Arts

Author Joan Morgan says Beurré Superfin is one of her favorite pears. It's "truly delicious: very buttery, juicy, cream to pale yellow flesh, intensely rich with plenty of sugar lemony acidity," she writes in The Book of Pears.

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Arts

'The Book Of Pears': A Love Letter To A Once Pre-Eminent Fruit

4:58pm December 15, 2015

by Eliza Barclay

A British fruit historian convincingly argues in a new book that the pear is "the most exciting of the tree fruits." And she says it's time to revive pear culture and explore the fruit's diversity.

Glamour's Sophia Chabbott poses in the outfit she wore to her Orthodox Jewish divorce ceremony.

Arts

Looking For A Podcast? Try 'What I Wore When ...'

4:15pm December 15, 2015

Podcaster Wailin Wong recommends the podcast's "I Got Divorced" episode, in which a Glamour editor describes what she wore to her Orthodox Jewish divorce ceremony.

Kenya Barris, the creator and writer of Black-ish, in his office on the ABC lot in Burbank, Calif., in December. Black-ish is now in its second season, airing on ABC.

Arts

Kenya Barris Creates An 'Absolutely Black' Family for Prime Time

3:48pm December 15, 2015

by Karen Grigsby Bates

"We're kind of taught to give your kids more than you had. But in giving them more, what do they lose?" asks the creator of Black-ish.

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"I decided that it would be a really interesting to create a character who was Dream," author Neil Gaiman says of his character Sandman.

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Neil Gaiman On Returning To 'Sandman,' Talking In His Sleep And The Power Of Comics

3:09pm December 15, 2015

Twenty-five years after he initially created Sandman, Gaiman returns to one of his most enduring characters. Gaiman says writing The Sandman: Overture was "the most intense period of my life."

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Arts

Kenya Barris Creates An 'Absolutely Black' Family for Prime Time

1:47pm December 15, 2015

by Karen Grigsby Bates

"We're taught to give your kids more than you had. But in giving them more, what do they lose?" Kenya Barris, creator, Black-ish

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Books
Arts

Rebel Brew: What The Boston Tea Party And The Mad Hatter Had In Common

1:34pm December 15, 2015

by Nina Martyris

This week marks the 242nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. This year is the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland. If you'll follow us down the rabbit hole, you'll find some surprising links.

Patrick Wilson as Lou Solverson in FX's Fargo.

Arts

Decency And Discipline And The Good People Of 'Fargo'

11:27pm December 14, 2015

by Linda Holmes

The second season of FX's Fargo wrapped up Monday night, and as always, the show had thoughts on goodness.

This Aztec map was drawn in 1539 and shows the estate of Oztoticpac, in Texcoco.

Books
Arts

'Map' Is An Exquisite Record Of The Miles — And The Millennia

9:10pm December 14, 2015

by Ari Shapiro

Map: Exploring the World is a new collection of maps, selected by an international panel of cartographers, academics and collectors, spanning everything from the Aztecs to modern digital imaging.

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According to Aja Raden, a Hungarian countess commissioned the first wristwatch from watchmaker Patek Philippe around 1868. "[It] was a spectacularly expensive piece of jewelry," the author says.

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Arts

From Trading Beads To The First Wristwatch, A History Of Shiny Objects

6:46pm December 14, 2015

by NPR Staff

Author Aja Raden says jewelry is the perfect lens through which to view human history. In Stoned, she tells the story of the glass beads used to purchase Manhattan and the rise of the wristwatch.

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Abraham Attah plays a child soldier and Idris Elba is his commander in Cary Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation.

Arts

When Children Go To War: A Heartbreaking Portrait In 'Beasts Of No Nation'

6:19pm December 14, 2015

The film tells the story of a child soldier in an unnamed West African country. Director Cary Fukunaga says that he tried to protect the young actors from some of the movie's most violent scenes.

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