Weekend Edition from NPR

How Possessive: The Apostrophe's Place In Space

editor — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:41:00 +0000

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm sure if I asked him, Will Shortz would probably acknowledge that the same people who really love words and word play also have a special affinity for punctuation. I would put myself in this camp. I have a lot of respect for a well-placed semicolon. But it's really the ellipsis that captures my punctuation imagination. To be honest, I've never much cared for the apostrophe. Maybe it's just too utilitarian.

Well, turns out I'm not the only one.

Detective On Closing Case After Committing Decades To It

editor — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:41:00 +0000

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

Earlier this month, three women held captive for nearly a decade came home. Amanda Barry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were rescued from a Cleveland basement where they had been held captive since early 2002. The case has generated worldwide attention, some of it fell on the Cleveland Police Department. Officers there had searched in vain over the years for the missing women.

How The Syria Debate Is Playing Out In The Middle East

editor — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:41:00 +0000

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

That concern is reflected in the Arab media. Ramez Maluf, head of the Department of Journalism at Balamand University in Lebanon, has been tracking that reaction. He joined us from our bureau in Beirut. And I asked him how invested people in the region are in the conflict in Syria.

RAMEZ MALUF: It's beginning to affect our lives. I mean, if you will keep in mind that in Lebanon the number of Syrian refugees is something like a million. It's a little bit more in Jordan, in Iraq as well.

Political Takeaways: Headaches For The White House

Mara Liasson — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:41:00 +0000

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. President Obama will give a speech this week outlining his plans to make his counterterrorism policies more transparent. The address comes after a week that the Obama White House spent on the defensive trying to contain political fallout from multiple controversies. The IRS has been targeting conservative and Tea Party groups that applied for tax-exempt status, and the Associated Press revealed that the Justice Department had secretly obtained the phone records of its journalists.

Put On Your Thinking Hat

Will Shortz — Sun, 19 May 2013 08:28:00 +0000

On-air challenge: Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first word starts with H-A and the second word starts with T.

Last week's challenge: From listener Al Gori of Cozy Lake, N.J. Name a famous American man — first and last names. Change the first letter of his first name from T to H. The result will sound like a term for an attractive person.

First Female Fighter Pilot: 'Attention Wasn't What I Wanted'

editor — Sun, 12 May 2013 09:34:00 +0000

Transcript

COLONEL JEANNIE LEAVITT: I was fascinated with flying. I loved everything about flying from the time I was a child. The more I learned about the more I just loved aviation and flying, and that's what made me want to be a pilot.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

But not just any pilot. This is Colonel Jeannie Leavitt, and pretty much from the time she learned how to fly, she wanted to be a combat fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Problem was women couldn't do that until the early 1990s. That's when the Pentagon changed its policy.

Rhino Horns Fuel Deadly, Intercontinental Trade

Gregory Warner — Sun, 12 May 2013 09:34:00 +0000

NPR's Frank Langfitt and Gregory Warner have teamed up for a series about how myth and money are driving extraordinary slaughter of rhinos. They talk with host Rachel Martin about the issue, which has repercussions from the African continent all the way to Asia.

Back From Brink Of Death, Corpsman Tackles 'Warrior Games'

editor — Sun, 12 May 2013 09:34:00 +0000

Three years ago, Navy corpsman Angelo Anderson was shot in his arm and leg in Afghanistan and he thought he was going to die. Sunday, he's competing at the fourth-annual Warrior Games in Colorado, along with more than 200 wounded service members. Eric Whitney of Colorado Public radio has this profile of Anderson, who credits the paralympic-style competition with restoring him physically and mentally.

Jumping Hurdles, Making The Grade For A Foreign Worker Visa

editor — Sun, 05 May 2013 09:24:00 +0000

Planet Money's Zoe Chace reports that the immigration overhaul bill proposes doubling the number of skilled-worker visas available to companies that want to hire foreign workers. But the application process is a challenge in itself. (This piece initially aired May 2, 2013, on Morning Edition.)

How Different Cultures Handle Personal Space

Leila Fadel and NPR Staff — Sun, 05 May 2013 09:24:00 +0000

Our perspectives on personal space — the distance we keep between the person in front of us at an ATM, the way we subdivide the area of an elevator — are often heavily influenced by the norms of the places we inhabit.

Jerry Seinfeld once focused an episode of his sitcom on the concept of personal space, giving us a new term: the "close talker."

Of course, invasions of personal space aren't always merely awkward.