I love NPR

Usually I listen to an audiobook in the car - I do up to an hour driving on the days I have to commute so I can knock out quite a few books that are difficult reads this way. Today I didn't have anything that I particularly wanted to listen to so I turned on NPR. Love NPR.

This morning they interviewed John Banville, a Booker-prize winning literary author who recently published The Silver Swan, a truly excellent crime noir novel, under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. Fascinating to hear the author's voice reading his work.

Then this evening, they gave an update on the Amazon.com writing contest I was a semi-finalist in. I was weeded out months ago, and today it was announced that Fresh Kills came out as winner. I just pre-purchased - I know it'll be excellent - the competition was stiff after all ;)

Finally - another airing of a story that makes me cringe every time. Today it was announced that Gene Weingarten won a Pulitzer Prize for Pearls before Breakfast, his feature in the Washington Post describing what happened when he convinced world-class violinist Joshua Bell to play beautiful music in a Metrorail station to gauge commuters' reaction. From all I've read on the experiment since both Bell and Weingarten were somewhat surprised by the lack of recognition of the pearls by us swine. Yes, I was one of the 1,070 people who scurried past. In fact - you can see me on the accompanying video of the whole experiment: I was wearing the same jacket I had on today. I remember the day in question: I noticed the violinist because he wasn't standing where the buskers usually stand...and that's about all I noticed. I usually walk up the escalators and always have my ipod on. What can I say?
Oink...