Singer-songwriter Jill Sobule is probably best known for her 1995 hit single, "I Kissed a Girl." These days, she's taking on a new musical project: the gender-bending play by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Yentl.
Barbra Streisand turned Singer's play into her 1984 hit movie musical of the same name. Although Sobule's version features music, it's a little more Singer and a little less Streisand.
"She changed the ending and made it kind of Funny Girl coming to America. ... We keep to the word," Sobule tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.
These 1984 file photos originally released by the FBI show New England organized crime figure James "Whitey" Bulger.
Credit Courtesy of the Boston Globe/George Rizer/Landov
The body of informant John McIntyre being recovered in 2000. Whitey Bulger is alleged to have killed McIntyre in 1984 after being tipped off that McIntyre was informing on him.
Credit Forge Books
Robert Fitzpatrick, pictured at the McIntyre crime scene, spent more than 20 years as an FBI agent.
When Whitey Bulger was captured last year, he'd spent close to 20 years on the run — and on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
Bulger was the head of an Irish gang terrorizing the streets of South Boston. The Massachusetts State Police wanted him gone, but curiously couldn't touch him.
Why? Bulger was a confidential FBI informant, and the bureau shielded him for years.
Robert Fitzpatrick, the author of Betrayal: Whitey Bulger and the FBI Agent Who Fought to Bring Him Down, says Bulger was widely known to be an unsavory character.
Richard Holbrooke and Katharine Pierce as students in 1961 at Brown University.
Credit Herman Hiller, World Telegram staff photographer / [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
Malcolm X, shown here in 1964, spoke at Brown University in 1961 to defend his views. That speech was recently unearthed in the university archives.
Credit Brown University Archives
The front page of the Brown Daily Herald on May 12, 1961, the day after Malcolm X spoke at the university. This was the clipping that Malcolm Burnley found last year in the library archives at the university.
Last semester, Brown senior Malcolm Burnley took a narrative writing course. One of the assignments was to write a fictional story based on something true — and that true event had to be found inside the university archives.
"So I went to the archives and started flipping through dusty compilations of student newspapers, and there was this old black-and-white photo of when Malcolm X came to speak," Burnley says. "There was one short article that corresponded to it, and very little else."
Boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard remembers the trainer who stood in his corner through some of his greatest fights ever. Along with Leonard, Angelo Dundee trained a long list of boxing champions including George Foreman and the great boxing legend Muhammad Ali. The renowned trainer and cornerman died this week at age 90 at his home in Tampa, Fla.
The U.N. Security Council failed again Saturday to take decisive action to stop the escalating violence in Syria as Russia and China vetoed a resolution backing an Arab League plan that calls for President Bashar Assad to step down. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports the veto drew intense criticism from the U.S.
NPR's Kelly McEvers has been following events in Syria from neighboring Lebanon, and she joins me now from Beirut. Kelly, as we just heard, the UN Security Council has failed to agree on a resolution condemning Bashar Assad. Any reaction from Syria?
Nevada holds its Republican caucuses today it is the first Western state to weigh in on the nominating contest. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports that Mitt Romney is widely favored to win and has the latest from Nevada.
NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Moscow where tens of thousands of demonstrators braved bitter cold to rally for and against Vladimir Putin today. With just one month before a presidential election, the opposition is making a big push for a fair vote, and the government is responding with counter-demonstrations.
Just three days after announcing it would no longer fund cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood, the pink-ribboned breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure abruptly reversed course today. But the Komen foundation's actions still leave many questions unanswered — not to mention a public relations challenge.
Ron Silver, the owner of Bubby's restaurant in Brooklyn, recently put a word on his menu you don't often see anymore: lard. The white, creamy, processed fat from a pig. And he didn't use the word just once.
For a one-night-only "Lard Exoneration Dinner", Silver served up lard fried potatoes. And root vegetables, baked in lard. Fried chicken, fried in lard. Roasted fennel glazed with lard sugar and sea salt. Pies, with lard inside and out. All from lard he made himself in the kitchen.
