Search results for

The winner of the latest round of our three-minute fiction contest will be announced Sunday. Listeners sent in nearly 4,000 short stories this round. Each story had to include these four words: plant, button, trick and fly.

Listeners have one day left to get in their stories for the current round of our "Three-Minute Fiction" contest. The four words that have to appear in each piece are plant, button, trick and fly.

Lee Hill, of NPR's Tell Me More, offers a slide show of images by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Ted Jackson depicting very different disasters along the Gulf Coast.

Sketch comedy is always risky, but never as much as when you stretch a gag out 80-some minutes longer than it was ever meant to go.

At the SXSW Film Festival, we profile the new film Lovers of Hate, hear how distribution will change in five years and attend Jeffrey Tambor's acting seminar.

Imagine spending a whole week sculpting a work of art. Then, just hours after it's finished, someone at a party whacks it to shreds with a stick. Such is the life of Roberto Gilberto Osorio, a San Francisco-based artist who makes his living making pinatas.

Guest host Allison Keyes celebrates the birthday of civil rights icon Dorothy Height, who turned 98 this week. She spent nearly 40 years with the National Council of Negro Women and also served as president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a national African-American service sorority.

A 2007 scandal involving NFL star Michael Vick exposed the world of illegal dogfighting. Now out of prison, Vick has pledged to help end the practice; Dave Davies talks about the campaign with John Goodwin, Humane Society manager of animal fighting issues, and former dogfighter Sean Moore.

Best-selling author Dan Brown's latest novel, The Lost Symbol, draws on the lore and mystique of the Freemasons. Once the object of fear and suspicion, the group is now a social organization with spiritual leanings.

Former Republican Majority Leader Tom Delay is the first politician to compete on Dancing With The Stars. In Monday night's season premier, Delay and his partner Cheryl Burke scored a 16 out of a possible 30 from the judges, and then viewers got a chance to vote.

A painting by the late pop artist Andy Warhol of 200 $1 bills, recently sold for $44 million. That's one of the highest prices ever paid for one of his paintings. Art writer Sarah Thornton has been exploring why works by Warhol maintain such high prices — his continued fame is one reason. She talks to Steve Inskeep about her article in The Economist.

Through a striking art installation, actress Emma Thompson chronicles a naive 18-year-old from a small Eastern Europe republic who was caught up in London's sex trade. Her name is Elena, and her story makes its debut in New York on Nov. 10.

Pearl Fryar's yard in Bishopville, S.C., has made him something of an art-world star. He's trimmed 400 plants and trees into fantastical shapes — diamonds, mushrooms, hearts and even a square. At 69, Fryar mulls his legacy and is looking to pass on his clippers.

The New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year can trace its origins back to the 17th century. The word: "unfriend." Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer at Oxford University Press, says the Oxford English Dictionary provides a citation for "unfriend" from 1659.

With a bombardment of sexually-charged messages in pop culture, some parents find it difficult — and even awkward — having a discussion youngsters about sex, even with the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In this week's parenting roundtable, regular contributing moms Dani Tucker and Jolene Ivey — both of whom have teenaged children — discuss the challenges of such conversations and share their approach.

If you are a style-conscious person on a coupon-cutting budget, you can get affordable advice online about how to decorate your home. One Los Angeles-based company charges $550 for e-decoration; another in Chicago charges $250.

Halloween is just around the corner. And while some look forward to the trick or treating and costume parties, others approach the day with the expectation of being offended by someone wearing a culturally insensitive costume. Guest host Jennifer Ludden speaks with Carmen Van Kerckhove, who blogs about race, parenting and pop culture. Kerckhove explains why good intentions don't always translate into good perceptions.

The 1999 play The Laramie Project explores the true story surrounding the death of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who was beaten and left to die in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998. The case, which became a landmark symbol for hate crimes, still elicits varied reactions — which is why on Oct. 12, hundreds of other theaters around the world will perform The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, an Epilogue.

Traveling westward along California's Route 66, the Santa Monica Pier rises just as the highway ends and the Pacific coast begins, its marquee Ferris wheel hovering majestically over the ocean. In celebration of the pier's centennial, Renee Montagne walks the wooden planks and speaks to some of the locals.

In Iraqi filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi's new documentary, 12 Iraqi women gather in Syria with a goal: They intend to learn photography, decide what stories to tell, then return to Iraq and tell those stories.

Many little trick or treaters are preparing for Halloween, and some parents are teaching their kids how to help the planet in the process. Regular parenting contributor Jolene Ivey is joined by Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson, co-authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, to discuss how to go "green" this Halloween.

A new fall television season is underway, and viewers may or may not have high hopes for what's expected to be a clash between scripted programs and reality TV. Eric Deggans, media columnist for the St. Petersburg Times, offers a sneak peek into the season's offerings and shares his predictions on whether television writers or reality show producers will come out on top in network ratings.

Sally Singer, the fashion news and features editor of Vogue, says that she's seeing more "humble fabrics" on the runway this year, including linen, T-shirt jersey and, yes, even cheesecloth.

After baring her soul on dance stages, movie screens and gallery walls all over New York, the Oscar-winning actress can officially say that — artistically speaking — she's pretty much done it all.

Fernando Perez, the 26-year-old outfielder for the Tampa Bay Rays, has written an essay in the September issue of Poetry Magazine about the firm place poetry holds in his life. Perez says poetry and baseball occupy different realms of his life.