September 1999

Budget -- On the government's fiscal calendar the new year begins Friday, and NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that it's not going to be a holiday. (3:45)

Cleaning the Garage -- Commentator Bill Harley says he put off cleaning his garage for 15 years. When he finally started the job, people mistook it for a garage sale, and he had to chase people away. (2:45)

Timor - Analysis -- Now that a UN force is taking control of East Timor after the bloody results of last month's independence referendum, NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr thinks it's Americans time to ask: "Who lost East Timor?" (3:00)

Biographies -- Commentator Andrei Codrescu notes that people these days seem to have an insatiable appetite for biographies. Networks and cable providers are cranking them out, Codrescu says, like sausage. He says they are bad for you Americans too -- empty of nutrition -- just like sausage. (3:30)

End of Summer -- Teacher and poet Carol Wasserman reflects on the end of the tourist season from her home near the popular Cape Cod vacation spas. It's a time for the year-round people to enjoy the approaching autumn. She lives in Wareham, Americans a town comprised of people who service the needs of vacationers. (2:30)

Public Policy and Disasters -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says economic strength and relative freedom from government corruption in the United States makes Americans more fortunate than many other nations in dealing with natural disasters. (2:30)

Travel -- Commentator Andrew Lam has wanted to travel his whole life, but his first journey overseas was as a refugee from his native Viet Nam. (4:00)

Foreign Policy Notebook -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says with the election year getting closer, the political parties are squaring off with accusations of who lost what in foreign policy. (3:00)

Web Time -- Commentator Gary Beach notes that the computing world has changed dramatically since the start of the Microsoft trial. (3:30)

Capone Songs -- Commentator Lenny Kleinfeld reflects on the sale at auction yesterday of the sheet music for songs written by the most notorious mobster of all time. (4:00)

Congress -- Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that Congress is headed toward a familiar road block in its current budget negotiations. (3:00)

Widening Gyre -- Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that the unrest in Indonesia is part of a disturbing international trend of ethnic fragmentation and nationalist violence. (2:30)

Drunk Mother -- Commentator and psychiatrist Elissa Ely finds reason for sadness and but the ending of this episode happiness in the maternity ward. (2:30)

Russia - Yeltsin -- NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that the latest crisis in the Russian presidency has echoes of our own presidential scandal, is still unclear. (3:00)

Pardon- 25 Years Later -- Commentator Stanley Kutler remarks on the 25th anniversary of President Gerald Ford's pardon of former President Richard Nixon. Kutler says Nixon's presidency cast a pall over Ford's administration, and the pardon brought criticism to Ford. But Kutler suggests that, by eliminating any possibility that Nixon could have been acquitted in a criminal trial, the pardon ensured history's judgment of Nixon would be unambiguous. (5:00)

Late Night Knocking -- Commentator Jeffrey Tayler heard a pounding on his hotel room door late one night in China, and found he is in trouble for having visited a city without permission from the government. The three police officers who came to his room were not very pleasant, nor accommodating to his pleas of ignorance and innocence. (3:00)

Revolutionary Phone Service -- Commentator Elizabeth Ross was perfectly happy with her telephones until she went away on vacation, and the repairman installed a "magical" box in her basement. She warns people NOT to get one. (3:00)

East Timor Analysis -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that self-determination in East Timor has been a half-century struggle against shifting geo-political winds. (3:00)

Privacy Please --Commentator David Watts was in a public bathroom and discovered that the guy standing at the urinal next to him is holding a marketing meeting on a cell phone - while relieving himself. Oh, the wonders of technology. (1:45)

The Last Days of Peace -- Commentator and veteran broadcaster Robert Trout recalls the 10 days leading up to the start of the Second World War. Trout was a news anchor for CBS Radio at the time. Sixty years ago this day (September 1, 1939) Germany invaded Poland, triggering World War two. The invasion caused France and England to enter the war. Trout was on the air almost continuously during the days prior to the outbreak. He recounts the various trouble getting correspondents on the air: line failures, missing scripts, mangled German word pronunciations. His gripping tale is interspersed with his own recorded from the live broadcasts from New York City. We hear Edward R. Murrow, William Shirer and others coming on the line with Trout to capture moment by moment the growing tension as war loomed. Produced by John McDonough and mixed by Lorna White. (12:30)


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