Search results for

Five years ago, violinist Robert McDuffie found his true love: a 1735 Guarneri del Gesy violin known as The Ladenburg, whose list of players included 19th-century virtuoso Nicolr Paganini. McDuffie says it was the violin he always longed to play. The only problem - how to pay for it. McDuffie tells Liane how he set up a limited partnership to meet the steep pricetag. (9:00) (NOTE: We hear music from McDuffie's latest recording, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Miklos Rozsa, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Yoel Levi. Telarc CD-80518).

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. (This week's winner is Harriet Solomon from Springfield, Virginia. She listens to Weekend Edition on member station WETA in Washington, DC.)

Host Lisa Simeone talks with NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris about the latest discoveries in gene research, announced this week by two competing scientific teams. Scientists have discovered that human beings have fewer genes than first thought -- only about twice as many as worms.

NPR's Jon Hamilton reports from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where this past week there was concern that the deadly ebola virus may have entered the country. An African woman who arrived there developed symptoms that could have been caused by the virus. Tests ruled out ebola, but the woman remains very ill.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Things We Lost in the Fire (on the independent label Kranky) by the rock band Low.

While US and British planes were bombing targets in Iraq, President Bush was in Mexico for his first foreign visit. Melinda speaks with NPR's Don Gonyea, who is with the President.

NPR's Emily Harris reports on the staffing crisis looming over the federal bureaucracy because of the push in recent years to downsize.

Linda Wertheimer interviews the authors of two new thrillers: Michael Connelly, about A Darkness More Than Night, and Evan Hunter, about his collaboration with Ed McBain to write Candyland: A Novel in Two Parts. Connelly's book takes main characters from other novels -- an LAPD detective and a retired FBI investigator -- and pits them against one another. Hunter, an acclaimed author who wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, wrote the first half of Candyland, then looked to his alter-ego for the second half, when it becomes more of a murder mystery. (7:45) A Darkness More Than Night, by Michael Connelly, is published by Little, Brown, ISBN # 0-316-15407-5. Candyland, by Evan Hunter and Ed McBain is published by Simon and Schuster, ISBN # 0-7432-1316-5.

From the Library of Congress, Recording Sound Specialist, Samuel Brylawski and Acquisition Specialist Cooper Graham. The two compiled a collection of presidential speeches dating back 85 years Historic Presidential Speeches (1908-1993) (on Rhino/World Beat label). It begins with William Howard Taft, recorded during the presidential campaign of 1908. (REBROADCAST from 11

Former press secretary for Reagan and Bush, Marlin Fitzwater. He spent 17 years as a government flak before being appointed to his position in the Reagan White House. He wrote about his experiences in the memoir, Call the Briefing! He has a new novel coming out this spring called Esthers Pillow. (REBROADCAST from 10