Pomegranate Love

This year I decided to master the pomegranate. Much as I love the juicy little seeds, I've always been scared to cut into one. I've seen Barrie do it at her desk and juice gets everywhere. Plus the membranes and pith on the inside are kind of creepy looking. But I love those little seeds, so I bought two and opened up The Joy of Cooking for guidance. Joy steered me right, and now whenever I walk into the kitchen here at NPR with a bag full of delicious pomegranate seeds, everyone wants to know my secret. Then Barrie mentioned it on the blog, and commenter Rachel wanted to know too. So, here it is: how to get the seeds out of a pomegranate without ruining your shirt.

Sarah Handel

4:45 PM ET | 11-14-2007 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

BotN, Now With More Info!

Something we're not too awesome at here at BotN is letting you know in advance of the show what we've got coming up. The major reason is that things are often changing up to the last minute, but we're working on ways to let you know what's going on... So, to that end, stay tuned for posts from our director, Gwen Outen. She usually knows what's coming up, and she's going to take a few minutes each day to share it with you sometime before 1pm. Keep in mind, though, that these things are always subject to change... you never know what news will come up in the hour before the show, or what great guest might come through at the last minute!

Sarah Handel

11:27 AM ET | 08-28-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Murray's Summer Movies!

It's the end of the road for our summer movie festival (at least for this year; we're open to topic questions for next summer!). We got a ton of emails asking us to post the list of movies mentioned during the series this year. And now (drum roll, please), here's the full list of favorites:

MOVIE THREE-QUELS
Spider-man 3
Shrek the Third
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Ocean's 13
The Bourne Ultimatum
Rush Hour 3
Pirates of the Caribbean 3
El Mariachi
The Bourne Ultimatum
Lord of the Rings
The "Apu" trilogy
The Sheikh
Godfather III
Blue, White,and Red
Indiana Jones
Matrix
Jaws 3-D
Goldfinger
Batman
Star Wars
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Austin Powers
Scary Movie
The Road to Zanzibar
Road to Singapore
Flesh, Trash, nd Heat
Back to the Future III
Beverly Hills Cop 3
Thin Man series
Toy Story 3

THE BEST BIG CAPER MOVIES
Heist
The Sting
The Pink Panther
Topkapi
Rififi
The Great Muppet Caper
The Killers
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round
The Thomas Crown Affair
To Catch a Thief
The Lavender Hill Mob
The Ladykillers
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Italian Job
The Great Escape
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Who's Minding the Mint
$
Odds Against Tomorrow

FAVORITE ROBOT MOVIES
Star Wars
Robocop
Transformers
Westworld
Fembots
A.I.
Stepford Wives
2001
2010
The Terminator
Terminator II
Blade Runner
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Star Trek Generation
Silent Running
Forbidden Planet
Gremlins
Short Circuit
Weird Science
Metropolis
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

BEST POP STAR BIOS
Walk The Line
The Jolson Story
The Great Caruso
The Fabulous Dorseys
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Three Little Words
The Cole Porter Story
Words and Music
Coal Miner's Daughter
Night and Day
Ray
Sid And Nancy
Westway to the World
Aother State of Mind
The Glenn Miller Story
La Bamba
Bound for Glory
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
Don't Look Back
Lenny
Bird
The Buddy Holly Story

BEST HIGH SCHOOL MOVIES
Clueless
Elephant
Blackboard Jungle
American Graffiti
Grease
Peggy Sue Got Married
Love Finds Andy Hardy
Sixteen Candles
Scream
The Breakfast Club
Mean Girls
To Sir With Love
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Election
Dead Poet's Society
Stand and Deliver
Mr. Holland's Opus
Dazed and Confused
Friday Night Lights
Varsity Blues
Remember the Titans
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Back to the Future
Napoleon Dynamite

Scott Cameron

1:27 PM ET | 08-21-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

And the Robot Murray Goes To...

Our summer movie festival last week focused on best movie robots. As usual, we got far too many votes from listeners to get to on the air. But, we've compiled the votes and here are the results (some are the movie titles, some are the names of the robot):

Robbie from Forbidden Planet
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Spaceballs (Dot Matrix)
Iron Giant
Bicentennial Man
Transformers
Rover from The Prisoner
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Silent Running
Klaatu
Blade Runner
Data From Star Trek
Lost in Space
The HItchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
R2D2
Saturn 3
Robocop
Futurama

Scott Cameron

12:17 PM ET | 07-24-2007 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

And the Murray Goes to...

Okay, we've compiled the votes and counted the results and can finally announce the list of the best caper movies from our summer movie festival (according to TOTN listeners, and in no particular order).

The Sting
The Pink Panther
Topkapi (Neal's top pick)
Rififi
The Great Muppet Caper
The Killers
The Thomas Crown Affair
To Catch a Thief
Ocean's 11
The Lady Killers
The Italian Job
Who's Minding the Mint
$ (aka Dollars)
Odds Against Tomorrow

And the Murray goes to:
Big Deal on Madonna Street

(Next up on Thursday... best robot movies)

Scott Cameron

10:21 AM ET | 07-17-2007 | permalink | comments (11) | e-mail post

Mah Lil' LOLcat

...and trackin' it all over mah houz!

Source: handels

Ok, well you didn't exactly ask for it, but I promised it... here's my first LOLcat! Thanks so much to all the commenters -- here's a compilation of the LOL resources you all have provided:
Slate's photo essay, thanks Jessica!
The LOL glossary, thanks Andy!
The so-called origin of it all, thanks Andy!

Sarah Handel

3:35 PM ET | 06- 6-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

The Results Show

We asked, you answered... some 2,289 of you took our ethics and values quiz. And based on the emails we got asking us to post the results, not all of you were able to listen to our second hour on Thursday (when we revealed all). The poll may not be scientific, but it sure made for a revealing discussion, and thanks to crack intern Ashley Grashaw and her quick typing skills we can share the results with you. Here's what your fellow survey takers had to say:

1. I would lie when taking a poll if the answers made me look better....

Continue reading "The Results Show" »

Scott Cameron

2:16 PM ET | 04-13-2007 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

Mental Health Resources

On yesterday's show about depression our health policy correspondent Joanne Silberner gave out a bunch of online resources, and we promised to post them here... we were waylaid by yesterday's flood. Fear not, I've got them for you now, courtesy of Joanne.

MedlinePlus from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health

Two citizens' groups with links to local organizations that can direct people to all sorts of services:

National Alliance on Mental Illness

Mental Health America

Also:

The National Institute of Mental Health

... and one Joanne didn't mention on air, but says, "it's a good one, consumer website of the American Psychiatric Association."

Healthy Minds. Healthy Lives.

And finally, a recommendation from guest Dr. David Miklowitz:

The Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation

Sarah Handel

6:12 PM ET | 04- 4-2007 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Talk Show Karaoke Split

Dig into this banana split

Source: roger jones

For whatever reason, there's been a very musical theme to the show recently. Hip-hop, classical, blues, and whatever that awful sound segment was. And who can forget our dedicated listener who put words to our theme song ... "banana spliiiiiiiit!!!" (This will launch your audio player). That brave solo performance turned out to be a hit with listeners, and inspired some to come up with their own lyrics (one of the first posts on this blog was a request to post that performance. And, feel free to add your own versions ... if you have an MP3 version to link us to, all the better!) Now, who knew there already WAS a banana split song, and in French, no less. An inquiring minded listener sent us this little ditty, which I'll label PG-13 (if you speak French): "That reminded me of a real French hit, sung by an artist known as Lio. You can hear it here."

Scott Cameron

11:00 AM ET | 03- 7-2007 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post