Linton Weeks

Sometimes it feels like all the fancy meteorological machinery and prognostication equipment is actually working. And that the weather folks may finally be able to predict — albeit with constant updates and countless hedge words — what the weather is going to be.

At least for the next day or ...

At weddings, guests tweet real-time photos of the festivities to friends far away. At sporting events, fans follow scores of games in other cities. In classrooms, students text with friends in other classes and parents out in the world. At funerals, mourners send out selfies to ...

If you don't know the meaning of a word, says Mary Caton Lingold, you can look it up in the dictionary, but if you don't know what a particular sound sounds like, where do you go? (Besides NPR, of course.)

For instance: What does tobacco harvesting sound like? Or ...

About college courses, actor Tom Hanks recently told The Star-Ledger: "I had thought, oh, college, you have to take chemistry and stuff and sit there slogging through work in the library. And then it was like, wait, you can go to college and study theater? And act in ...

When you leave the office to take a walk in this wicked wintry weather, it's 24 degrees Fahrenheit outside. You feel cold. As you stroll through the streets of Washington, you realize the temperature around you is dropping. To 22°F. To 20°F.

You are getting colder and you begin to ...

Through one lens, the National Football League — on the threshold of Super Bowl XLVIII — looks to be at the top of its game. Revenues are ridiculously high: more than $9 billion a year, CNN reports. Television ratings are roof-piercing: 34 of the 35 most-watched ...

Icy vortices, trains of snowstorms, treacherous temperatures — many people are having to learn some harsh lessons about harsh weather.

"When the weather is bitter cold," says Dr. Campbell McLaren, "we have to be vigilant — not just to protect ourselves, but those around us."

And we have to watch ...

Awards season is upon us. And on top of us. And all over us with red carpets, acceptance speeches and actor antics.

America is smack in the middle of its annual three-month making-much-of-movies mania. The 2014 Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild ...

The votes are in, and President Obama — with 40 million followers on Twitter --is the Leader of the Tweet World, according to the Digital Policy Council's recent report on the use of social media by presidents, potentates and other pooh-bahs.

The Top 5 World Leaders With The ...

Fifty years ago this month, the landmark U.S. Surgeon General's report linking cigarette smoking and lung cancer was released.

Over the past half-century, America has become more and more inhospitable to people who smoke — and to tobacco companies. In a recent statement, the Department of ...

Music. It's been there with us from the beginning — sometimes in the background, sometimes centerstage. We listen. We sing. We play along. We compose. We remember.

We are a species deep into music. And the music is deep into us — especially those of us at NPR, where

Look. Up in the sky — and in that little package with the A-to-Z logo. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's the man who recently convinced Ecuador's navy to rescue him from a kidney stone attack in the Galapagos Islands.

It's Jeff Bezos, superfounder ...

Maybe it all started with ugly Christmas sweaters. Or with cheesy inflatable Santas. Or hideously inappropriate tree ornaments. But Christmastime – at least its visible trappings and accoutrements – seems to be getting tackier.

This is not about the Spirit of Christmas. Or its True Meaning. ...

Created by a British-American wordsmith, the very first Word-Cross appeared in the New York World on Dec. 21, 1913. And the crossword puzzle — as we know it — was born.

To observe the centennial anniversary, NPR serves up the original grid of FUN's ...

"America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room," observed British historian Arnold J. Toynbee. "Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair."

And Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca said, "The only things that the United States has given to the ...

You are an American living in another country. Are you a tourist? An expatriate? An immigrant?

When does a visitor morph into something more? When does your home-away-from-home become your home?

The United Nations reports that more people than ever are living in countries other than their own. In ...

Blocks grow with you — from basic alphabet blocks and geometric building blocks, to Tinker Toys and Legos and girder and panel sets, to bricks and split-face cinder blocks.

As pointed out in a recent post, blocks come in all sizes — for all ...

Resolved: That blocks are the best toys ever.

Every year around holiday time, lists of gift possibilities for children pop up here and there. Recently Barnes & Noble published its Best Toys of the Season roundup, and the Goddard School system unveiled its Top 10 Preschooler-Approved ...

Just in the past few days:

• In Baton Rouge, La., joggers concerned about a recent attack on a runner are carrying pepper spray.
• In Missoula, Mont., a woman files a complaint against a man for pepper-spraying her golden retriever.
• In Denver, Colo., inmates say law ...

When American expatriate Charles Trueheart was young, he lived all over the world — in Ankara, London, Saigon and Paris. His father was an American diplomat.

When Charlie was older, he moved back to the U.S. He went to college at Amherst. Eventually, he and his wife, Anne Swardson, became ...