Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of his most famous paintings, but very little is actually known about it. The girl herself is a mystery who has inspired both a novel and a movie speculating on her true story.
After stints as a lawyer, furniture salesman and stand-up comic, Eddie Huang found success as the owner of Baohaus, a Taiwanese bun shop on the Lower East Side.
Credit Richard Drew / AP
Eddie Huang, co-owner of Baohaus and author of Fresh Off The Boat, holds a pair of "The Taiwanese Te-Bao," a Taiwanese pork chop with curry seasoning, pickles daikon-carrot, jalapeno, aioli and cilantro in a steamed bun.
Eddie Huang has done many things in a short period of time.
He's been a lawyer, stand-up comic, and now he's the owner of New York's Baohous restaurant and the host of his own food show on Vice TV.
The most remarkable parts of Huang's life, however, took place before all that, back when he was growing up with his Taiwanese immigrant parents and navigating the ins and outs of American culture.
It's all chronicled in his new memoir Fresh Off The Boat.
Afghanistan's youth orchestra performs in Kabul on Jan. 31. The orchestra is coming to the U.S. and will appear at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
Credit Musadeq Sadeq / AP
The Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul trains both boys and girls. Here, students practice in January.
In Afghanistan, there was no sound of music when the Taliban ruled from 1996 to 2001. The Islamist militants destroyed music CDs and instruments and even jailed musicians.
Today, there are music schools and young Afghans playing in public. And, this weekend, 48 Afghan boys and girls are traveling to the U.S. to perform at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
On-air challenge: In recognition of the Super Bowl, the key word is "yards." You will be given some categories. For each one, name something in the category beginning with each of the letters Y, A, R, D and S. For example, if the category were "Girls' Names," you might say Yvonne, Alice, Rachel, Donna and Sally.
In 2008, reports of polar bears' inevitable march toward extinction gripped headlines. Stories of thinning Arctic ice and even polar bear cannibalism combined to make these predators into a powerful symbol in the debate about climate change.
The headlines caught Zac Unger's attention, and he decided to write a book about the bears.
A boy hitches a ride on a suitcase as he waits to board a train at Beijing West Railway Station during Chunyun travel peak on Feb. 8, 2007.
Credit China Photos / Getty Images
A boy hitches a ride on a suitcase as he waits to board a train at Beijing West Railway Station during the peak of travel for the Chunyun Spring Festival, in February 2007.
Credit A. J. O'Brien / Fox Photos/Getty Images
Two holidaymakers amuse themselves with a porter's trolley as they wait for their train at Euston Station in London in August 1939.
Credit STR / AFP/Getty Images
Chinese passengers line up to buy train tickets as the summer holiday starts in Hefei, in eastern China's Anhui province, in June 2012. China's railways transported some 453 million passengers during the first quarter of 2012.
Credit Gregorio Borgia / AP
Passengers wait for their train in Rome's Termini Station, in April 2011, during a transport strike that idled trains, buses and subways across Italy.
Credit Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP/Getty Images
Indian passengers wait on the platform of Sealdah train station for the resumption of services during a power failure in Kolkata in July 2012.
Credit Hulton Archive / Getty Images
A woman stands on a station platform, watching for her train.
Credit Fox Photos / Getty Images
A sailor reads with his child as he waits for a holiday train at Waterloo station in London in 1927.
Credit Andy Wong / AP
A man and his child check out photos they took while waiting to board trains at the south train station in Beijing, in February 2010.
Credit Keystone / Getty Images
Three French children wait on a railway platform with their toys and luggage in September 1962.
Credit Erich Auerbach / Getty Images
Nuns wait together on a platform at Euston station in London.
Credit Topical Press Agency / Getty Images
A party of holidaymakers waits for a train at Waterloo station in London, in July 1913.
Credit Mike Fiala / AFP/Getty Images
A Chinese boy wearing a People's Liberation Army uniform sits on his family's belongings while waiting for a train at the crowded Beijing railway station in December 1992.
Credit Fox Photos / Getty Images
Jose, Oscar and Eduardo Aguilar, sons of a Venezuelan official, leave Waterloo station in London for home, wearing Eton suits and toppers in May 1936.
Credit Manish Swarup / AP
An Indian girl sits on her family's luggage as she waits for a train at a railway station in New Delhi, India, in January 2013.
Credit Ed Jones / AFP/Getty Images
Lunar New Year travelers wait for their train at the West Railway Station in Beijing on Jan. 31, 2013. Tens of millions of people across China board trains to journey home for Lunar New Year celebrations in the world's largest annual migration.
Credit Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/Getty Images
Two young women wait for the train at a subway station in Mexico City during the worldwide "No Pants Subway Ride" on Jan. 13, 2013.
Credit William Thomas Cain / Getty Images
Andrew Michael, who had been waiting for hours, takes a nap as he waits for a train at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia in May 2006. Thousands of Amtrak passengers were stranded from Washington, D.C., to New York during a power outage along the Eastern corridor.
Originally published on Mon February 4, 2013 5:30 pm
Grand Central Terminal, one of world's most iconic commuter destinations (or departure points, depending on which way you're going), celebrated a big birthday this week. Friday marked the 100th anniversary of the opening of the largest railroad terminal in the world.
Manil Suri's new novel, The City of Devi, opens with India and Pakistan on the verge of nuclear war. India is roiled by factional violence between Hindus and Muslims. Bombers strafe citizens, vigilantes settle scores, and terrorists set off dirty bombs around the country as Mumbai boils over with fear and fury. And if that's not enough, it's also a sex comedy.
Author Mona Simpson is the judge for Round 10 of Three-Minute Fiction. She has written five works of fiction (among other short stories and essays): Anywhere but Here, The Lost Father, A Regular Guy, Off Keck Road and My Hollywood.
It's Round 10 of Three-Minute Fiction, the short story contest from weekends on All Things Considered. Here's the premise: Write a piece of original fiction that can be read in about three minutes (no more than 600 words).
Our judge for this round is author Mona Simpson, whose most recent book is My Hollywood. She most recently won a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other prizes. Here's her twist for Round 10:
Write a story in the form of a voice-mail message.
In 1992, Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman to fly in space when she served as a science mission specialist. We've invited Jemison to play a game called "Excuse me? When do we get to the Southwest terminal?" Jemison has flown in the space shuttle Endeavour, so we thought we'd ask her questions about a sometimes more unpredictable vehicle ... the airport shuttle.
