Golden Boys Pizza

On Air

An epic, decade-long reported history of National Public Radio that reveals the unlikely story of one of America’s most celebrated but least understood media empires. Founded in 1970, NPR is America’s most powerful broadcast news network. Despite being overshadowed by the larger and more glamorous PBS, public radio has long been home to shows such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and This American Life that captivate millions of listeners in homes, cars, and workplaces across the nation. NPR and its hosts are a cultural force and a trusted voice, and they have created a mode of journalism and storytelling that helps Americans understand the world in which we live. In On Air, a book fourteen years in the making, journalist Steve Oney tells the dramatic history of this institution, tracing the comings and goings of legendary on-air talents (Bob Edwards, Susan Stamberg, Ira Glass, Cokie Roberts, and many others) and the rise and fall and occasional rise again of brilliant and sometimes venal executives. It depicts how NPR created a medium for extraordinary journalism—in which reporters and producers use microphones as paintbrushes and the voices of people around the world as the soundtrack of stories both global and local. Featuring details on the controversial firing of Juan Williams, the sloppy dismissal of Bob Edwards, and a $230 million bequest by Joan B. Kroc, widow of the founder of McDonalds, On Air also chronicles NPR’s daring shift into the digital world and its early embrace of podcasting formats, establishing the network as a formidable media empire. Fascinating, revelatory, and irresistibly dishy, this is a riveting account of NPR’s unlikely launch, chaotic ascent, and ultimate triumph—a must-read for anyone interested in the history of public radio and its impact on American culture.

Jimmy O’Grande versus the FWB (Fish Witch Bitch)

Jimmy and Leo were a match blessed by The Angel of Fate. Two beautiful young men were laying naked under the sun by the shores of Lake Getchie one day long ago, about to seal a deal of perfect love. But instead of sharing a love that was meant to be, a demon fish swam along and came between them. It’s a tragedy when innocents don’t know well enough to be wary of deals with cloaked demons, for the devil’s blessings are always curses in disguise. In a moment of youthful naïveté, Jimmy is fooled into thinking he is a hero and saved the devil in disguise, and thus he had earned himself a charm reward from the demon fish. A powerful magic charm is given to him that makes everyone who looks into Jimmy’s eyes love him. And the more that everyone looked, the more that they loved Jimmy. Is there ever such an easy path that can be taken that skips over the hard work needed to create anything of truly lasting value? Is it possible that all that glitters is not gold? Can such a thing as easy love ever be a blessing? Or is love come easy always destined to be a road to ruin? Leo out of love and loyalty becomes trapped in a closet of secret love as Jimmy’s life long best friend and manager. And so the lucky demon fish ends up having captured two souls for the magical price of one. Will Leo’s love and loyalty prove stronger than the glitter of golden promises of easy love and riches? Or will the demon fish steal away the blessings of love bestowed upon the two boys by the Angel of Fate, and mock the heavens that seem to shun her? In this life and death struggle between good and evil, who shall live and who shall die? In the third volume of this illustrated series ‘The Lakeside Fairy Tales,’ we explore more of the Boystown Chicago parallel universe of ‘Center City’ through the lives and loves of her diverse community. Come share another story with me about a new love, and catch up with all of the characters from the series as all their lives and loves mix and swirl and flow together I each new story. All of them just like us, for are we not one and all but leaves in the stream? Stirred and whirled by the magic of the cosmos that reigns supreme in the vast eternal waters of The Great Lake. Come let me tell you a fairy tale and convince you that the magic of the cosmos is alive and real and in each and everyone of us.

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