Arts

Three-Minute Fiction Readings: 'Geometry' And 'Snowflake'

editor — Sat, 25 May 2013 11:08:00 +0000

NPR's Bob Mondello and Susan Stamberg read excerpts of two of the best submissions for Round 11 of our short story contest. They read Snowflake by Winona Wendth of Lancaster, Mass., and Geometry by Eugenie Montague of Los Angeles. You can read their full stories below and find other stories on our Three-Minute Fiction page or on Facebook.

Geometry

Eugenie Montague — Sat, 25 May 2013 11:06:00 +0000

I found your journal in my car. A slim, Moleskin, six by ten centimeters, soft cover, blue, curving upwards at the edges like an incredibly shallow bowl, or a key dish. By the concavity in its form, the book seemed to be suggesting it was capable of carrying something. Something real. Not much. A few pennies. A handful of nails. One heavy pen cradled at that depression in the center, which had dropped out of the flatness of the book from riding around in the back pocket of your jeans.

The journal had slipped from that pocket onto the black leather of my car seat.

Snowflake

Winona Wendth — Sat, 25 May 2013 11:05:00 +0000

She found the photograph early in the day, while she was cleaning for spring, pulling a winter's collection of domestic detritus out from under the bed. Ticket stubs, grimy grocery notes, coffee-stained lined paper, and dead pens. Their life: movies, food, and books.

'Steal The Menu': A Chronicle Of A Career In Food Coverage

editor — Sat, 25 May 2013 09:55:00 +0000

When Raymond Sokolov began writing about food, it was considered a specialty portfolio. Today, celebrity chefs abound in the U.S. and Britain, with cookbooks, TV shows and groupies. Host Scott Simon speaks with Sokolov about his new book, Steal the Menu: A Memoir of Forty Years in Food.

Equity At 100: More Than Just A Broadway Baby

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 25 May 2013 09:55:00 +0000

"Don't put your daughter on the stage," Noel Coward famously cautioned his imaginary Mrs. Worthington, and no wonder: Stage acting is one of the toughest professions imaginable.

Gateway Arch 'Biography' Reveals Complex History Of An American Icon

NPR Staff — Sat, 25 May 2013 09:55:00 +0000

The iconic Gateway Arch — overlooking the Mississippi River from the St. Louis side — took almost a generation to build, but the 630-foot monument hasn't transformed the city as hoped in the four decades that have followed.

Conceived in the 1940s and completed in the 1960s, the history of the signature American symbol is described in Tracy Campbell's new book, The Gateway Arch: A Biography. The story has some surprising twists — including, Campbell says, a very early vision of an arch by the Mississippi:

Geneva Abbott was a high-school student in St.

Prepare For Takeoff With 'Cockpit Confidential'

editor — Sat, 25 May 2013 09:55:00 +0000

With summer travel season just over the horizon, millions of Americans are poised to take off for family vacations. But before they reach their destinations, they'll likely endure security lines, luggage fees, tiny bags of pretzels and unexplained delays.

Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and columnist, has written a new book for curious fliers. It's called Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers and Reflections.

He tells NPR's Scott Simon that he wishes air travel could be awe-inspiring again.

Gnomes Crash Distinguished Garden Show In England

Dana Farrington — Sat, 25 May 2013 09:55:00 +0000

Gnomes marched their way into one of England's most prestigious gardening events this year.

NFL Sideline Reporter Michele Tafoya Plays Not My Job

editor — Sat, 25 May 2013 05:33:00 +0000

Michele Tafoya is the Emmy award-winning reporter for NBC's Sunday Night Football, but she's spent time on basketball courts, softball diamonds, gymnastics mats and now public radio quiz show game grids.

We've invited Tafoya to play a game called "Enter at your own risk!" As one of the first female reporters to be allowed inside the NFL locker room, she has been a pioneer in her field. But there are still places out there where they believe in cooties, so Tafoya will answer three questions about men's-only clubs.

A Race Against Time To Find WWI's Last 'Doughboys'

editor — Fri, 24 May 2013 21:26:00 +0000

Ten years ago, writer Richard Rubin set out to talk to every living American veteran of World War I he could find. It wasn't easy, but he tracked down dozens of centenarian vets, ages 101 to 113, collected their stories and put them in a new book called The Last of the Doughboys.

More Time Together, Though 'Midnight' Looms

Bob Mondello — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:49:00 +0000

Celine and Jesse are sporting a few physical wrinkles — and working through some unsettling relational ones — in Before Midnight, but that just makes this third installment of their once-dewy romance gratifyingly dissonant.

It's been 18 years since they talked through the night that first time, Julie Delpy's Celine enchanting and occasionally prickly, Ethan Hawke's Jesse determined to charm; their chatter then, as now, scripted but loose enough to feel improvised as captured in long, long takes by Richard Linklater's cameras.

Take a peek back at 1995's Before Sunrise, and

This Time, It's A Dull Ache Of A 'Hangover'

editor — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:34:00 +0000

Well, they did say this one was going to be different.

After The Hangover II essentially duplicated the structure of the first movie --three guys piecing together a night of debauchery and mayhem none of them can entirely remember — director Todd Phillips promised that the third would go in a new direction.

Are Women Really Missing From Film Criticism?

Linda Holmes — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:34:00 +0000

A new study from the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film has led to headlines claiming that women are missing from film criticism. "Female Movie Critics' Influence Shrinking, Says Study," reads the headline in the Chicago Tribune.

The Great Charcoal Debate: Briquettes Vs. Lumps?

Eliza Barclay — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:34:00 +0000

A lot of things about grilling can ignite a fight, including the meaning of "barbecue." And with the proliferation of fancy equipment — from gas grills to pellet smokers to ceramic charcoal cookers — amateur cooks are growing more knowledgeable, and opinionated, about how to best cook food outdoors.

To a newbie, the world of charcoal can be overwhelming, especially since the charcoal aisle of big box and hardware stores seems to be getting more crowded, with alluring chips and lumps of apple, cherry and even coconut

Can Eyewitnesses Create Memories?

editor — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:58:00 +0000

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode Memory Games.

About Scott Fraser's TEDTalk

Forensic psychologist Scott Fraser studies how we remember crimes. He describes a deadly shooting and explains how eyewitnesses can create memories that they haven't seen. Why?