April 2001

Foreign Policy-- Commentator and poet Andrei Codrescu offers his unique perspective on world events, free trade, human rights, and consumerism. Ideologies are giving way to the marketplace, he says. (3:15)

100 Days -- Commentator Patrick Maney says the fascination with the first 100 days of the American presidential term started with the successes of President Franklin Roosevelt. (3:00)

The Body -- Commentator Stacy Horn has learned her mother has a terminal disease. She finds some comfort in an unlikely place -- an episode of television's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, called The Body. (1:45)

Thoughts on Kerrey -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr offers his thoughts on former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey's revelation that he was involved in a raid that resulted in the killing of women and children as a Navy SEAL during the Vietnam War. (3:00)

Is Kerrey a Hero? -- Commentator Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. says controversy over the Vietnam attack led by former senator Robert Kerrey does not tarnish the heroism that earned him a medal. (2:30)

Robert Downey Jr. -- Commentator Stephen Lynch is the pop culture critic at the Orange County Register. He says after actor Robert Downey Jr.'s latest arrest, attempts to portray him as a tragic Shakespearean hero don't make sense. He's not that great an actor. (2:00)

First Words -- George Orwell once wrote that "probably it is better to put off using words as long as possible and get one's meaning as clear as one can through pictures or sensations." Novelist Reynolds Price thought perhaps one baby was doing just that when he chose "soap" and "book" as his first words, instead of the more usual Ma Ma or Da Da. (2:00)

Bush - 100 Days -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr takes a look at President Bush's self-evaluation of his first 100 days in office. (2:45)

Long Division -- Commentator Daniel Ferri on a teacher's nightmare -- he dreams he is unprepared for class -- unprepared and uncertain until he begins to draw a problem on the board. Long division helps ground him safely back in reality. (3:00)

The Rescue League Cat -- Commentator Belle Waring says choosing a pet from an animal shelter can be a roll of the dice. (3:00)

Tortoise and Hare -- Commentator Andrei Codrescu and girlfriend dine out on rabbit stew and turtle soup. Their meals cause them various pains. (4:15)

Ramps-- The 28th annual International Ramp Cook Off happens this coming weekend in Elkins, West Virginia. Commentator Michael Ivey says ramps are related to onions, garlic and leeks, but they're stronger and zestier. And they inspire a wide range of reactions. (3:00)

Post Americas Summit -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr uses the 2000 census to analyze President Bush's enthusiasm for a hemispheric common market. (3:00)

Chimps -- Commentator Stephen Kuusisto is a blind writer who was recently invited by a primate researcher to visit with a pair of young chimpanzees. The chimps, a boy and a girl, each about a year old, took instantly to the man with the white cane. They allowed him to touch and play with them, and he in turn allowed them to climb and jump from his cane. The experience has changed the way he feels about his cane. (3:30)

Cherishing Books -- News of possible book banning in South Africa makes commentator Mark Mathabane remember a time when he was willing to risk his life to save Shakespeare. At the time, 1976, it was blacks who believed Shakespeare represented the worst of Bantu education and set fire to the library in his town. Mathabane fought to rescue the works of Shakespeare, and overheard the white soldiers mock the idea that blacks should be given the chance to learn at all. (3:45)

Mark Mathabane's latest book is Miriam's Song, published by Simon and Shuster, 2000, www.mathabane.com.

Anti - Poetry Month -- Not everyone is a fan of National Poetry Month. In fact, there are a few poets who hate it. One of those is Charles Bernstein. Bernstein is a poet and professor of poetics at the State University of New York in Buffalo and he's had it up to here with watered-down slop that circulates every April trying to represent the rest of poetry. (3:15)

Lawn Care -- Commentator Jonathan Kranz remembers his family's time in their first house in semi-rural New Jersey. He says his family was as enslaved by their bad lawn as their neighbor was by his green one. (3:30)

E-mails From Africa -- Commentator Bill Miles was once a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa. Now a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, he receives e-mails from an African village. Despite the townspeople's poverty and daily tribulations, they wrote to express concern about his son, Sam. The Africans have heard about school shootings in the U.S. and wonder if Sam is safe. (3:15)

Mary Tyler Moore-- The city of Minneapolis intends to erect a bronze statue to honor Mary Richards, the fictional heroine of the Mary Tyler Moore show. It will be done in conjunction with the cable television network TV LAND. Writer Peter Ritter is inspired by the notion of public art for the masses. He has a few suggestions of his own. (2:30)

U.S. - China Relationship -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that the need to balance ideology with commerce leaves America's relationship with Beijing ambiguous. (3:00)

Staying Over -- Commentator Lis Wiehl, a former federal prosecutor, makes the case against the right to privacy for strangers staying in a stranger's home. (2:30)

Spring Confidence -- Commentator Andrei Codrescu ponders the blooming of the American spring, when the flood of sensual emotions overwhelms the gloom of Wall Street. Wandering through Andrei's neighborhood, a pollster finds a woman who says she has great consumer confidence despite a trend against it. (3:30)

Mommy Power -- Commentator Marion Winik says these days, whether they're at home or at the office, moms are at work. (3:00)

Taxes -- Commentator Merrill Matthews says discontent about filing taxes is as old as the idea of collecting tax, and that's pretty old. (3:30)

Why Russia's NTV Network Matters -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr takes a look at the purchase of Russia's only independent TV network by a state-owned utility and what it means for freedom of the press. (3:00)

Black Religious Art -- On this Good Friday, Commentator Robert Franklin remarks on the growing role of art in African-American churches. (3:30)

Joint -- Commentator and writer Katie Davis says in her Washington, D.C. neighborhood, the word "joint" has many meanings. It's an all-purpose noun. (2:00)

The Dying Father -- Commentator Elissa Ely -- a psychiatrist at a hospital in Massachusetts -- has an alcoholic patient who's convinced he will be killed when his father dies. After his father does die, the patient lives, though he's lost his will to live. (3:00)

Memory -- Poet and commentator Andrei Codrescu muses on the odd nature of memories, after an e-mail brings a person from Andrei's past into his present. (3:30)

Big Families -- Commentator Marion Winik remarks on the apparent development of a new baby boom. (2:30)

New 911 -- Commentator Edie Clark lives in Harrisville, N.H., which recently switched to the 911 system. Prior to that the townspeople had to dial a seven-digit phone number in emergencies. Clark says she's not sure 911 has solved any problems. (3:00)

Mea Culpa -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr expected the standoff with the Chinese over the downed reconnaissance plane to last longer and looks at where he went wrong. (3:00)

Baseball Hit -- Commentator Kevin Kling has his own, lighter, baseball remembrance, of his childhood days at the plate. (4:15)

Birdsong Mystery -- Commentator Brad Klein tells the story of an ornithological mystery in New York City's Central Park. For the past several years, careful birdwatchers have noticed that they heard the Black-Throated Green Warbler weeks before they saw it. This puzzled them -- until someone noticed that the Warbler's song was alternating with that of the White-Throated Sparrow. (3:35)

China Analysis -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says the hardening of the Chinese position is making President Bush's decision about arms sales to Taiwan more difficult. (2:30)

Lost in a Parking Lot -- Storyteller Bailey White details adventures in trying to find her car as exhaust fumes cloud her senses and conjure up hallucinations of the underworld. (4:15)

Last Week's Sets -- Commentator Reynolds Price thinks back to the phrase "this week's play in front of last weeks sets." It's a phrase he remembers from reading Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. (3:30)

Acting -- Commentator Daniel Ferri , who teaches sixth grade in Chicago, brings us a vignette from some of the first steps out from behind the curtain of childhood onto life's grand stage. (2:00)

Algebra -- One-time college professor Tom Magliozzi , now the co-host of the NPR program Car Talk, thinks there are far better things to teach than algebra and other higher math. (3:00)

Border Love -- Six years ago, commentator Susan McKinney met a young Mexican man in San Miguel del Allende. Before they were married, she moved into his family's house. She questions her identity as a woman in her fiancé's crowded Mexican home. She is an American and she works outside the house, so she isn't allowed to do the chores that define the lives of the other women in the crowded household. (2:30)

Nasdaq Retirement -- Commentator Lenore Skenazy offers a satire about a moneyless high-tech investor who gets offered a sleazy retirement plan full of perils to replace her once sizeable portfolio. (3:00)

History -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr compares two incidents involving American spy planes: the current standoff with China over the damaged EP-3E and the 1960 standoff with Russia over a downed U-2. (3:00)

Sewer -- Commentator Meredith Small came face-to-face with the downside of western industrialization when the connection between her home and her sewer broke. (3:30)

Smothered Child -- Commentator Arti Srivastava believes many mothers in the U.S. try to train their children to be independent too early. (3:30)

Stock Plunge -- Prices plunged on Wall Street again today. Now that the stock market is struggling, Commentator Andrei Codrescu says the long bull market didn't amount to much more than greed. He thinks the pioneering spirit of the Internet was long ago swallowed up by big corporations. (3:30)

Yugoslavia -- NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr hails the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic as one of the rare accomplishments of withholding American aid. (3:00)

Interfaith Children -- Commentator Susan Katz Miller remarks on life as the child of an inter-faith marriage. Her mother is Protestant. Her father is Jewish. (4:00)


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