News" on CNN, but there's only about a three month water supply left in the greater Atlanta area. It's a slow-motion disaster, and it's really affecting the day-to-day lives of Georgians. Are you eating off paper plates? Not showering? How are you conserving, and what's next?

Lurking in this acronym soup is a looming crisis in what used to be the most stable part of post-invasion Iraq. In a nutshell, the problem is this: insurgents from the PKK -- deemed a terrorist organization by the USA -- killed 12 Turkish soldiers Sunday, and have been conducting attacks on Turkey from Northern Iraq for a while now. Naturally, Turkey wants to respond. And given that the US is ostensibly involved in a war on terror, it is, to say the least, awkward. On the Talk of the Nation Opinion Page, Henri Barkey mourns a missed opportunity to create a new agreement between the two sides. He'll explain why today.

*United States of America, Turkey's Justice and Reconciliation Department, and the Kurdistan Worker's Party.

I am a klutz in the kitchen (other places, too unfortunately.) Just last night, while attempting to play sous chef to the person actually making the tuna casserole (with artichokes, delish), I knocked over several things, and I could tell that I was in danger of being yelled at Gordon Ramsay* style (except I bought the groceries, which I think gave me some credibility). Yet, here is my honest-to-goodness secret dream I have cherished since before I fell in love with Sabrina, even. I wish, wish, wish, I could go to cooking school. I want to make meringues, souffles, cassoulet -- I want to sear foie gras and braise rabbit. I want to chop onions so fast you might mistake the sound for percussion, and I want to peel an apple in one long lovely loop of skin. Sigh. I'm afraid that loop of skin would be mine. Enter Kathleen Flinn. Upon finding herself downsized (while she was on vacation, no less), after some encouragement from her boyfriend she indulged her secret dream of attending Le Cordon Bleu. (Yes, the same place that Audrey's souffle fell, and she was rescued by the Baron and La Vie En Rose.) On top of that, she wrote a book about the experience, The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry (In my case, I seem to cry no matter what). I spoke to Kat about her book, and asked her what I could do to make myself more comfortable in the kitchen. She told me that knife skills were the answer, which I actually had suspected. So -- I'm indulging my secret dream, partway, and signing up for a class. Soon, that apple skin will be sitting in a spiral on the cutting board. What have you always secretly wanted to learn?

*The British version of Kitchen Nightmares is much better then the American, FYI. You will fall in love with him, even when he is screaming obscenities.

Every once in a while, a sad story we've been following ends up happy: Genarlow Wilson is free. A quick review: Genarlow was a high school senior when a video tape depicting him receiving oral sex from a girl two years younger surfaced. By all accounts, the sex was consensual, but because of the difference in their ages, Genarlow was tried and convicted of aggravated sexual molestation... and sentenced to ten years in prison. Through the tireless work of his attorney, B.J. Bernstein, his story gained interest and attention, and with it, the outrage over his extreme sentence reached a fever pitch. Georgia's Supreme Court heard it loud and clear (calling the sentence, in a 4-3 split vote, "cruel and unusual punishment"), and now Genarlow's out.

It's the start of a brand new work week, and here's what's happening on today's show:

In our first hour, we'll talk about the continuing drought that plagues parts of the Southeast. Unlike some natural disasters, such as floods or wildfires, droughts don't happen suddenly... but the effects can be just as damaging. After months of drought, water resources are dangerously low and Georgia's governor has declared a water supply emergency in the northern part of the state. We'll talk about the measures that are being implemented in an effort to manage the crisis and the critical impact a drought can have on a region. Our topic for our weekly "opinion page" at end of the hour is still in green (the color of hope). We'll have something in black (the color of certainty) in a matter of moments. Stay tuned.

Have you ever asked yourself "What do I REALLY want?" Usually we ask the question, may even have an answer, and proceed to immerse ourselves in the hum-drum of daily living until the question gnaws at us again. Now, imagine actually diving into that answer and completely re-inventing your life... and yourself. That's what Kathleen Flinn did. After bearing the brunt of a company lay-off, she chucked it all, ran off to Paris and enrolled at the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. She chronicles her journey, her experiences earning her culinary degree at the famed school, and yes, falling in love (ah, Paris) in her new book The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry. Following that conversation, we'll speak with the lawyer who represented Genarlow Wilson, the former high school student who was sentenced to ten years in prison for engaging in consensual oral sex with a girl two years his junior. Genarlow was released from prison last Friday after serving two years of his term. We'll talk to Wilson's lawyer about his release, and the ten year sentence that the Georgia Supreme Court ruled "cruel and unusual punishment."

Fro-yo, yoga, and sun. Ad nauseum, really.

Source: BarrieJH

I have a couple of thoughts this morning. No matter how much I loved my week and a half on the West Coast, I am essentially a person that really loves this side of the country. It is brisk and chilly and slightly faster paced and a place where the Red Sox swept the World Series. I am content.

This morning I overheard someone talking about "the minority leader" on my way to work. Under normal circumstances, that would irritate me, but it felt comfortable this morning. The last exchange I overheard in L.A. was a woman at a sushi bar talking to another about yoga instruction. The exchange went something like this.
"Go ahead."
"Okay, so I'd say, 'reach your arms, up over your head..."
"No, no... just 'reach your arms'. Let people find their OWN depth."
This went on longer then I would have thought possible. Like valet parking in a mini-mall, it seemed to be uniquely West Coast in style and substance.

My significant other -- Kansan, as he is -- would complain there is something between the East and West Coast, and of course, there is (corn, for example). But the differences seem so dramatic between New York and LA, San Francisco and DC, etc. It's the climate, it's the manner of the Starbucks' baristas, it's the sheer amount of frozen yogurt places in California, it's the conversation at sushi bars. I like both, but I belong here. Though, I'll be honest, I'll miss the sun and fro-yo.

That didn't take long... the Katrina-California wildfire comparisons are all over the blogs, and a lot of people are angry.

Some compare the populations of California and New Orleans:

Leadership plays a roll... but I think attitude, particularly as regards the residents plays a bigger role.

Others argue that views like those are offensive, and untrue:

It's all race and class-based, and it's also pathetically narrow and simple-minded.

And there are plenty who say any comparison is just wrong, that it's apples and oranges. It goes back and forth like that. And fair or not, the comparisons and critiques of those comparisons continue to come up. On the show today, we'll talk with a blogger about what people are saying, and ask you: is there any comparison, are the comparisons fair?

Many foreign policy experts and investigative journalists have said that they hear a drumbeat, getting louder and louder, signaling the Bush administration's eagerness to attack Iran. Flynt Leverett and his wife, Hillary Mann, are among them. For several years, they worked as advisers to Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell. Shortly after the United States attacked Iraq, they resigned. Since then, they've sounded a clarion call, to the chagrin of an administration that has tried to silence them. Last year, when Leverett and Mann wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times, the Central Intelligence Agency's Publications Review Board forced them to redact 168 words. (They wrote a complement to that article, with public sources for the redacted material).

In a new piece, published in Esquire magazine, John H. Richardson chronicles the couple's disillusionment and growing desperation. They argue that the administration was not, and is not, interested in diplomacy. According to Richardson, Leverett and Mann believe that "America's approach to rogue nations was all sticks and no carrots, all economic sanctions and threats of war without any dialogue." Leverett joins us today, in the first hour, to talk about Iran. Can you hear that drumbeat? Should Iran be allowed to pursue a nuclear program? Are strikes inevitable?

Image courtesy of Random House.

 

It's a story too rich to really condense here: the babies above are identical twins. Separated as infants and adopted to families in different parts of the country. Who grew up with no knowledge of one another's existence. They knew they were adopted, but they had no idea they were twins, 'til one day, 30-something years later, Elyse Schein decided to try to find her birth mother. When she called the adoption agency for information, she learned something far more shocking than she could've imagined: she had an identical twin. Her twin Paula Bernstein, meanwhile, had no desire to learn about her adoption... so imagine her surprise when she received a call from the agency, informing her of her twin's existence. Now, five years later, the sisters are on our show with their story of discovering their similarities, digging into their pasts, and the twin study that they never consented to participate in. Normally I'd try to find the common ground in their experience, something we can all relate to and comment on... but I'm at a loss with this one. I just want to absorb their story. Enjoy, and definitely leave questions and comments for Paula and Elyse here... I'm sure you've got them!

I hail from the Porn Capital of the World. That's right, porn. SoCal's San Fernando Valley (see: Magnolia) is the mecca of all that is porn-y -- buying, selling, producing, you name it. And Chatsworth, my little hamlet wedged against the Santa Ana mountains, is the central hub of activity . That's our claim to fame: porn and raining frogs. Of course, growing up, I was always oblivious to this. It wasn't until high school that I became faintly aware of the undercurrent of the town. And it wasn't until college that I realized the peach house down the street was really a "production studio" for porno films. Fun times. Today we talk to Claire Hoffman about why the porn industry is suffering at the hands of its would-be savior: the Internet.

Last show of the week. Here's what's happening:

Weaker winds have offered some hope to the firefighters who continue to battle fires that have engulfed much of Southern California. With at least half a million displaced residents and millions of dollars in damages, the White House has declared the region a federal disaster zone. The effects of this natural disaster have prompted comparisons to the destruction and subsequent response brought on by Hurricane Katrina that struck the gulf region two years ago. Guests in this first hour segment will talk about the parallel comparisons to the California fires and Hurricane Katrina and what is different this time around. Following that, we'll talk to Flynt Leverett, former senior director for Middle East policy at the National Security Council with the Bush administration. We'll ask him to detail his fear that the United States is gearing up to wage an attack on Iran, a concern that was the focus of an interview he gave with his National Security Council colleague Hillary Mann that appears in this month's Esquire magazine.

In our second hour, we're joined by Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein, twin sisters who were separated as infants and grew into adulthood completely unaware of each other's existence. They will share their story, talk about why they were separated and how reuniting prompted surprising questions about their own self-identity. Their fascinating story is detailed in a new memoir entitled Identical Strangers. At the end of the hour, Claire Hoffman, contributing editor for Portfolio magazine, talks about her article entitled Obscene Losses where she explains how the internet is killing porn.

I hate to play the grouchy old man here (again), but I was thrilled to see this story in USA Today today (maybe we won't need those theater snitching devices after all). It's no secret that adults aren't going to the movies as much as theaters and movie makers would like. And you don't need a PhD in film studies to realize that a big part of the reason is the obnoxious audiences you tend to find on weekends (and no I'm not forgetting the complete lack of any decent movies most weeks). So theaters are fighting back... with adult-only showings (adult as in grown-up, not XXX), and nice perks like seat-served food and full bars (some even have babysitting services). My favorite attempt to brainwash improve the behavior of teens might be this one:

Two theaters in suburban Chicago require patrons 17 and younger to attend a short "code of conduct" class on decorum before they can see movies at 8:30 p.m. or later without parents.

A veteran of traffic school myself, I don't have high hopes for any "code of conduct" courses. But, short of arming theater staff with cattle prods or duct tape, this may be the best we'll get for now.

Won't it be a bummer, though, when we realize it wasn't just the teens and tweens doing all the yapping and tapping during the show.

When I was in graduate school, I went to a talk by Anne Garrels, one of NPR's foreign correspondents. (For the last four years, she has reported from Iraq, mostly). Garrels talked about embeds, the political situation in Baghdad, and the nuts and bolts of practicing journalism there. She was in New York only briefly, to accept an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award for NPR's coverage of Iraq. Hours after the awards ceremony, Garrels was Baghdad-bound again.

She shared that award with several reporters, editors, and producers, based in Washington. But she made an important point during her acceptance speech. It would be hard, if not impossible, for NPR to report from Baghdad, without the help of the network's staff of Iraqi translators and journalists, including Isra Rubaie, Abdulla Mizead, Kais Jalele, Saleem Amer, Sa'ad Qasm, Vahram Epikan, Ahmed Hashim, Ahmed Qusay, Abu Ali Salman Daoud, Abu Hider Abdul Qatar Ahmed, who were also recognized by the DuPont jury. Garrels said she would carry that "Silver Baton" in her luggage, for them.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 121 journalists have been killed in Iraq since hostilities began there, in 2003; 99 of them were Iraqi. On today's program, we'll talk to two Iraq journalists, and to Anne Garrels. Do you have questions about what they do? Or do you wonder why, and how, they continue to work?

Now that Stephen Colbert is a "candidate" for president in both parties (and polling in the single digits, by the way), the news media needs to figure out how to cover this (not to mention what will happen to his show if he actually turns up on a ballot somewhere, a la Fred Thompson and Law & Order). You know these are strange days when Colbert plays it straight on Meet the Press while Tim Russert waves a Bert doll and demands to know why "Ernie & Bert" aren't pronounced "Ernie" and "bear." Ana Marie Cox had the right take on this one at Time's Swampland blog:

His interview yesterday was painfully so-ironic-it-was-unironic, and induced the kind of cringes you usually associate with Larry Craig. Russert tried way too hard, Colbert maybe not hard enough, or maybe there's something about "fake newsers" actively participating in "real" news that forces you to realize there's no hope for either genre.

We'll drag her into the Political Junkie fray, to talk a bit about the fake "news" man's candidacy, and the dangers of real newsmen taking the funny-bait.

And there's plenty more to talk about with Ken Rudin: Mitt Romney's Osama/Obama mixup, Sam Brownback's graceful exit, and the most recent Republican debate, among other things.

Watching the evening news last night, I was struck by one thing in particular about the fires in California: if they're lucky, evacuating residents have about 4 to 7 minutes to gather the things they'll take with them and leave their homes. 4 to 7 minutes. If you're lucky, you might get to return for 5 minutes, with an escort, when your neighborhood's still too dangerous to inhabit. It's mind-scrambling, to me anyway, to think about what I'd take. This happens with some regularity around the country, as floods, hurricanes, fires, and tornadoes pound, burn, and change the landscape. Really, it could happen to any of us. Have you had to leave your home in a hurry, without knowing when, or if, you'd return? Or if you'd even have a home to return to? If you haven't, it's an interesting exercise... Prescriptions and pets are essentials, but what else would you grab? My meds and my Winston would certainly make the cut, but if I had time for just one more thing, I'm really not sure what I'd choose. A treasured necklace? The teddy bear I've had my whole life? For me, it's more about sentimentality than material worth, but maybe that's because I own so little. What would you try to save?

Have you ever heard of a little show called Law & Order? With the proper cable TV lineup, you could probably watch it for at least 12 hours straight every day, so I'd be surprised if you haven't. I've always been a casual watcher -- there's nothing like Jerry Orbach on a sick day -- and when Law & Order: Criminal Intent debuted, I stuck with it for a couple of seasons, thanks to Goren and Eames*, the crimesolving duo I like best (and I still delight in the reruns). And let's not forget Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the third star of the franchise. The shows always seem to be up on, or even ahead of, the news, so how do they do it? There are only so many headlines from which to rip. Have you seen a story that seems ripe for the Law & Order treatment? And which is your favorite, and why?

*I want to say especially Goren, because I'm a serious member of the Vincent D'Onofrio fanclub... but then again, Eames -- played by Kathryn Erbe -- is the best straight man (er, woman) ever. I love them both!

In our first hour we will talk about the grave risks Iraqi journalists face while reporting in one of the most dangerous places in the world for reporters. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 121 journalists have been killed in Iraq since hostilities began there four years ago. Many western news organizations depend on Iraqi reporters to go where they can't... to conduct interviews, take photos, and write articles about what is taking place in the region. Today we will talk to two Iraqi journalists about the enormous risks of reporting in the line of fire, and also to an NPR foreign correspondent who hired many of the Iraqi reporters this organization relies on. Following that conversation, Ken Rudin stops in for his weekly Political Junkie visit and talks about what's happening in the political arena, including the history-making win in the Louisiana governor race, and Mitt Romney's repeated "Obama-Osama" faux pas. And Ana Marie Cox, Washington Editor of Time.com, will also join us to talk about Comedy Central political satirist Stephen Colbert and his recent appearance on Meet the Press. Colbert has announced he is "running" for president.

The wildfires that continue to sweep across Southern California have destroyed countless homes and prompted the biggest evacuation in the state's history. Hundreds of thousands of Californians have had to abandon their homes and, in the space of only a few minutes, are forced to decide what valuables to take with them and what to leave behind. In our second hour we'll hear from people who have lost their home in a disaster. Following that, we will talk to Emmy award winning writer and producer Rene Balcer, the executive producer of NBC's Law and Order. We'll talk about the series and the writer's strike that looms in Hollywood.

Watching the fire from the Getty Museum.

Source: BarrieJH

Picture this (or... er... just look at the photo). It's Sunday afternoon, and I've just gone up to the Getty Museum in that darling little tram. The view, as anyone who's been to the Getty knows, is just spectacular. I am a dedicated East Coaster (Red Sox -- not just post-curse, shellfish, Norman Rockwell, etc.), but I'm learning -- I've been tossing off terms like "freeway," "namaste," and "Santa Anas," like I hope a native would. (It's possible that my legs, which are indistinguishable from a really gleaming piece of sushi-style red snapper -- i.e., seriously white -- might give me away.) I've already heard that the Santa Ana winds are coming in, hence the slightly warmer then average temperatures (that's still only slightly warmer then paradise). Here's where I give myself away. Upon looking out over the Getty's pristine whiteness, I point to a cloud of smoke, and ask a nice man standing next to me whether it's sand from the Santa Anas. He smiles sadly at me and says, "Malibu's on fire."

That was Sunday. Now it's Wednesday, and the fires have forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. I'm out here working on another great NPR show for a week (though my heart belongs to TOTN), and it's been sad, but fascinating to watch the fires burn from a sort of eye in the hurricane -- between Malibu and San Diego. I had expected a week in which the toughest thing would be getting stuck in line behind Britney at a Taco Bell. Not so. It's overwhelming to see the disaster on television, and then again from the Santa Monica marina. As we wend our way into day four of the raging fires, it's clear that the price that people on the West Coast pay for the gaspingly beautiful scenery -- from beaches to canyons to mountains -- is high. But even the smoky skies can't obliterate the sunsets from the PCH on my way home from work. Here's hoping everybody gets home safely.

In a commentary for NPR's All Things Considered, which aired last week, and in his column for The New York Sun, John McWhorter, of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, made a "modest proposal," which generated a huge response: "The next time somebody plants a noose, let's just ignore it. Perhaps paying less attention to these acts will take away their racist power."

The modesty of his proposal is debatable, to say the least, as more and more nooses are found, hanging on trees, at high schools and the Coast Guard Academy, and in the ivory tower. Can we really ignore something so malicious, with such a painful and haunting history?

No, it seems. Since protesters converged on Jena, La., last month, many media outlets, including NPR, have filled pages and programs with reports on, and conversations about, race and racism. DiversityInc magazine has chronicled each incident on a web page, called "Noose Watch." And the Rev. Al Sharpton has called for a march on Washington, D.C., to demand that the government prosecute hate crimes with more zeal. What do you think of McWhorter's suggestion? Is the noose's symbolism indelible?

You're probably well aware of The Onion online, which features snarky stories (that often lampoon our fair NPR). But did you know it's also a newspaper... and a reasonably successful one at that? That may sound like faint praise, but in a day and age when newspaper circulations are dropping and news organizations grasp at straws to draw eyes (and ears), it's pretty remarkable. Personally, The Onion's newspaper boxes are the first new ones I've seen pop up around D.C. in ages, and they're always emptied as soon as a new edition comes out. Then again, commuters provide quite the captive audience for all sorts of print media, so maybe we're an exception. At any rate, The Onion's managed to do what it does quite well. It isn't really news, even less so than Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's shows, and that seems to be just what we want. Why do you pick up (or bookmark) The Onion?

Christopher Hitchens was unable to make it to the studio last week because of an unfortunate incident involving a paperweight and a letter opener.* Today is the day we finally get to talk to him about Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, as part of the Atlantic Monthly Press series Books That Changed the World. All you literary aficionados out there, tell us: what book changed your world?

* This is not true at all. I actually have no idea why he was MIA.

UPDATE, at 2:49 p.m. EDT: We just got word from our director.... "Hitch is in the building."

For many years, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, formerly the Occupied Land Fund, was the largest American Muslim charity. From its offices in Richardson, Texas, just outside of Dallas, the group raised millions of dollars, ostensibly for Palestinian families. In 1993, Israeli agents alleged that the Foundation's motives weren't so innocent. They argued that it funneled money to the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas. In 2001, the federal government froze the organization's assets and prosecuted its leadership. A judge declared a mistrial in that case yesterday. Jason Trahan, a reporter for The Dallas Morning News, will join us in the second hour, to shed light on why jurors couldn't reach a verdict.

Neal Conan is back and here is what Team TOTN is working on today:

There seems to be a growing number of incidents of nooses on display lately. We've had discussions on this show about the cultural symbolism of the noose and whether displaying it should be considered a hate crime... so in our first hour today, we will talk about how we should respond to hate. Our guests will share their perspectives from different sides of the issue. Author John McWhorter will explain why he feels that attention given to incidents of hate breeds "copy cats" and the hype surrounding the noose incidents should largely be ignored. Anne Reese Carswell, the associate director of the Nyumburu Cultural Center on the campus of the University of Maryland, will share her first-hand experience of finding a noose hanging from a tree close to the center. And Luke Visconti, co-founder of the publication DiversityInc will talk about why he feels ignoring incidences of hate only perpetuates the problem. Please share you thoughts as well. How should we respond to hate? At the end of the hour, we will talk to Greg Beato, contributing editor and columnist at Reason magazine, about his article entitled, "Amusing Ourselves to Depth." In it, Beato talks about how The Onion has gone from a twelve page, coupon-filled publication to a successful newspaper whose print circulation has achieved a 60 percent increase in the last three years and attracts more than two million online readers per week. All that, and it's fun to read!!!

Last week, author Christopher Hitchens was not able to join our program as scheduled, so we are happy to have a second chance to talk with him today in our second hour. Hitchens will discuss his latest book entitled, Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, and Paine's influence on the concept of human rights and the French and American revolution. Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man is the latest in a series from the Atlantic Monthly Press on Books that Changed the World. Following that, Dallas Morning News reporter Jason Trahan will talk about his coveriage of the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial where five Holy Land defendants are accused of wiring over $12 million to Palestinian charity committees said to be controlled by the terrorist group, Hamas. At the end of the hour we will read from listener blogs and emails about genetic testing, Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize, and the art of swearing.

Every morning at 9 o'clock, the TOTN staff gathers 'round to take stock of the day's news. Heaven help the producer who overslept and failed to even catch the headlines... on rare occasion when this happens to me, I feel behind all day. Once we get the major stories covered, we like to dig a little deeper to see what's going on that people are truly talking about at the dinner table, in the morning carpool, and queued up at the grocery store. We have various strategies for it -- our executive producer seems to host and/or attend an immeasurable number of dinner parties stocked with interesting people, which always get the gears in her brain grinding on new topics, whereas I like to go online to check out the local papers in places I used to live, and places where my friends and family still reside. We can't cover the entire country every day, however, which is where you come in. You, our loyal TOTN listeners, literally DO span the country and the globe. So we want to know: What's going on in your town? What is everyone talking about? Maybe you live in Dubuque, Iowa, where the noise levels in the city's only dog park grate on residents' nerves. Or maybe you live in Memphis, where the death of famed photographer and local legend Ernest Withers is the talk of the coffeehouse or barbershop. We want to know about these stories, and even if they seem of limited interest -- geographically, demographically, whatever -- if people are talking about it, there's generally a nugget in there that speaks to a broader human discussion or truth. So tell us: what's the buzz where you live? We want to turn your stories into on-air content, so if you've got links, please send them along...

This is one of those issues that makes me feel old. I'm only 23, but sex was definitely not on the menu when I was in middle school. We were more worried about how our braces made us look in pictures or whether or not we got to sit next to the "cool girl" at lunch, and the height of flirtation entailed passing a note that read, "Do you like me? Check one: Yes or No." But now, apparently, sex is something middle schools have to take seriously. Not that all 11- and 12-year-olds are having sex or getting pregnant -- far from it. But enough are dabbling that some middle schools across the country have decided to make prescription birth control available to their students, the most recent of which is King Middle School in Portland, Maine. Not surprisingly, the decision has garnered heated reaction from both sides of the debate: opponents say it's a band-aid that doesn't fix the deeper, root issue of why some eleven-year-olds are having sex, while proponents argue that it's important for young kids who are sexually active to have access to protection. Tell us your opinion: has the middle school environment really changed, or has sex always lurked beneath the surface (or behind the gymnasium, as it were)? And how young is too young for birth control?

Fostering a child seems like one of the most selfless acts imaginable -- you welcome a child into your home, and care for him or her until a family comes along whose eyes light up when they see that child, and they sign adoption papers. My sister runs the foster care program at our local animal shelter, and the folks who volunteer for her put in long hours caring for dogs who need lots of love in order to trust humans again, or kittens who are too young and weak to hang out with the big cats at the shelter. They don't receive compensation, but people who foster children do. It makes sense -- welcoming another human into your home means feeding, clothing, and sheltering a kid, and all that comes with a significant price tag. Mary Callahan fostered children, and, like any smart consumer, shopped around for the foster program that would provide her with the most money to care for her charges. But when one special child, Michael, asked her where the money came from, she had a crisis of conscience, and now believes monetary incentives for foster parents do more harm than good. What do you think? Do you foster? Do you ever feel like you're being paid to love your foster child? Or that it will look that way to the kid?

Barbara Morgan

Source: NASA

As a kid, my dream job changed by the day... pilot, policeman, doctor, baseball star, cowboy, even astronaut (and those are just the ones I can still remember). Fortunately for Barbara Morgan, she's a little more persistent than I was. In August she realized her dream of flying on the space shuttle... twenty-two years after she was selected as the backup to Christa McAuliffe in NASA's teacher in space program. Now, Barbara's story morphs from the dedicated teacher who could to the full-time astronaut who did. She is NASA's first teacher-astronaut, and will be on the show today to talk about the difficulty of adjusting to space, the importance of teaching, and what it's like to realize such a huge goal. Of course, we can't tell her story without also remembering her friend Christa McAuliffe, and the 1986 Challenger disaster. Let us know what questions you have for one of the fewer than 50 women who have gone to space.

On Sept. 9, 2007, William Safire began his weekly column, "On Language," with this lede: "When with-it users of language need a word to describe a suddenly increasing activity, we either create a new one -- a neologism like blog, a borrowing like au courant -- or we dust off a somewhat-related old word and give it a whole new meaning." Since Sept. 11, 2001, these "with-it users of language" -- many of whom seem to be journalists and press secretaries -- have added dozens of phrases to our everyday parlance, including "surge," "insurgents," "Islamofascism," and "rendition" (both extraordinary and regular). We can thank reporter Dana Priest, of The Washington Post, for adding the last term to our vernacular. In a series of articles, which won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting, she wrote about secret "black site" prisons. Since those pieces were published, the term has turned up everywhere. There's even a film by the same name, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Reese Witherspoon, and Meryl Streep, in theaters now. But what does "rendition" really mean? What is its etymology? And how close is Rendition, the movie, to reality? Daniel Benjamin, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, joins us in the second hour, to talk about the "5 Myths About Rendition (and That New Movie)." Do you have questions about the word, or how it is used today?

Do you ever wonder about the sexuality of the folks at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? I never really did. I mean, I knew Harry had a crush on Cho, then Ginny.... And that Ron and Hermione have some serious chemistry. But I never thought much about the grown-up characters in the book. Some age bias, perhaps. Anyway, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, fortunately, has given them much more thought than I. On Saturday, she let an audience at Carnegie Hall in on a secret: the headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, is gay. Some say Rowling's revelation is a safe choice, others praise her for making "the most intelligent, honorable and respected character of the entire series" a gay hero. What do you think?

Pink everywhere... Now what?

Source: incurable_hippie

I realized a small dream of mine this weekend, and purchased my first fishing pole and reel. I've been a casual fisherwoman since I was a little girl, when my dad taught me how to fish at my grandparents' farm, with a push-button reel and a rod, baited with worms we dug out of the compost heap behind the house. The skills he taught me then came in handy a decade later, when, as a camp counselor, I untangled lines and baited hooks for campers fishing on the banks of the Severn River. It's not a huge part of my identity, but being on the water definitely centers me and brings me peace. But this isn't about my love of the outdoors... It's about the fishing pole. I knew what brand I wanted, so when I entered the enormous outdoors store with my guide and expert, he directed me to the appropriate section, where we immediately laid eyes on the obvious choice: a beautiful, six-and-a-half-foot freshwater pole, black with metallic pink wrappings. Shocked, he said he'd never ever seen a pink one before, and earlier, when I'd expressed a (half-joking) desire to find a pink one, he said he thought I was nuts -- or at least SOL. But there it was, and we quickly realized the serendipitous timing of my purchase, coinciding with Breast Cancer Awareness month. Seeing a pink fishing rod really made me wonder, though... How much good do all these pink-branded items really do? There's little doubt that breast cancer has become "the marketing darling of diseases," and you can shop everywhere for everything in the trademark pink. I'm sure the money goes to the cause, but it turns out that the saturation of the market with pink beribboned everything may be lulling us all into a false sense of security about that progress medicine is actually making to fight the disease. So I want to know what's next for the public campaign. How do you turn awareness into actual knowledge about preventing and identifying the disease? And what about the countless other deadly diseases... Are they smaller fish in this sea of pink?

We begin our week with guest host Lynn Neary. Neal Conan will be back in the host's chair tomorrow. Here's what we're focusing on today:

In our first hour, we will talk about last week's 7-2 vote in Maine that allows the distribution of prescription birth control to students at King Middle School without their parents permission. This decision has sparked heavy debate. Middle school students fall between the ages of 11 and 15. Is this age group simply too young for the pill? We'll discuss the controversy surrounding birth control in schools, and hear from a Portland school board committee member who voted in favor of providing birth control pills to middle schoolers, and a former school nurse who is against the policy. Tell us your thoughts. How young is too young for birth control? Following that discussion, we'll talk to Mary Callahan about her op-ed in last week's Los Angeles Times. In the article, entitled "Mercenary Motherhood," she shares her experience as a foster parent, and what happened when her foster child discovered that she received money for parenting him. Callahan will explain how that has lead her to believe that financial compensation for foster parents has broken the foster care system.

In our second hour, we'll talk with NASA astronaut Barbara Morgan about becoming the first teacher in orbit aboard the shuttle Endeavour in August, and answer your questions about the process leading up to the flight and, after a more than twenty-year wait, was seeing the world from space everything she imagined it would be. Following that, we'll answer your questions about "rendition," the practice Daniel Benjamin defines as "moving someone from one country to another, outside the formal process of extradition," and, "a key tool for getting terrorists from places where they're causing trouble to places where they can't." It's also the subject of a new motion picture.

If I were pressed to pick my favorite song of all time, there's a good chance that Richard Thompson's "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" would be on my short list. I've been mesmerized by '52 Vincent ever since Thompson released it on his album Rumor and Sigh when I was in college. I've even labored to master it on guitar, though at this rate, I'll probably be retired before I'm decent enough to let anyone else hear me playing it. So when Del McCoury and his band began playing the song yesterday, while I sat in the front row of the small audience assembled in Studio 4A, I briefly assumed it would be the highlight of their visit to NPR.

Yet it wasn't.

I loved every moment of their performance - I've been replaying it all day today - but the band actually managed to be upstaged by a 10-year-old caller from California named James.

Continue reading "The Future of Bluegrass is Bright" >

The Del McCoury Band, one of the greatest groups in bluegrass, came by Studio 4A yesterday, for a performance chat. The band was in town, recording a live album at The Barns at Wolf Trap. (Judging by the performance we saw -- and heard -- yesterday, the compact disc should sound great). I was struck by everyone's kindness, skill, and professionalism. Here's a video from the performance, of The Del McCoury Band's rendition of Richard Thompson's "1952 Vincent Black Lightning."

--Video by John W. Poole and Coburn Dukehart, NPR Digital Media

Did you like the performance chat? Even if you're not a bluegrass fan, we'd love to hear your response to the music and the interview.

When I came across the "Home Fires" blog on The New York Times website, I thought to myself, "Breakfast potatoes?! Finally, a blog I can relate to!" Then Scott brought it to my attention that the word was actually "fires," and not those tasty treats from McDonalds. So, naturally, I took a closer look. Turns out the blog is a group column written by five members of the U.S. military who have all finished their tours in Iraq and are now living back in the States. It's a space where they can talk about their experiences in Iraq and the transition back to civilian life. And I am happy to report that their tales, though sometimes difficult to digest, are infinitely more compelling than breakfast potatoes. Veterans, we want to hear from you: what was it like where you served, and was it difficult to assimilate back into your old life when you got home?

I haven't been paying as much attention as I should to Neal's fantasy portfolio lately... But it's up, like 20% (too bad this is monopoly money!). And I thought there was a typo next to the line for Apple. As of about noon today it's almost doubled his fantasy money. There's also that little matter of the final $1,000 Neal has to invest. Check out the rest of the portfolio here, and let us know if you have any suggestions on where to park the rest of the faux cash. Our very own Motley Fool, David Gardner, will give Neal some tips on what to look for and what to watch out for. Oh, and if you have any questions for the Fool on how this whole Wall Street thing works (or doesn't), let us know those, too.

On the final show of the week, here is what we are working on for you:

In our first hour, we'll talk about a blog entitled Home Fires that appears on The New York Times website. The blog features the insights of five members of the United States military about returning home after serving in the Iraq war. Two of the five veterans featured on the blog will join the program today and talk about their experiences coming back to everyday American life and how writing has helped them move forward. We'd also like to hear from you. If you have returned home after serving in the war, what was the transition like for you? Later in that hour, it's our monthly visit with The Motley Fool's David Gardiner. He will discuss market and investment strategies and check in on our Talk of the Nation fantasy portfolio. Are we millionaires yet???

For our full second hour, we will hear live music from bluegrass legends The Del McCoury Band. The entire band will join us. Del McCoury will be on guitar along with his sons, Ronnie on mandolin and Rob on banjo. Joining them will be Alan Bartram on bass and Jason Carter on fiddle. Between tunes, they will chat about the traditions and evolution of bluegrass music. Be sure to call in with your questions for The Del McCoury Band.

Enjoy the rest of your week and weekend!!

In a week when we had two radio hosts of the show -- Garrison Keillor on Monday, Michael Krasny yesterday -- I failed to ask if we share the same anxiety dreams. You're in the studio but can't find the script, you don't know who you're supposed to be talking to, or what about, the director points and you can't speak. Your standard nightmare.

Which sort of happened on Tuesday.

If you were listening, you know that we were scheduled to spend most of the show with Christopher Hitchens to talk about Thomas Paine's The Rights Of Man, his entry in "The Books that Changed the World" series. 3PM, and he's not here. No reason to panic. Hitchens has a reputation for being late, but he always shows up. 3:05, and No Guest.

Sue Goodwin (our beloved Executive Producer) bursts into the production room that's separated from Studio 3A by a big glass window. Steam is coming our of her ears, but she pitches her voice down as she speaks on a communications mike to both me (in the studio) and to director Gwen Outen in the Control Room.

"OK. We'll do letters first, let's see is we can get Meghan Daum on the phone (we'd planned to speak with her from a studio in Los Angeles at 3:40) and if he hasn't shown up by then, we'll figure something out."

At such moments, the most important thing, is to stay calm. Senior Producer Carline Watson explains later, that her goal in such crises is to make sure you don't scare the host. I ad lib an explanation, and start to read letters, which runs maybe three minutes, and ends with music. While we listen to 40 seconds of Woodie Guthrie, Sue says to run Meghan over the first break, take a call or two, and that we'll switch topics at the 30. OK. We hadn't planned to take calls with Meghan, so I have to ad lib a question for the callers. Meghan, bless her, plays along, and, during the one minute break at 20 minutes after the hour, Sue comes in to say we still haven't heard from Hitchens, and that we'll improvise a segment on that day's congressional hearings about the Jena 6. Ok. While a caller speaks to Meghan, Sue tells me in my headphones that we have Professor Charles Ogletree on a cell phone at National Airport where he's waiting for a plane back to Boston after testifying before the House Judiciary Committee earlier in the day. I get a pretty decent introduction, and while Gwen plays the "button" -- the little piece of music we use to separate segements -- she says in my headphones, "and I have the tape ready."

What tape? Another flurry of activity as Carline prints out a cue sheet, which she hands me as I read the introduction. Professor Ogletree is eloquent, and then I hear that we've found Charles Witt, the Chicago Tribune reporter who broke the Jena 6 story, on the phone from his hotel room in Washington, and that he can speak to us because he just filed his story on the hearings. He takes us over the second break, at 40 past, and in those two minutes, I learn that we've reached our baseball regular, Alan Schwarz of the New York Times, also on deadline, but I can do a baseball interview off the top of my head, so we laud the heroics of the Colorado Rockies, and finally, finally wrap it up.

We send flowers to Meghan Daum, learn that Christopher Hitchens had to make a trip to the hospital -- we hope to reschedule Tom Paine for next week.

And, that night, I sleep nightmare free.

Cursing is an art, especially around little kids, grandparents, and your new in-laws. These are the occasions when alternative, listener-friendly expletives, such as "frick" and "frack," come in handy. They get the job done without offending. But can they really adequately convey the moment's frustration? Somehow "effin" just isn't as satisfying as the real deal. But such is social convention. Tell us your favorite kid-friendly (read: publishable) curse word, and check out an excerpt from Steven Pinker's new book about why we swear and what it says about us.

Scott's upstairs covering the Mukasey hearings, so I get to steal the PoJu post. There's fun to be had this hour -- a trivia question (you gotta listen for that, we're not letting you search the World Wide Web for those answers), a story about funny family relationships (Obama had the best joke on that one), and of course Gore-y speculation. He says he's not running, but that won't stop us from jabbering about it. Also on tap for today, Paul Tsongas' widow wins a special election, the Iowa GOP moves up its caucus date, and the Values Voters Summit is bringing Republicans to Washington, to state their positions. Come on in, get your political fix. We've got Rudin.

Michael Krasny is a busy man. For nearly 15 years, he has hosted a great radio show, Forum, on KQED, our member station in San Francisco. When he isn't on the air, Krasny is teaching at San Francisco State University, where he is on the English faculty. He contributes to Mother Jones magazine. And, in what remaining spare time he has, Krasny writes books. He'll be on our show, to talk about his latest, Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life, today. Surely you have a question for one of our hosts, about how they do what they do.

So, remember when your mom told you not to scratch your mosquito bites because you'd get a staph infection? I just finally understood why today, when CNN blitzed my eggs and toast with news that a high school student had died of a drug-resistant staph strain. MRSA is no joke, (it kills more people than AIDS!?!?) and I've been seeing an increase in first person accounts of terrible staph infections in women's magazines. So, we decided to take your Q's and give you some A's on what exactly this "superbug" is, and how you can get it. Or prevent it.

In our first hour, we will come to the defense of the f-word. Yes, THAT f-word. The mother of all curse words. So impressive that we can actually say "mother" before we say the word. Personally, I reserve using the f-word for the most dire circumstance, keeping it in my back pocket for those times when I REALLY need to drive a point home. But cursing as a whole does seem to have it's place. Curse words give oomph to all the words that surround it. And you instantly command attention when you blurt it out...for better or worse. But there are those who call cursing just plain linguistic laziness. A cover up. Proof that one who peppers their speech with expletives actually has a very limited vocabulary. Steven Pinker is a Harvard psychology professor, linguist, author and defender of the f-word. He'll talk about an article he recently penned for The New Republic entitled, "Why We Curse. What the F***?" So why DO we curse? And can't you think of at least one occassion where that curse word was really the ONLY word that worked? Following that f@#!ing conversation, Ken Rudin will be here to talk about tonight's Democratic debate in New Hampshire, what's been going on with Senator Larry Craig, and what Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize award means for the Democratic Party.

Michael Krasny, host of KQED's award-winning radio show "Forum" will join us in our second hour, He's written a book entitled "Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life" about his life in public radio, the art of the interview and how he went from dreams of writing the great American novel to instead interviewing great writers. Following Krasny, we'll answer questions about the drug-resistant bacteria called "Superbug MRSA" that has most recently claimed the life of a 17-year old student in Bedford County, Virginia. The bacterium causes potential life-threatening bloodstream infections and reportedly infects more than 90,000 Americas every year. We'll talk with a doctor about why it's spreading faster than previously thought and the possible ways we can keep ourselves protected.

Enjoy today!

If you listened to our second hour yesterday, you probably noticed that it wasn't the program we'd promised. Christopher Hitchens, who was supposed to talk with us about The Rights of Man, by Thomas Paine, never made it to Studio 3A. We're still trying to figure out what happened. A miscommunication? An act of God? (Probably not, with this guy). So, what happens here, when a guest doesn't show, for whatever reason? We scramble. Tuesday is, of course, "the day we read from your emails," so we went to that segment first. (That bought us a little time, at the top of the show). We called columnist Meghan Daum, of the Los Angeles Times, to ask her if we could move her interview, about child prodigies, scheduled for the end of the hour, to the beginning. Very graciously, she agreed. At our morning meeting, we talked about the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary's hearing on the Jena 6 and the role of federal intervention in hate crimes and race-related violence in public schools. At 2:30 p.m., we reached Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree, who testified at the hearing, at the airport. (Luckily for us, he missed his return flight to Boston). On similarly short notice, reporter Howard Witt, of the Chicago Tribune, who broke the Jena story, joined us by phone. We rounded out the program with Alan Schwarz, of The New York Times. He and Neal are always game to talk baseball. So, how did it sound? (Honestly, we were all too busy to listen).

If you look closely, you might see your future.

Source: comradedavros

Our bodies are full of untold secrets about our futures. Turns out, predispositions for various diseases are plain as the nose on your face... If only someone takes a look at your DNA. OK, that's simplifying things, but there are now a variety of tests you can take to see if, say, a family history of breast cancer means you'll get it too. Or if you're going to pass cystic fibrosis on to your kids. Have you gotten tested? Do you want to? How much do you want to know about your medical future? What if one day, there's a test that will tell you how long you'll live (barring accidental death, of course)? Would you want to know? Is there a difference between knowing for yourself, and knowing about what genetic markers you could saddle your kids with?

Former Vice President Al Gore is now a Nobel Prize winner.

Source: Tony Avelar/AFP/Getty Images

If you take a look at the long list of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, you'll find an impressive array of presidents and secretaries of state. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt, a president and "collaborator of various peace treaties," won the award. Thirteen years later, the Norwegian Nobel Committee bestowed the honor on Woodrow Wilson. George Marshall is on there, as are Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Kissinger, and Jimmy Carter. Last week, the Committee added another name to the roster: Al Gore, who will share this year's Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." To some people, including Jan Oberg, who directs the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, Gore's name stands out. According to Alfred Nobel's will, the Peace Prize is for "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The former vice president didn't negotiate a major treaty, broker a peace deal, or head a humanitarian organization. What do you think? Does he deserve the award?

The Painting Ocean by Marla Olmstead.

Mark and Laura Olmstead/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

 

I'm not gonna lie, I generally scoff at abstract art. My thought is, why settle for an orange rectangle when you can get lost in a starry night? I guess I've just always been more a Renoir girl, than a Rothko. Which is why my ears perked up when I heard about contemporary art's youngest member: Marla Olmstead. This four-year-old from Binghamton, NY has been crowned a "prodigy" in abstract painting, lending an ironic sense of validity to the quip, "My kid could paint that!" And paint she does. So far, Marla has sold more than $300,000 worth in paintings. Is Marla a prodigy? And is this really the work of a four-year-old? You be the judge. Check out her paintings on her website. (Yes, she has a website.)

Christopher Hitchens, happily holding forth.

Source: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

Christopher Hitchens was unable to join us today... but feel free to leave any comments you have about Thomas Paine and Rights of Man!
Christopher Hitchens is a guy with opinions, many of 'em. He's also a guy whose encyclopedic knowledge of, er... the CANON probably means he's qualified to write every book in the Atlantic Monthly Press series Books That Changed the World. But it's Thomas Paine's Rights of Man that he went for (you know the one, you probably had to read it in college, and if you didn't, check out the Declaration of Independence. Paine's brain figures heavily.) Anyway, we'll talk with Hitchens (my admiration I think, is well documented) about Rights of Man, Nobel prize winners, and whatever you want to hear him talk about.

This morning, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-TX, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and others spoke passionately in a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the handling of the Jena Six case. Rep. Lee pointed her finger at Justice Department officials, and especially at Donald Washington, the U.S. attorney for Louisiana's western district, for not intervening... and Sharpton wondered if a standard is being set that hate crimes are OK if they're committed by minors. Are you still following the case?

I grew up in North Carolina, so I'm accustomed to sports rivalries. As far as I'm concerned, there is no greater match up than UNC v. Duke. We follow basketball and football religiously. But baseball? Not so much. The Durham Bulls play down the street, but there isn't a Major League team for miles. Any allegiance to a baseball club comes from my dad, who grew up in Massachusetts, and pulls for the Red Sox. He has his fingers crossed, hoping that there will be an upset or two in Cleveland. My mom, who grew up in Denver, rarely has a dog in the fight. But this year things are different. The Guras are hoping for Red Sox v. Rockies. Are you?

In our first hour today we'll ask you a question: How much would you want to know about your predisposition to a particular disease? Researchers at Stanford University have developed a simple blood test that could help doctors identify patients with Alzheimer's disease in its earliest stages. So if you could find out what disease you're likely to develop in your lifetime, would you want to know? Our own science guy Joe Palca is among the guests who will talk about the new blood test, and break down for us the risks and rewards of genetic testing. Following that discussion, we'll talk about Al Gore and his latest honor as Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was awarded the prize last week for his work to promote awareness of global warming... but a public debate has ensued. Many question, what does the impact of climate change have to do with war? Tell us what you think. Should Al Gore have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize?

We are joined by author Christopher Hitchens in our second hour. He'll discuss his latest book entitled, Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, and Paine's influence on the concept of human rights and the French and American revolution. Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man is the latest in a series from the Atlantic Monthly Press on Books that Changed the World. After that, we'll ask Los Angeles Times columist Meghan Daum if it is in fact possible to be an abstract-painting prodigy at age four? Daum wrote an article called "Art as Child's Play" where she explores whether or not we can and should include our adorable, small-fingered friends in the very adult world of serious art. At the end of the hour we will read from listener emails and blogs about steroids and sports, parents at their wit's end, and your picks for the song that defines America.

Remember the national "Day Without Immigrants," held more than a year ago? Legal and illegal immigrants left their jobs in the fields, at factories, and at restaurants for a day, giving Americans a peek at what our nation would look like without their labor. In workplaces around the country, this dry-run has become a reality, as ICE raids round-up illegal immigrants, and the mere threat of raids has still more headed back over the border. To some, this shows immigration policy has been successful, but on a more concrete level, businesses are losing a reliable workforce and struggling to replenish it. Have you noticed a difference at work, or at the businesses you patronize?

The CW's new sitcom Aliens in America takes a crack at the heightened cultural tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in America post-9/11. It's Borat, light. I find myself naturally and unapologetically laughing at the parodied stereotypes. And then the guilt sets in: why is this funny and what purpose does it serve? That's when I came across Eboo Patel's blog post "'Aliens in America' About All of Us" on his Washington Post blog The Faith Divide. He presents a complicated view of the cultural politics involved in the show, and sheds light on the notion of what's really "alien" in America. And I finally realized that what I'm laughing at is the inherent ridiculousness -- nay, the inanity -- of mistreating others simply because they're different. This is a show that pushes us to places that are uncomfortable, and sometimes that's precisely what's necessary in order to gain a modicum of self-awareness. Do you feel like an "alien" in your own neighborhood? What are the cultural divides you face? And how do you try to bridge the disconnect? Tell us your thoughts. And you can continue the conversation with Eboo and others on the Interfaith Youth Core blog.

Garrison Keillor always returns to Lake Wobegon.

Source: Brian Velenchenko

A Prairie Home Companion was my first introduction to public radio. When I was little, we listened to Garrison Keillor and the prairie players every Thanksgiving as our hosts put the finishing touches on the turkey, and I helped set the kids' table. The highlight of the program was always Keillor's tales from Lake Wobegon, and our slicing, plating, and mashing would slow a bit as our ears swiveled toward the radio, focusing on his story. It's such a part of my family's early years that my dad wore out not one, but two Powdermilk Biscuits shirts, and my mom's Bertha's Kitty Boutique tee is threadbare, to say the least. We're talking with Garrison today -- he's got a new story from Lake Wobegon out, called Pontoon -- what's your favorite story, book, or show sponsor?

Okay, so Israel and Syria are famously not CFF's (Country Friends Forever). In fact, you may have noticed that Israel's friends are all long distance. But here's a confusing story that might have you asking, "Um... what is North Korea doing in all of this?" Back in September, Israel conducted a "mysterious" air raid over Syria, prompting much speculation (not to mention outrage on the part of Syria) about what Israel bombed, and why. David Sanger and Mark Mazzetti broke some pieces of this story yesterday, reporting that the bombing was conducted against a partly constructed nuclear reactor. The reactor's design looked very much like a North Korean one -- but nobody's actually addressing what part the North Koreans may have played in Syria's reactor. Confused? We are too... that's why we've got David Sanger from the New York Times to explain it all.

On today's show for (we sincerely hope) your enjoyment:

We'll talk about the labor side of illegal immigrantion and the impact of immigration raids. New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse talks about his piece entitled "Crackdown Upends Slaughterhouse's Work Force" where he examines why more than a thousand Latino workers fled a hog slaughterhouse in North Carolina a year after police arrested twenty-one illegal immigrants at the plant. Who benefits from these crackdowns? What economic options are illegal immigrants left with? And what happens to the businesses that employed illegal immigrants? At the end of the first hour, author Eboo Patel, Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, talks about the new network sitcom Aliens in America. The show focuses on the dynamic between a Pakistani Muslim exchange student and the Wisconsin-based family who takes him in. Patel will shed light on what this storyline really says about how Americans deal with cultural and religious differences.

In our second hour, we'll talk to Garrison Keillor, host of the popular radio program A Prairie Home Companion. His latest novel, entitled Pontoon, is his fifth in a set of cleverly spun tales of life in the fictionalized town of Lake Wobegon. We'll talk about his radio program, his new novel and how he manages to put the "woe" in Lake Wobegon and make us laugh without shame. Following that David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, provides information about what is reported to be a partially-constructed Syrian nuclear reactor modeled after a North Korean nuclear plant.

It's both our modus operandi, and a fact of our work lives -- Talk of the Nation is a talk-y bunch. Whether it's about our shoes or what's happening in Syria, we are always talking. (Sometimes, I put on my headphones just to take a time-out -- I'm wearing them right now!!) As a result, we all know each other well -- too well, almost (Fridays are either blissfully quiet, or so chatty you either have to join in, or throw the darn headphones on). When one of our group moves on, or worse, away, it's a shock to the natural order of things. Erstwhile TOTN Producer Becky Vlamis -- she of the endlessly fabulous wardrobe -- left at the beginning of the summer to go back to the Windy City, to whom she belonged (can you really belong to a city like D.C.? Discuss.). It was a bummer to lose her unique voice on the show -- so imagine my surprise when I heard it again, this morning, on Tell Me More. Her commentary about moving home is definitely worth a listen, and not just because of TOTN pride. As usual, Vlamis gets to the heart of the matter, without getting maudlin -- in fact, she's the opposite of maudlin, bless her. (I would even go so far as to say that while she was on this show, she waged a one woman war against maudlin -- and weak iced coffee.) Give it a listen -- it's worth remembering what home means.

I think my parents would agree that I was a difficult teenager in some (most?) ways. My mother regularly caught me cutting school -- bored by life, chain smoking -- at the local coffee shop. This, of course, made me not only difficult, but monumentally stupid -- why I couldn't find a hangout my mother didn't frequent, I'll never know. Years later, I think we can all agree that not only could it have been worse, but I was probably on the easy side. Parents with children who were affectionate and intimate in their early years, can end up with depressed, addicted, and venomous children who desperately need help, but cannot accept it. So-called "Boot Camps" have been in the news lately -- they can be terrifying, costly, and worse, unregulated. But what on earth are your options when it feels like you've been through all of them? We'll talk to the author of the wonderful memoir Augusta, Gone (she described interacting with her troubled daughter, "like sticking my hand into the garbage disposal,"), and we're hoping that her story, along with help from Amy Dickinson and Maia Szalavitz, will inspire you to tell yours here. Parents, teenagers -- what was your experience?

From what we're hearing out of Cleveland, there were warning signs that the 14-year-old who shot four people in his school was planning some kind of revenge. One of the other students says he warned the principal about earlier threats, and the shooter reportedly promised, "I got something for you all," after he was suspended on Monday. Whatever the motive and the warning signs, the principal called a "code blue" in the school, once the shooting started. These days, many schools have lockdown procedures, in response to previous shootings. We'll talk with an expert on preventing school violence about what we've learned from past incidents. Did the new procedures work in Cleveland? Do you have any experience with school lockdown drills? Do you think they're effective?

Places to go, people to see.

Source: Ben Scicluna

Admit it... There have been times when someone in the car ahead is driving with the left-turn indicator blinking, blinking, blinking, on a one-lane road, with no turns in sight... You've probably thrown a few choice words at the driver -- aloud, or to yourself -- and there's a decent chance that, when you've gotten a good look at that driver, he or she is a senior citizen. Or maybe you're in a hurry at the grocery store, just picking up items for dinner, and the elderly customer at the head of the line counts out his or her change a little too slowly for your schedule. Maybe you've just heard your own aged mother or father talking about things like love and sex, and you've gotten grossed out. Well, guess what? Hearing often fails with age, so maybe the driver just doesn't hear the "click-click," and isn't really just out to annoy you. And the customer counting change might have issues with his vision or dexterity, but again, he isn't just out to annoy you. I think you know what I'm going to say next... Old people care about sex and love too, and talking about them is normal... Not just a way of annoying younger folks. All this is to say we (myself included!) can be pretty intolerant of people in their golden years, and now there are classes spring chickens can take to try to physically understand what it's like to have the limited abilities that often come with old age. Hopefully, empathy follows understanding. Have you ever caught yourself short of patience with an old person? Do you try to fight those feelings? Has someone taught you that the elderly deserve empathy just like anyone else?

Posted online by special permission of King Features Syndicate.

 

"Funky Winkerbean" -- say it 10 times fast, and by number 6 you'll have to earmuff any nearby children. A comic strip with a title as quirky as that is sure to be a barrel of laughs. That's how it started out, back in the 1970s, when it was first created by cartoonist Tom Batiuk (rhymes with "attic"). But over time, Funky Winks, as I've taken to calling it, has tackled some weighty themes, including abuse, alcoholism, and guns in schools. And last week, one of Batiuk's main characters, Lisa Moore, died of breast cancer. What do you think, TOTN bloggers? Should comic strips be funny? Or is there room for seriousness in the strip? Mull it over. And in the meantime, check out Lisa's Legacy Fund, which was created in the character's memory, to support cancer education and research.

On this last show of the week, here are today's topics:

We are calling our first hour show topic "Parents At Wits' End." We want to reach out to the parents of troubled teenagers who are dealing with more than your typical adolescent peer pressure, anti-social behavior and stubborn silence at the dinner table. Chicago Tribune columnist Amy Dickinson offers advice to help parents deal with extreme behaviorial problems in their teenage kids, and we'll hear from one mother who struggled to control and ultimately save her out-of-control daughter. Following that, we'll talk about the recent school shooting at a Cleveland, Ohio high school. A 14-year-old student opened fire at the school, killing five before killing himself. Reports say the principal called a "Code Blue" alarm over the intercom, suggesting the school may have had a regulated system in place in case of a shooting at the school. We'll talk with a reporter in Cleveland and the regional director of the National Association of School Resource Officers about drill training programs designed to keep schools and its students safe.

In our second hour, empathy for the aging. Magazine editor Jason Wilson participated in a class designed to teach empathy toward the elderly. He'll talk about the curriculum that included wearing restrictive bandages on his knees and breathing through a straw. Also joining us will be Peg Gordon, who teaches a class called "Xtreme Aging." We'll hear how different age groups responded to the aches and pains of growing old, and if that changed how they view the elderly. Can empathy be taught? At the end of the hour, we'll talk about the changing role of comic strips with cartoonist Tom Batiuk, creator of the comic strip "Funky Winkerbean" whose character died after losing her battle with breast cancer.

Guess who's a Nobel Prize winner?

Source: SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images

This morning, we learned that Doris Lessing is this year's winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. Professor Horace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, made the announcement this morning. The New York Times reported that, "Ms. Lessing learned the news from a group of reporters camped on her doorstep as she returned home from visiting her son in the hospital." Surprise! Well, maybe it wasn't totally out of the blue.... Motoko Rich continues,

perhaps she was not entirely surprised, because 'this has been going on for something like 40 years,' a reference to the many years when she had been named as a potential honoree. 'You can't go on getting excited every year about this,' she said. 'There are limits to getting excited finally.

The Prize citation calls Lessing, "that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny." Are you satisfied with the Swedish Academy's decision? What other writer deserves the award?

You've got your George Washingtons, your Jacksons, your Hamiltons, and (if you're lucky), your Benjamins. Life seems pretty good. Until you realize that they're not as strong as they used to be. That's right, the dollar's a fallin' folks. What does this mean for Americans? Well, for one, travel abroad ain't cheap. Spend some time in any EU country, and you're spending nearly twice as much for a night at the Holiday Inn as you would in New York. Second, it could potentially lead to higher interest rates. On the flip side, the lower-valued dollar could stimulate US exports, keeping American workers busy and in demand. Then again, on the flip of the flip, imports are now more expensive, meaning that I'll have to think twice about getting that Benz I've been eyeing (ha). Solution? I say we just chuck it all and escape to Peru where the exchange rate is 3 nuevos soles for 1 US dollar.

Only in a news organization do people gather around the TV to watch presidential debates. Though with the big debut of Fred Thompson yesterday, there was a little more excitement than usual (not for a love of Mr. Thompson, mind you, but because finally something was different in one of these things. But that's a debate for another time). The consensus seems to be that he fell a little flat, with a few stumbles, some odd expressions, and one good zinger directed at Mitt Romney (though, in fairness, Romney's zinger was better). And the latest poll numbers out of Iowa show it's now Romney and Thompson in the top two spots (Hillary Clinton took the lead over John Edwards among Democrats). Did you catch any of the debate, or just clips of Fred Thompson? How'd he do? And if you've actually seen and of the candidates in person, what's your impression?

On Jan. 20, 2001, former Attorney General Janet Reno made a memorable appearance on Saturday Night Live, where she, wearing a blue pants suit, crashed "Janet Reno's Dance Party," a recurring skit, featuring comedian Will Ferrell, wearing an identical blue pants suit, danced to "My Sharona." Later, when Reno ran for Florida's governorship, she hosted a real dance party. On South Beach. A reporter for The New York Times summarized the event: "South Beach's gay contingent, black hip-hop aficionados and spaghetti-thin model types all turned out to raise the roof with a folksy but not fashionable white woman with little hip in her hop." Reno has surprised us again. She is the co-producer of a new CD compilation, Song of America. It chronicles American history through song, with a range of music. Everything from a Lakota dream song to a James Brown hit. What is your favorite "Song of America"?

Once a Yankee, always a Yankee?

Source: christopherdale

Picture it: Yankee Stadium without Alex Rodriguez... or, how about this. A-Rod in red, or black, or orange... but not pinstripes. It's entirely possible that the star third-baseman will take advantage of an opt-out clause in his current, 10-year, $252 million contract, and sign on the dotted line for whichever team offers him even more money. It sounds crazy, right? I mean, hello! He's still got $91 million left in this contract, and he plays for one of the best (well, winningest and wealthiest) teams in baseball. According to his agent, though, it's time to head back to the MLB cash cow and milk out even more millions... maybe as much as $300 million for A-Rod's next ten years. What will A-Rod do? And who do you think will step up with the winning bid for his talents?

In today's first hour, we'll talk about the swan dive the dollar has taken recently. At present, it will cost you more than $1.50 to buy one euro, and the British pound is worth twice the dollar. So that means if you're planning a trip overseas, you may want to start passing the hat for some extra change because the dollar won't stretch very far once you get there. But while most companies, businesses, and overseas vacationers are feeling the crunch, there are some economists who say the falling dollar is actually a GOOD thing. A sales manager, an economist, and a money reporter explain why, and talk about how the falling dollar could affect your life and your business. Following that, our own Ken Rudin will grace our airwaves with a look at Fred Thompson's debut in yesterday's Republican debate, the latest Iowa polls, and which Democratic presidential candidates have withdrawn their names from the upcoming primary in Michigan.

In our second hour, we'll talk to Janet Reno about... MUSIC. She has a deep love for songs that seem to define the pulse of America. She, along with a member of her family, has put together a three disc compilation project entitled Song of America featuring music that dates from 1492 to the present day. The songs are performed by contemporary artists, one of whom is Ben Taylor, who will also be joining the show along with the album's co-producer. Call in with your favorite song that, for you, captures the heart of America. Following that segment, Neal Conan -- our personal die-hard Yankees flag waver -- will talk about the uncertain future of Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Apparently there is a clause in his ten year contract that allows him to opt out and become a free agent. If he decides to do this, negotiations could start at 30 million dollars a year. Yes. Thirty. Million. What should he do? Should he stay with the Yankees? Become a free agent? What would YOU do if you were A-Rod? Geez, we should ALL have his problems.

Whitmore brings rural soul to the rock club.

Source: pieter.morlion

Music is in the air at Talk of the Nation this week... we started with Pinback Monday, and today we've got a fantastic collection of American songs featuring a couple performers who are -- or will be -- familiar to Talk listeners (remember Andrew Bird? He's got a song on the compilation. And stay tuned... we've got comp-contributors and bluegrass legends the Del McCoury Band coming to our air next week.). Last night I saw William Elliott Whitmore perform here in DC (while Barrie saw Josh Ritter... another TOTN alum), and was so blown away I just had to share it here. He's a young, white guy who grew up on a horse farm in Iowa beside the Mississippi river, and he sings American folk music (part blues, part country, part southern) with the voice of a man wise and weathered beyond his years. Listening to him makes me think of cornfields, smoky run-down honky-tonks, blackbirds, and whiskey, though if I saw him on the street I'd probably make up a backstory that was more about skateboarding and punk rock (and, yeah, whiskey). You've got to hear him to really understand, so here are a few songs, and stay tuned... I'm hoping to bring him to our own NPR HQ on his next tour in the Spring of 2008.

Man, was Marion Jones fun to watch. I mean, she literally looked like a blue ribbon of speed, zooming around that track. Add to that her natural grace, and her dimples; I mean, this was a woman all of America had a crush on. Which is why her fall from that grace last week, was so heartbreaking. It also raises the issue of why athletes -- especially athletes that are already so accomplished -- feel they must cheat. The "everybody's doing it" excuse is both baloney, and seems to be true -- so today, we're going to look deep into the black heart of performance enhancing drugs. (Full disclosure: I'm high on Ginkgo Biloba, which is like The Clear for radio producers.)

Myanmar (the erstwhile Burma), is in the midst of a shaky political moment. Photos of monks in their deep red robes have captivated the world as they march against a military junta that has kept Myanmar under military rule since 1962. The last round of demonstrations for political reforms led to a bloodbath... with almost 600 monks dead. And though there was hope that this demonstration will end happily, right now, it looks like the junta is winning. The marches have dwindled away; monks have been killed, arrested, or confined to their monasteries. The monks and monasteries have had a unique role in Myanmar -- they're a sort of moral compass for the country. We're going to talk with Philip Delves Broughton about these mysterious maroon figures today, for a closer look inside a country in political and social extremis. You can read his op-ed here.

Last week, in the wake of an article in The New York Times, about a secret Justice Department memo, endorsing "harsh interrogation techniques," President Bush categorically denied that the United States has tortured, or does torture, prisoners. Since 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union has requested information from the government, about interrogation techniques. Their Freedom of Information Act request yielded hundreds of thousands of documents, some more legible than others. Since then, ACLU lawyers, including Amrit Singh and Jameel Jaffer, have been sifting through transcripts, messages, and memos. Their new book, Administration of Torture, includes a handful of them. Semantics are important in all of this. What constitutes "torture"?

OK all you Bachelor-of-Arts candidates, listen up. A declared major in sociology* or anthropology is no longer a one-way ticket to manning a register at Barnes&Noble or asking, "Do you want fries with that?" In fact, social scientists are actually responsible for a bit of progress in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Pentagon has an experimental program whereby social scientists are dispatched to troubled areas to study the mores and norms of the community, and use what they learn to help soldiers help the locals. The first unit of -ologists, a.k.a. the Human Terrain Team, have helped soldiers get past tribal issues so they can focus on bringing services like health care and education to combat areas. And the brass is so happy with their progress that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has authorized a major expansion. Sounds good, right? Well, not entirely... critics fear the -ologists' hard work is being used more for political gain than anything else, in what amounts to "mercenary anthropology." What do you think?

*Full disclosure... I majored in sociology!

Coming up on today's show:

Marion Jones has made headline news since she admitted to using performance enhancing drugs leading up to the 2000 Olympics. She has given up the five medals she won in those Olympic games, suspended for two years from competition, and now faces jail time for lying to federal investigators in 2003. The number of athletes who have been charged with using steroids seems to be increasing in the sports world. Accusations are certainly nothing new. So with so much scrutiny surrounding steroid use, why do athletes continue to use them? In our first hour, we'll talk to one athlete and former steroid user who says performance enhancing drugs are prevalent in the world of professional sports. Following that, Philip Delves Broughton talks about his op-ed that appeared in last week's Wall Street Journal where he describes how Buddhist monks are rebelling against military regimes in Burma in their fight for democracy. And we'll read from you blogs and emails about the car of the future, the roots of gospel music, and we'll listen to audio of a woman describing what it's like to live with multiple personalities.

In our second hour, Amrit Singh, co-author of the book Administration of Torture and a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, explains what exactly happens in interrogation rooms with terror suspects, and where the line is drawn between "aggressive interrogation techniques" and torture. We'll end the hour with a discussion on the newest recruits to military troops in Afghanistan and Iraq... anthropologists. According to an article for the New York Times, "Cultural anthropology in particular is crucial to the understanding of a region that is, in many ways, completely alien to Americans." A senior social science advisor with the U.S. Army's Human Terrain System and a professor of anthropology talk about "academic embeds."

Back yesterday after two weeks on vacation, and I have to admit that it's a bit of a struggle to resume the usual schedule. The alarm clock seemed especially insistent this morning.
Part of the problem is temporal displacement. To celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary, my wife and I traveled to Venice. Robert Benchley once sent a telegram from the city that married the sea to a friend: "Streets full of water. Stop. Please advise." And indeed, the day after we arrived, a deluge combined with the high tide of a full moon swamped many of the streets that are supposed to remain dry. In the event of aqua alta, squadrons of men place duck boards on aluminum braces on pre-arranged routes, but most of the locals simply don pairs of high gum boots and slosh their way through.
The city is as beautiful as advertised, the museums wonderful, the food mostly terrific -- because Venice is so saturated with tourists, it IS possible to get a bad meal -- but the thing that most surprised me, was the sound of the place. Because there are no cars, the steady thrum of traffic that obscures the audio track of every other city I've visited simply isn't there. With the window open in our third floor hotel room, we eavesdropped on animated conversations that were mostly, but not exclusively in Italian, and every time a woman in high heels came down our little Calle, we knew it. The tenors of the gondoliers wafted in, and the bells of the city argued over the time.
The construction site across the street from my apartment building is just as musical when the dump trucks beep their back up song at six this morning. Sure it is.

Vicente Fox's electoral victory, in 2000, was momentous. For the first time in 80 years, an opposition candidate for Mexico's presidency defeated the PRI. During his six-year tenure, Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive, advanced a free-trade platform, tackled immigration, and now he's following in the footsteps of many US presidents: he wrote a book, and he is building his own presidential library. What do you think of Vicente Fox's presidency? Are you in favor of, what he calls, a North American Union?

Mia Farrow is most famous for her movies, but lately she's been splitting her time between Hollywood and humanitarian work... Especially when it comes to Darfur. And she points a finger directly at China for not doing more to stop the killing in Sudan. China is their most important trading partner (they buy roughly 2/3 of Sudan's oil), giving Beijing a lot of leverage over the government in Khartoum. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last Friday, Mia Farrow pushed China to do more on Darfur. And with what she calls, the "Genocide Olympics" coming to Beijing next year, she argues now is the time to turn the screws on China... and anyone involved with the games.

Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt are "The Three Doctors", an inspiring blend of foresight, hard work, and perseverance. These character attributes were rare in their childhood neighborhood of Newark, NJ, where drugs, theft, and even violence were the rule of the land. But in high school, they made a promise -- which they called "the pact" -- to support one another through college and medical school, in an attempt to escape their roots. The road to success was arduous, but they got through it by leaning on each other. Now they're out with a new book, called The Bond, which chronicles their experiences growing up with absentee fathers. It underlies the importance of a father figure in a child's development. And they've started a foundation. Are you inspired by their story? Did you grow up in a similar situation? How did your childhood define who you are today?

Sometimes it's hardest to blog about the things about which you care the most... and this is that kind of post. We've got a band coming in to play... Pinback. And though they don't know it, Pinback and I go way back. In the late '90s I was a shift DJ at my college radio station, WUOG in Athens, GA (26,000 watts and almost as many choices!)*. Part of the way to remain a DJ in good standing was to screen the piles of cds and 7"s that came into the studio each week, sifting through the sediment for sparkles. Some people considered it a chore, but I loved putting on my headphones and holding the fate of a band in my hands. One afternoon I plugged in and put on a 7" I'd selected from the stack for no real reason. And as the record started, I had one of those amazing "a-ha!" moments... THIS is good. This should be played till the grooves wear out. "This" was Pinback's first release, and I've been with them ever since**. Are you a fan? Leave the story of your favorite show here... I will too!

*Back then our motto was "less talk more ROCK!" My... how far I've come (fallen?)
**I have a Pinback song as my ring tone on my cell phone. TRUST me when I say that phone is set to "vibrate" today... how embarrassing would it be if it rang while I was trying to be all cool and professional?

Happy Day Off! (for those who actually have one) Neal Conan is back, well rested and gearing up for today's show. Here's what you'll be listening to:

In our first hour, we'll talk with Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico, about his life, his tenure as Mexico's president, the intricate relationship between the U.S. and Mexico and his relationship with President Bush since leaving office. He'll also talk about his recently published autobiography--a memoir entitled Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith and Dreams of a Mexican President, where he talks about his childhood spent on his family's ranch and his journey into politics. At the end of that hour, actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow talks about her op-ed that appeared in last Friday's Wall Street Journal. In it, she places much responsibility for the violence that continues in Darfur on China. She believes that, in light of the upcoming Olympic games that will be taking place in Beijing next year, now is the time for China to increase pressure and publicity to stop the killing in Sudan. Her op-ed is entitled, "China Can do More on Darfur."

You may remember a book called The Pact that came out five years ago. It was the story about a friendship between three African-American men who grew up together in the inner city of Newark, New Jersey. Though they faced many pitfalls, they made a pact that they would beat the odds and all become doctors together... a dream each one of them realized. The three doctors have written a new book entitled, The Bond, in which each one reveals a painful childhood growing up without the strong presence of his father. They also explain the importance of the bond that exists between father and son. Following that, we'll bring you live music with the band Pinback. Band members Rob Crow and Zach Smith will join us live in the studio and play some tunes from their new album Autumn of the Seraphs. That's all in our second hour.

Enjoy your Columbus Day!

Sports is a nice distraction, but I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan. So, it was a little tough to explain why I was so ticked off when the Cubs (MY Cubs!) threw away a huge winning season in just three games against the Diamondbacks on Saturday night. Understand, there was some buildup here: Last year the team was lousy, but 99 years since the Cubs won the World Series we had a new coach, fresh new players, heck Lou Piniella even stomped on a toy goat (curse be damned!). And the team went from dead a year ago, to first place in the division. Tell me this didn't have all the makings of a Cinderella season. And I know I'm ungrateful... a first place finish with a new coach and a fairly young team means good things are coming next year. But, let's be honest, that's a huge cliche in Chicago... "Cubs Fans Wait till Next Year, Again." And the best part? I'll be right back at it again next season. In the meantime, I'll whine and complain that nobody can hit worth a darn, and that a certain hot-headed pitcher needs anger management training. But the last time the Cubs won a World Series was 1908. Even a Yankees fan can see that 2008 is destined to be the Cubs' year.

There's a weird media love triangle going on this week. We're talking with Chris Matthews today on the show, about his new book, Life's a Campaign. On his show yesterday, Matthews referenced NPR (as in "is Obama too NPR?"). And, earlier this week, Jon Stewart played hardball in an interview with Matthews on The Daily Show, which we'll talk about on our show today (If you haven't seen the video of The Daily Show, here's the link. Let's just say Matthews finishes the segment by saying, "This is the worst interview ever!"). Hopefully, he'll feel better about the interview today. If you're dying to ask the host of Hardball some questions of your own, or want to weigh-in on the book, let us know.

So, I'm home sick today. I'm seriously streptolicious. It would have taken some major gumption to get off the couch and come in and infect my fellow BOTN'ers and TOTN'ers. There are only two things that could have propelled me into work, scarlet tonsils 'n all. One is this cake that Sarah makes (and she's a pushover, so she'd probably bring it to my couch). The other is the esteemed journalist, pilot and general suave-itude that is William Langewiesche. First of all, it's not just that he's generally in the middle of the biggest stories, getting the best quotes, but his prose is like... well, it's as good as that cake Sarah makes. The man can write. So, why am I still at home if Langewiesche is going to be on TOTN today? Because he's in London. Drat. However, the piece he's talking about "The Mega-Bunker of Baghdad"** is definitely worth hearing about -- especially if you're wondering what 600 million dollars will get you in an embassy nowadays (for one thing; a food court). Any questions? Post 'em here. Spelling his name correctly feels really good -- even if you have strep.

*Also, vice versa.
**No link, unfortunately... you'll have to either buy it, or stand and read it at your local CVS, Barnes and Noble, or dentist's office, depending on what errands you have to run.

My mom, a high school teacher, once asked me what Facebook was: "What's this Face thing that all my students are talking about?" I told her it's an online social network that connects you with friends, work colleagues, kindergarten crushes, etc. But that's only part of the story. The other part -- the deeper truth -- is that sites like MySpace and Facebook are vehicles of narcissism. Think about it... you're saying to the world, "I think highly enough about myself that I'm going to create a web page dedicated solely to me and my greatness -- and available for all to see and comment on. And I'm going to put up 23 photo albums of me and my friends, documenting every seemingly insignificant detail of my life. Except I don't really think it's insignificant because I uploaded 50 pictures of the same exact thing, but each from a slightly different angle, with a slightly different pose." Do not be alarmed, this is not a derisive critique of the Face and the Space. To the contrary, I embrace this virtual self-indulgence, I celebrate it. And that's why I've created a photo album entitled, "Do You Have Sufficient Pictures of Me?" filled with numerous stylized portraits of myself. 'Cause let's be real: these interactive networks are nothing but a stalker's paradise. And I like to make it easy for them.

In an article, published in The Boston Globe last week, historian Marcus Rediker, who teaches at the University of Pittsburgh, reminds us that, in 1807, Great Britain and the United States ended the African slave trade. On that important anniversary, he has published a new volume, The Slave Ship: A Human History. As he researched, in England, Rediker came across a strange, sickening satire, called "The Petition of the Sharks of Africa." In it, sharks plea with parliamentarians not to end the slave trade, lest the carnivorous fishes starve. Rediker writes, "Nothing I had ever read had prepared me for such a document. Here, unexpectedly, was a dark and daring kind of humor that I had never known to exist among abolitionists." The author will be with us, in the second hour, to talk about the broadside he discovered in Bristol, and the slave trade. Does this document surprise you? When is satire inappropriate?

On our final show this week:

Chris Matthews joins us in our first hour. You know him best as the host of Hardball on MSNBC. We'll talk about his decade of playing Hardball, his fascination with politics, and what some would call his often 'combative' trademark style of questioning. We'll also discuss his new book called Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me about Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation and Success. Following that, Vanity Fair reporter William Langewiesche will discuss his latest article entitled "The Mega Bunker of Baghdad." In it, Langewiesche talks about the massive new American Embassy rising above Baghdad in the heavily fortified Green Zone. The extravagant compound will be the largest and most lavish embassy in the world.

In our second hour, we'll talk about social networking. Andy Carvin, NPR's senior strategist for online communities, will talk about what exactly social networking is and how people are using the different online social networking sites. It's not just for teenagers anymore. Later in the hour, we'll talk about the African slave trade with Marcus Rediker, a professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He wrote an op-ed that appeared in the Boston Globe about his discovery of an 18th-century petition asking the British Parliament not to end the slave trade. The document is called "The Petition of the Sharks of Africa," a horrific satire written in the voice of sharks who ate the bodies of slaves that jumped or were thown overboard from slave ships.

Today on the show I'll be coming on air to talk about the Internet phenomenon known as online social networks. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, social networks are websites that serve as online communities - places where people can create a personal profile, interact with others and share original content, like photos or video clips. MySpace and Facebook are probably the best known examples, but there are literally thousands of others. And that's because it's easier than ever for people to create their own social networks, bringing together niche communities with like-minded interests.

For a lot of people, social networks are just a place for socializing - catching up with friends, flirting and the like. But that's just scratching the surface.

Continue reading "The Sociology of Online Social Networks" >

Every afternoon, on my walk home from work, I pass a row of parked cars outside the Hart Senate Office Building. There are luxury sedans and behemoth sport utility vehicles, mostly. For fun, I guess which car belongs to which lawmaker. Does that black Subaru station wagon, with a Vermont license plate, belong to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)? Or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)? Does Sen. John Warner (R-VA), drive that dark-blue BMW 7 Series? Two weeks ago, I spotted Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), smiling broadly, piloting a silver Toyota Prius. (He waited patiently as I crossed the street, I'll add). Lugar is one of several politicians Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, correspondents for The Economist magazine, praise in their new book, Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future. They argue that politicians need to approach energy politics more realistically, and they point to Lugar as a realist par excellence. The Indiana senator proposed an oil tax and an end to tariffs on Brazilian imports. Carson and Vaitheeswaran will join us in the first hour, to talk about the car of the future. What will it look like? And when can we buy it?

It's official: Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) finally starting to rake in some meaty dead presidents -- money, that is. The Clinton campaign announced yesterday that it out-raised Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) campaign for the third quarter by $3 million. This is the first time Clinton has brought in more quarterly revenue than Obama for the 2008 primaries. She may want to consider using her new benjamins to purchase a different laugh -- one less "cackle"-y perhaps.

In other news, social conservatives from the Council for National Policy will consider running a third-party candidate if Giuliani, who has supported some abortion rights, wins the Republican primary. I wonder if dividing the Republican party into two parts -- socially conservative and less socially conservative -- is really the best way to go about winning the election. At any rate, it'll be interesting to see the likes of James Dobson et al alongside Nader and the Green Party.

Today we've got the story of a woman with dissociative identity disorder, commonly known as multiple personalities disorder. Her doctor, Richard Baer, will tell her story. The identity of his patient must remain anonymous, so when I was searching for tape today, I came across a story NPR aired more than 13 years ago, about Beth Hafling. At the time, she had dozens of personalities, and her friend, radio producer Dan Gediman, handed her a tape recorder so she could share her story, and hopefully help others with the same problem feel less alone. The piece clocks in at a lush 25 minutes, and Beth's story is very similar to that of Dr. Baer's patient. Since our online archives don't go back quite that far, here's a taste: Beth... and many of her other personalities (audio) sorting through the abuses she suffered. Do you, or does someone you know, have the disorder? Please share your stories here.

Growing up in Chicago, I heard stories of Chicagoans visiting other countries, and when people found out where they were from, they almost always responded with something akin to: "Chicago! Bam bam! Al Capone!" (Honestly, this continued until Michael Jordan took over as the most famous Chicagoan). The Windy City and the Mob have a long history together. Just last week, a federal trial that came out of Operation Family Secrets took down 5 top members of the "outfit" for hits that were decades old. These are guys in their sixties and seventies now, with names like "The Clown," who are facing life sentences. It was a huge trial, straight out of Hollywood. But, nobody's sure if it really damaged the Chicago Mob. John Kass has been all over this story, and will talk with us today. You can read his last column on the case here. What does the Mob look like these days? Is it still a threat after this trial? Why do Americans love their Mob stories/movies/TV shows?

Coming up on the show today:

There are over 200 million cars motoring up and down America's highways. Most of them are powered by gasoline. But according to the authors of a new book, Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, cars that have electric engines are not in the far-away future. According to the book, scientists and engineers are building electric cars and perfecting hydrogen fuel cells. But what is taking so long? We'll imagine a future of new cars zooming with new fuels with the authors of the book. How much would YOU pay for a "greener" automobile? And it's Wednesday, so like clockwork our own Ken Rudin will join us at the end of the hour. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) seems to be the campaign trail's latest media target. Rudin will talk about why, as well as her neck-and-neck money race with Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), and the conservative Republicans' recent threat to run a third-party candidate.

In our second hour, we are joined by Dr. Richard Baer. He has recently authored a book entitled, Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities. He'll talk about his therapy treatment for his patient's deep-rooted psychic wounds and the reasons why some people inhabit multiple personalities in order to cope with early traumatic experiences. We'll end that hour with Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass who will talk about his coverage and the final verdict of the now infamous so-called "Family Secrets Mob Trial." It has become one of the biggest mob cases in Chicago's history. If nothing else, you gotta love those nicknames.

Real life hero Valentino Achak Deng.

Cover Art by Rachell Sumpter

Ok, so I know I'm waaaay behind... but last night, I finished reading Dave Eggers' latest novel, What is the What. But, the book does come out in paperback next week, so maybe I'm just getting a jump on the renewed coverage? Anyway, it's absolutely incredible... one of those books that stays with you for a long time. My friend Kim finished it months ago, and it's still the fastest way to get her attention -- "wah wah wah wah ACHAK DENG wah wah" -- her head will whip around so fast her eyes go blurry. And now I know why. For those of you who haven't read it yet, What is the What is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Lost Boy of Sudan. He's told his story to Eggers, who presents it to us, embellished to flesh it out as a story of both one Lost Boy, Achak, and as the story of the Lost Boys. It's a story worse than harrowing, but more rich than simply terrifying. There are beautiful moments of levity and warmth, coupled with the days -- nay, weeks and months and years -- darker than I could previously imagine. When I closed the book for the last time, my mind was swirling... and first thing this morning I searched NPR.org to see if we'd covered the book. I discovered this treasure -- an interview with Eggers and Valentino (aka Achak, and many other names I won't spoil), and am listening to Valentino's voice as I type now. It's a fitting coda to my hours spent in his world, and I hope you enjoy it too*.

*Beware... there's a bit of a spoiler at the end. If you want to avoid it, stop listening to the file when Eggers finishes speaking, at 8:18.

We all hide parts of our personal identity at various times for various reasons: to fit in with a new group of friends, to impress a potential employer, or to please a demanding mother-in-law. But imagine having to hide your sexual identity because you fear for your life. That's what many homosexuals are forced to do in such countries as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt, where engaging in sexual relations with the same sex or lobbying for gay rights can be met with torture or death. As a result, many gay Muslims seek asylum in other countries. I'm curious to know the degree to which homosexuality within Muslim communities in Western countries is acknowledged and accepted. Does homosexuality enjoy greater visibility in these communities? And what are the personal politics involved in reconciling Islam with homosexuality? The answers are out there, and I will find them. In the meantime, check out Parvez Sharma's documentary A Jihad for Love. It explores the nuanced and complex issues facing homosexuals in the Muslim world today.

Dynamo or dinosaur?

Source: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

It feels like we've heard stories about the imminent demise of the V-22 Osprey for years now. Actually, it's more like decades. This is the military plane that looks and flies like a regular airplane, but lands and takes off like a helicopter (the rotors twist roughly 90-degrees). When he was Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney tried to ground the project four times. But remember, congress has the "power of the purse," not the Pentagon. And representatives funded it anyway, which often brought jobs and business contracts to their districts. Now, after 25-years in development, the deaths of 30 men in crashes, and some $20 billion, what critics call a shorthanded Osprey is headed to Iraq. Mark Thompson did a nice piece on "The Plane that Wouldn't Die" for Time magazine. He'll be on the show today to talk about how to plane survived, and what the whole process tells us about the way Washington works (or doesn't, as he put it).

All you need is Cheech.

Source: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Cheech Marin's done it all: movies, television, a reality show, voice-overs, stand-up, and has even recorded on actual vinyl*. No matter where you first encountered Cheech, you probably know him as half of the stoner duo Cheech and Chong. He's been around forever (n.b. In an interview with Tavis Smiley for NPR in 2002, he credited their success on the road to their fitness regimen. He says that in every city they checked into, they would "work out, lift weights, go to the hotel, sleep, get up, do the show, party as much afterwards... we saw our contemporaries and/or rock'n'roll guys, man, they would stay in the... hotel and order porno and they burned out quick, man." Fact or fiction? You be the judge.), which he credits to a ease with changing mediums, but that sounds like modesty to me... the man is incredibly talented. He's also a giver, and his latest collection of Chicano art is touring the country for audiences now, with free admission (and you can see some of it here!). Hazy hours spent in college dorm rooms, watching Cars with your kids, what's your favorite thing about Cheech?

*Full disclosure: I own quite a few LPs and a fully functional record player.

I am somewhat old-school about non-fiction -- I instantly get a bad taste in my mouth when the reporter uses the first person (or worse, "this reporter.") But there are some stories that have to come straight from the reporter's experience -- like this one, "Reporting While Black," by New York Times reporter Solomon Moore. In it, he reports the intractable story of the war between police and street gangs from a sidewalk in Salisbury, North Carolina -- where he ended up handcuffed, face against a cop car. Read the article -- tell us what you think. And if you have questions for Moore, post them here, too.

Today, for your listening ears:

Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed an audience at Columbia University and stated, in part, "We do not have homosexuals in Iran like you do in your country." Many gay Muslims have responded in disbelief at the denial of their existence and the hostilities they face in their countries. Parvez Sharma, a gay Muslim filmmaker, is among our guests who will shed light on the harsh, often underground world of homosexuality in many Muslim countries. Following that, we'll talk about the development of the 'Osprey.' It flies like a plane and lands like a helicopter, and makes its debut in Iraq after 25 years in the making. We'll end our first hour with a look at listener emails and blog comments about the 50th anniversary of Little Rock, baseball playoffs, and finding love when you love to text message.

Cheech Marin pays us a visit in our second hour. He seems to define the term "multi-talented." He's been in films, on television, voiced cartoons and he's even written a children's book. Today, he can add "public radio star" to his growing list of accomplishments. He's probably best known as the "Cheech" to Tommy Chong's "Chong," the comedic duo that was widely popular in the '70s and '80s. (Cheech is the shorter one, in case you were wondering.) What you may not know about Cheech is that he is also an avid collector of Chicano art. In fact he is among the world's foremost Chicano art collectors. Where does he find the time?! At the end of the hour, we'll talk to New York Times reporter Solomon Moore about the challenges of finding himself reporting in the wrong place at the wrong time as a black man.

I just got back from a weekend in New York. On the bus there, a young woman played with her iPhone incessantly. She listened to music. She watched movies. She wrote emails. She sent instant messages. And she took phone calls. All the while, she kept flipping the thing around. Halfway through the trip, somewhere near the Chesapeake House Service Area, she called her boyfriend. "Honey, I just have to get you one of these." If he is half as voluble as she, I hope she forgets to buy him the gift.

Last week, The Metropolitan Transit Authority announced that Transit Wireless will pay $46.8 million, over 10 years, to wire subway stations across the five boroughs. The New York Post, reported that the small company out-bid several telecommunications titans, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Soon enough, New York will be more like Washington, where every other commuter has a Razr or BlackBerry. Is this really cause for "cell-ebration," as the Post put it? Do we need more noise on the 1? More chatter on the Broadway Express? I, for one, don't want to hear Manhattan straphangers hash over business deals with their partners, or dinner plans with their husbands, telephonically. Leave me some semblance of solitude. Or quietude, at least.

These days, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the new Anbar: If you haven't heard of him, you just may be spending your time under a rock... an even bigger one than the one that shielded you from Anbar news. He made huge waves last week with statements like, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals, like in your country. We don't have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon." In the past, he's questioned whether the Holocaust actually happened, and argued Israel's conflict with Palestine stems from misplaced blame for that horrific era. So how much does a world leader with such (Scary? Laughable? Extreme?) views matter? He's more of a figurehead in Iran than a leader, though few would dispute that Iran itself definitely does matter... What do you think?

Reporting on the war in Iraq often boils down to numbers... number of attacks, number of troops injured, or killed. And if you look closer at the figures, you'll see at least one bit of good news: The number of US service members who survive serious injuries in Iraq is higher than in any other U.S. conflict. That means more troops make it out of Iraq alive. It also means that they survive long enough to develop all sorts of serious, and rare, side-effects... complications that doctors don't always know how to treat. In May of 2006, CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier went from reporter to newsmaker. A 500-pound car bomb went off as the U.S. Army patrol she was riding with drove down a Baghdad street. She's almost fully recovered now, and in an op-ed in the Washington Post yesterday she stresses that victims of war injuries need more funding for research... to treat their injuries, and to study these side-effects. She'll join us today to talk about what happened to her, and what she's trying to do to help.

Last week, the New York Times reported on a surprising (to them) new development. TV is good. It's really good. It's intellectual, it's surprising, it's filled with hidden gems, and great big flashy cubic zirconia type guilty pleasures. This summer, there was something I wanted to watch every night (which was sort of a bummer because I really like to read, too). I have delivered passionate speeches about the virtues of Battlestar Galactica and of Friday Night Lights. The Television Wars have begun, and it's time to claim a side, people (and there are a thousand sides). You are what you watch -- what are you watching?

*I would want to be the Sharon model. For sure.

Confession: every once in a while I'll dip into a gospel church on Sunday, just to hear the choir sing. I get tingles down my spine whenever they start singing "Amazing Grace" or "Go Tell It on the Mountain," and my fantasy wedding has always included a gospel choir crooning and sashaying in white robes. Which is why I was more than a little distraught to hear that gospel music is vanishing. Sometimes you don't realize how much you cherish something until it's in danger of being lost forever. Thankfully, Robert Darden, Baylor University journalism professor and gospel guru, has launched a new project to restore black gospel music. Oh happy day!

On this day, the first Monday in October, here is what we're working on:

Since his visit to the States last week, the media has paid much attention to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran. But his power as president in the region is limited. Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei holds the title of Supreme Leader there. So to what extent does Ahmadinejad matter? Guests Azadeh Moaveni, Time magazine correspondent for Iran, and Hirsh Goodman, senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, talk about Ahmadinejad's role in Iran and what Iranians are saying about him. At the end of the first hour, we'll talk to Kimberly Dozier, a Middle East-based correspondent for CBS News, about the shock and trauma she faced after being struck by burning shapnel from a car bomb explosion in Iraq.

In our second hour we will talk about what the t.v. shows we choose to indulge in says about us. Okay, so I admit. I've never seen an episode of The Wire... and I only watch Law & Order in re-runs... and that's limited to SVU. But I'll hang up in your ear if you dare call me while Grey's Anatomy is on. And I have paused my frantic channel clicking on America's Next Top Model on more than one occasion (but I swear I kept it on mute). So what does that say about me? That I'd secretly love to catwalk myself into hospital emergency rooms and romantic triangles in full makeup and three inch heels? Who knows. TV critics Matt Roush and Jonathan Storm may help shed some light on this dilemma today. Following that, we'll talk about the preservation of traditional gospel music with Robert Darden. He is the Associate Professor of Journalism at Baylor University and his passion for gospel has led him to spearhead a project to preserve and digitize early traditional music.

Since things went so well with Gura on the blog, we've decided to open it up to our favorite valley girl, Ashley Grashaw. Take it away, Ash....

Hey bloggers. Ashley here, bringing the West Coast perspective to Blog of the Nation -- represent yo.

Although I spent my college years at Berkeley -- hugging trees (once, but it was a bonsai); wearing Birkenstocks (a temporary blip when they suddenly became popular again for about a month in 2003); and waging protests (against racist Abercrombie t-shirts, for example) -- I lived in LA long enough, having been raised there, to realize that it's OK to want to make money. Enter: Public Radio. Unpaid intern turned editorial assistant, my job is to talk to experts all day about topics I pretend to understand. But that's the great thing about working behind the scenes: I only have to find the expert, I don't have to be the expert.

Here's a few spicy tidbits about myself, the better to judge my blogging capabilities:

Currently Reading: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman.
Special Talent: Ability to get a crowd going in a karaoke bar.
Favorite Sex Scandal: Michael Jackson, for its irony -- this is the same guy who wrote "Heal the World," no?
Random Quirk: Listening to Christmas music in July.

--Ashley Grashaw