Arts & Life

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel interviews Mel Brooks on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Arts

Jimmy Kimmel: Making Late Night A Family Affair

12:04pm August 28, 2013

This month, the late-night talk-show host sets up camp in the 11:35 p.m. slot, which puts him head-to-head with Jay Leno and Kimmel's idol, David Letterman. Kimmel has put a personal mark on his show by bringing in his family to help him make it happen.

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Julia Child poses with "the chicken sisters" before an episode of The French Chef in which she teaches us how to roast a bird.

Julia Child Was Wrong: Don't Wash Your Raw Chicken, Folks

9:52am August 28, 2013

by Maria Godoy

The doyenne of TV chefs imparted much wisdom to American cooks, but one piece of Child's advice you should ignore is to wash your raw poultry before cooking. It spreads germs. Everywhere. Yet studies suggest 90 percent of Americans do it, so food safety researchers are launching a campaign to squash the habit.

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Jan Scannell, former accountant, has taken on a new identity as "Jan Braai," a South African TV show host and media personality promoting the idea of National Braai (barbecuing) Day, celebrated each year on Sept. 24.

'Braai Day' Aims To Bring S. Africans Together Over Barbecue

5:30pm August 27, 2013

by Gregory Warner

Jan Scannell is a 32-year-old former accountant with a dream: to establish a national holiday in South Africa like July 4 called Braai Day. Braai is a South African barbecue of meat or vegetables over wood embers.

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Books
Arts

'Bummers, Blisters And Boondoggles': A Jokester Joins The Army

2:59pm August 27, 2013

by NPR Staff

Humorist and late-night radio voice Jean Shepherd spent time in the U.S. Army during World War II. He never made it overseas, but the stories he mined from that experience have now been collected in a new volume, Shep's Army.

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Arts

Jay Leno: 'Tonight' Was About 'Trying To Get Johnny To Laugh'

1:53pm August 27, 2013

In a 1996 interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, Leno recalled his rocky Tonight Show debut: "I got heckled my first show ... but luckily I had worked a lot of clubs so I could deal with it, and Johnny [Carson] seemed to like that."

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Arts

Letterman And 'Tonight' Vet Go Behind The Scenes Of Late Night

10:43am August 27, 2013

Fresh Air kicks off its late night TV theme week with a 1981 David Letterman interview, in which the host describes how late night TV changed the comedy business, and a 1988 interview with one-time Tonight Show executive producer Fred de Cordova.

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Arts

Drowning In Zucchini? 3 Recipes Can Help

3:57pm August 26, 2013

by NPR Staff

Zucchini is the gift that keeps on giving — until it's really not such a great gift anymore. We asked three cooks which recipes they turn to when they're tired of the prodigious vegetables.

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Fantasy sports attract an estimated 36+ million players in the U.S. and Canada.

Quitting Your Job For Fantasy Football

6:04pm August 25, 2013

Drew Dinkmeyer was an investment analyst. Pretty steady job, right? He left that job - in this economic climate - to become a full-time fantasy sports player.

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Books
Arts

'The Blessing Cup': Polacco And Her Family Of Storytellers

11:17am August 25, 2013

by NPR Staff

Patricia Polacco has written and illustrated more than 90 picture books, and she says her early life had a profound effect on her work. In her latest children's book, The Blessing Cup, Polacco takes readers back to her grandparents' time in Russia.

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A group of nurses at a Red Cross Hospital during World War I.

Books
Arts

Sisterly Conflict Against A Great War Backdrop In 'Daughters Of Mars'

11:39am August 24, 2013

by NPR Staff

Thomas Keneally's new novel, The Daughters of Mars, follows two Australian sisters who become nurses during World War I. Naomi and Sally Durance share a guilty secret, but they don't share any sisterly closeness — until the horrors of war begin to bind them together.

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