Save NPR

I just learned that the first NPR station I listened to WMUB at Miami University is going belly up. Well, maybe not so much belly up as consumed by its sister station in Cincinnati. Still, this is depressing news.

As someone who takes little nuggets of ideas and turns them into stories from 500 to 70,000 words in length, NPR is one of my most valuable resources. Every day I gain a few little extra nuggets. Here’s what I learned within a few hours the other day:

– Edgar Allen Poe was well respected for his original talent during his lifetime, but not particularly paid well. The main reason was the poor international copyright laws. U.S. newspapers and magazines would snatch stuff that appeared in English newspapers for free.

– 188 million migrant workers headed home for the Chinese New Year, but when they return 2 million of them won’t have a job. I hope Dewan and Zhu Chun aren’t among the unemployed.

– Mao preferred Republicans; the Chinese government didn’t want George Bush to leave; they don’t like Change; don’t like Obama because he’s black

– The color red = no risks, Change is bad; The color blue = creative, willing to take more risk. Is it just coincidence that red also = Republican and Blue = Democrat? We probably could use a bit of each of these qualities. If someone invents a party represented by the color purple, I’m in!

– John Updike was first published in the New Yorker at 22. He prefers the present tense – “less baggage.” Since 1959 there have been only a few years that he didn’t have a book published. He said that it was kind of a relief those years to not be examined.

Who knows what nuggets tomorrow will bring? If you don’t listen to NPR you should. If you listen to NPR and you don’t donate, you should. The closing of WMUB is proof that your local station is not immune to the down economy. I donated $100 last year. I hope to donate at least that much this year.

Donate today