[melissablock]

"In the Delta, most of the world seemed sky... The land was perfectly flat and level but it shimmered like the wing of a lighted dragonfly. It seemed strummed, as though it were an instrument and something had touched it." --Eudora Welty, Delta Wedding The next best thing to experiencing Mississippi first-hand, as we're doing now, is absorbing it through the state's legendary writers. I'm having a great time working my way through this stack for this week's trip. --Melissa

[melissablock]

Taking a cue from Elissa’s postcard post: I picked this card up when we stopped in Harry Truman’s hometown, Independence, Missouri. That’s him at the piano in 1945. And that’s a dishy young Lauren Bacall sitting on top.

Truman had recently been sworn in as Vice President, and was entertaining servicemen at the Washington Press Club’s canteen. According to David McCullough’s biography of Truman, Bacall was “boosted on top of the piano to strike a leggy pose as the delighted crowd cheered and flashbulbs popped. ‘I was just a kid,’ she would remember. ‘My press agent made me do it.’ The photographs of the Vice President serenading the glamorous Hollywood star were an instant sensation.”

Maybe so, but not so much for Truman’s wife, Bess. The caption on the back of my postcard reads, “Upon viewing the photo an irritated Bess Truman told her husband that maybe it was time for him to quit playing the piano.”

Listen for our story on Truman’s enduring legacy in Independence, Mo., Monday, Feb. 6th, on Morning Edition.

[nprontheroad]

No self-respecting ATC host can come home from the heartland without some train sound. Check!

[melissablock]

Hosts, they’re just like us! They scrape ice off their rental cars outside the Holiday Inn! --Alison


[melissablock]

Hosts, they’re just like us! They scrape ice off their rental cars outside the Holiday Inn! Good morning from York, Nebraska, where it’s 19 degrees. We were up and out early to head to the York County Commission meeting.

[melissablock]

Maybe you know the feeling. Call it an apple awakening: the moment when you realize there are infinitely more delights to be found in the universe of apples than Red Delicious (meh), McIntosh (booooring and prone to mushiness), or Granny Smith (holding up well for her age, but a one-note standby.)

My first apple awakening came early on, growing up in apple country in upstate New York, when my family switched from McIntosh loyalists to devotees of the Macoun (crisper, more full of flavor) and never looked back.

But my true initiation came in my 20s, when I went apple-picking at an heirloom orchard in the Virginia countryside.  Revelation! Apples of every shape and size and color, from rosy peach to deepest purple, with fabulous names:  Black Twig. Newtown Pippin.  Esopus Spitzenberg (a favorite of Thomas Jefferson).  Each with history, and a taste to make you rethink the essence of appleness. 

So imagine my delight when the book “Apples of Uncommon Character” landed in my mailbox, a glorious compendium of “123 heirlooms, modern classics, and little-known wonders.”  Author and self-described apple geek Rowan Jacobsen does for apples what he did earlier for oysters: he captures in vivid language what makes the flavor of each type unique (with extraordinary photographs by Clare Barboza you want to bite into.)

One apple makes Jacobsen “think of the aurora borealis, of green ribbons of cold fire swaying against the blackness.”  Another is “tart and snappy, with an acid tongue and a rustic coarseness. Picture a ruddy barmaid in some nineteenth-century Holland tavern.”

Say no more. It’s clearly time for an All Things Considered apple foray.  I’m off, with producer Viet Le, to Scott Farm in Dummerston, Vermont. We’ll meet up with Rowan Jacobsen and the orchard manager, Ezekiel Goodband, and talk heirloom apples.  Word from Zeke is that Ananas Reinette, Claygate Pearmain, Chenango Strawberry, and Opalescent are among the dozens of varieties that may be ready for picking (and tasting.)  We’ll bring you the story next week on ATC, and will post photos from our visit here along the way.  

[melissablock]

I filed my Ft. Hood story to ATC today from a Killeen horse barn. Senior producer Matt Martinez was enlisted to hold a barn jacket to make the space a little less echoey.

[melissablock]

When Julian Castro was first elected as mayor of San Antonio, the first thing he put up in his office at City Hall was this tattered campaign poster from 1971.  That’s his mother, Rosie Castro, who ran for city council at age 23 on this progressive Chicano slate.  She lost, but passed on her passion for political activism to her identical twin sons - Julian and his brother Joaquin, who’s a US Congressman representing San Antonio. 

Today on ATC, I’ll talk with Mayor Castro about the surging Hispanic electorate in Texas, and what it would take to turn the Lone Star State from a deeply red state to a blue one.

[melissablock]

When Julian Castro was first elected as mayor of San Antonio, the first thing he put up in his office at City Hall was this tattered campaign poster from 1971.  That's his mother, Rosie Castro, who ran for city council at age 23 on this progressive Chicano slate.  She lost, but passed on her passion for political activism to her identical twin sons - Julian and his brother Joaquin, who's a US Congressman representing San Antonio. 

Today on ATC, I'll talk with Mayor Castro about the surging Hispanic electorate in Texas, and what it would take to turn the Lone Star State from a deeply red state to a blue one.

[melissablock]

The Dallas skyline explodes in color - mostly purple - after dark.

[melissablock]

My view through the glass during the live broadcast of ATC from KERA. Crafty producer and director Greg Dixon has turned every iDevice he can lay his hands on into a countdown clock for me. Thanks, Greg!

[melissablock]

Our security detail as we broadcast @npratc from KERA in Dallas this week. Don’t mess with ‘em.

[melissablock]

NPR’s baritone Dallas correspondent Wade Goodwyn has a Texas-size fan club. We’ve heard from people who dream of a radio station that plays nothing but Wade Goodwyn stories. Next best thing: a selfie.

[melissablock]

"Whew! It’s exhausting, but its awesome. I just wanna go faster!"  Army Specialist Joey McElroy is all smiles: he’s just run for the first time in more than a year, thanks to the IDEO orthotic brace.  The revolutionary device has changed the lives of hundreds of service members who’ve been fitted and rehabbed at the Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.    Listen for our story coming up today on ATC. 

[melissablock]

My digs for this week’s @npratc broadcasts from @keranews!

[melissablock]

My digs for this week's @npratc broadcasts from @keranews!

[melissablock]

Well hi, Kai! A life size cardboard @kairyssdal greets us in our workspace at KERA.