Jolie Myers, NPR

 

--Steve Proffitt

We end our program today. We hope we do it on a long, sustained graceful note. To all the listeners and stations that supported us, a heartfelt thanks.

Now we scatter. Some of us will stay in radio or in journalism. Others will find new careers. But don't worry. We're all smart. We'll be OK.

If you want to keep in touch, we've created a Facebook group, Life After NPR's Day to Day. Check in from time to time, friend us, and don't be a stranger.

And here are some links to staff members personal blogs:

Madeleine Brand
www.madeleinebrand.com

Christopher Johnson
www.yourplanb.org

Alex Cohen
www.alexcoheninla.blogspot.com/

Steve Proffitt
www.nicejobmedia.blogspot.com

From all of us at Day to Day, goodbye and good luck.

Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

 

--Steve Proffitt

Even though we're not quite dead yet, Los Angeles Times columnist James Rainey writes a nice little obituary for our program, which appears in today's paper.

Today, our TV critic Andrew Wallenstein talked about his favorite and not so favorite TV series' final episodes. Since Day to Day goes off the air on Friday, it's something I've been thinking about a lot as well. My list is kind of quirky. My top five:

1. Six Feet Under -- I completely agree with Andrew on this one. I cannot hear Sia's "Breath Me" without crying. I cared deeply about these characters. I identified with many of them. And knowing how they spent their dying days brings a lot of comfort to someone like me who's an empathy junkie. The day we were told Day to Day was canceled, I played "Breath Me" over and over on my drive home. I plan to do that this Friday as well.

3. Will & Grace -- Like Six Feet Under, the Will & Grace finale flashes into the future to see the two make up after a big fight, become friends again and eventually attend the wedding of their kids Laila and Ben. The relationship that could never be in their own lives would be played out in their respective daughter and son. The series was a meditation on friendship and the finale was a comment on what true friendship can endure. The very last scene has Will and Grace and Karen and Jack all sitting at a bar in the late, late middle ages. And when they think of their friendship over the years, they become young again.

4. Golden Girls -- The series is one of my favorites. And the finale reminds me why. Dorothy gets married and moved to Atlanta with her new husband. Her mother Sofia and her two friends Rose and Blanche will continue to live in Miami. There's a speech by Dorothy near the end. She tells her dear friends that their friendship is something she never expected at this point in her life. But it has meant the world to her. And she will wrap herself in the warm memories of their lives together when the world is cold..

5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- There's a particularly moving scene in which Buffy tells a group of would-be slayers that she will give them her power. Instead of there being just one chosen one to fight evil, ever girl every where who might be a slayer will be a slayer. It's a great scene about feminism and empowerment and standing up. She asks the great question, "Are you ready to be strong?"

 

--Martina Castro

Five years ago, Frank Warren started a little art project called PostSecret. He handed out 3,000 postcards to strangers and asked them to anonymously write down their secrets and mail the cards back to him.

Frank Warren

 

Frank Warren

It was an overwhelming success and he created a popular website to show off the cards. Warren still gets about 200 postcards a day. Now -- he's taking the secrets on tour. Postcards are currently on display at the Bedford Gallery near San Francisco.

Martina Castro is a producer and reporter with KALW in San Francisco. She decided to conduct her own social experiment. She went to the PostSecret exhibit and asked other visitors to share their secrets with Day to Day. One by one, they took her microphone off into a corner and whispered their private thoughts into Martina's recorder. She's woven the secrets together into a radio story for today's show.

 

--Steve Proffitt

Working on a radio show like this one is very much like being a member of a tribe. We share joy and tears, coo over our babies, and sometimes dance together around a fire. We have our own lingo, our own history and our own legends.

But now, the sharp blade of the recession has cut down all the trees in our forest, and we are being scattered to the four winds.

In an effort to preserve a bit of the D2D culture and spirit, and as a way for us to remain connected to our listeners, we've created a Facebook group, Life After NPR's Day to Day.

We invite you to join, and befriend us. Follow our progress and we'll follow yours. Day to Day.

 

--Alex Cohen

Raquel Allegra has been making new outfits out of old clothes, ever since she was a little girl in Berkeley, California.

"I didn't get to go clothes shopping very often," she told me, "So I started just taking my clothes apart and putting them back together again in ways that I preferred... If I couldn't afford to get something new, I could make something new."

That talent has served her well. Over the years, she kept making her own clothes and wearing them. She eventually moved to Los Angeles to pursue a singing career. Allegra took a job at Barney's New York, the luxury department store, to pay the rent.

Alex Cohen, NPR

 

Jamie Luca

"People would stop me," she explained, "and say 'I want THAT, I want what you're wearing!'" So, she decided to have a trunk show at her house. Allegra soon developed a loyal fan base, including celebrities Mary Kate Olson and Kate Moss.

Her most popular items are tops and dresses made out of old t-shirts that were once worn by inmates at southern California's jails. She hand dyes them and puts them through a brutal process she calls deconstruction. The result are beautiful pieces with sections that are finely webbed like a delicate gauze.

Raquel Allegra's designs are incredibly fragile - they can get caught on things, the holes can grow bigger. "but I appreciate that about the pieces," she says "it's life's texture in a way, coming in to shift the piece and make it your own."

Allegra will be showing off her new fall line at the L.A. Fashion Week.

Barn in Cavendish, 2009, Paul Bremer

 

--Nihar Patel


Failure or Fall Guy? Paul Bremer has been called both. Shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Bremer took over the Coalition Provisional Authority, and oversaw the administration and reconstruction of the newly liberated country for more than a year. His critics now blame him for allowing billions of reconstruction dollars to go unaccounted, and for disbanding the Iraqi army, which led to years of insurgent violence.

Bremer has defended himself against these charges, and has few regrets about his tenure as head of the CPA.

We called him this week to talk about something else - painting. US News and World Report recently reported that Bremer took up painting shortly after returning from Iraq, and has just launched a website featuring his work.

"I'm still obviously learning, as you can see by looking at my paintings," Bremer told Day to Day host Madeleine Brand. "It's difficult for me because I'm a beginner, so it's frustrating and humiliating."

His work is showing signs of improvement apparently. A painting he completed a month ago, Barn in Cavendish, is considered his best work yet. "According to my severest critic, who is my wife," joked Bremer.

The proceeds from the sale of his paintings are donated to non-profit historical societies in Vermont.

The Expendables: It's not the way NPR thinks of the staff of Day to Day.

Wait, maybe it is!

Whatever. It's also the name of a movie that begins filming in March, directed and starring Sylvester Stallone, and featuring our California governor playing our California governor.

I couldn't resist making this fake trailer:

The Expendables from steve proffitt on Vimeo.

 

--Christopher Johnson
At just 9 years old, Sam Maynard knew exactly what he wanted to be. "I wanted to be the best mechanic in the world."

He was a farm boy growing up in Barbados when he had an epiphany.

Sam dreamed of the inside of a working car motor. "I saw everything that works in there - the valves, pistons, the crank shift, the fly wheel - everything that's inside that motor, I saw it."

Sam's parents didn't share his dream. They wanted their son to get off the farm, and grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer. Sam's dad scraped together the cash to pay for tutoring so his son could test into one of the best boys schools on the island.

Sam Maynard, DIY Auto Repair Instructor

Christopher Johnson, NPR

Sam says he flunked the entrance exam on purpose. Twice.

"My father said, 'boy, we're gonna stop spending our money on you,'" Sam remembers. "'What trade do you need?' I said, 'mechanic.' And that was it. My dream came true."

Sam left Barbados soon after World War II, and landed in England on his 22nd birthday. He says discrimination made it tough for blacks to get good auto shop jobs in the UK.

He took jobs in factories, and with the railroad. His dream eluding him, Sam started drinking a lot. That's when he got his second calling.

"I was sitting in a London pub with a friend, drinking our beers. And he said, 'Sam, what are you doing working on London transport railways? There's no future there for you. You have a trade.' I didn't want to hear that! I just asked the barman, 'give us another pint!'"

It was just the spark Sam needed to get back to his dream. He went on to get a college degree in automotive technology.

He's been working on cars and trucks ever since. And the 70 year old mechanic says there's no place he'd rather be than under the hood.

"Oh, it's my passion, it's my passion!"

Our friends at the radio show Car Talk have a whole list of resources and other stuff that can help you become a Do It Yourself Car Mechanic.

As you may have heard, President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress tonight. Technically it's not a State of the Union address, as Obama was just sworn in last month, but that didn't stop us from asking people on Twitter to send us their own State of the Union addresses. The catch: it has to be 140 characters or less.

If you've never used Twitter, it's an online community and messaging service that lets you talk with people via the Web, text messaging, instant messaging and the like. It limits these messages, or tweets, to 140 characters or less so they're text-message friendly. It's not much room to craft an entire State of the Union address, but lots of people have risen to the challenge so far. And we'd love to hear from you, too.

pourmecoffee: Sometimes when we rule, the oversight's uncool. And we have to swallow banks and pride.

ChaosRob: America is rebooting, please stand by. Normal services should resume shortly.

pumpkinshirt: My fellow Americans, our long national shopping spree is over.

PaulBKennedy: Haiku - The economy / it's like a giant air pump. / Needs air. Pump it up.

jryanlaw: times are rough but they will get better-even if you don't have a job right now, get out there and do something productive

AlexanderChow: Assume the crash position, we are screwed! Yet hope remains triumphant. The same sun will rise and set tomorrow...beautifully.

ghankstef: Screwed pooch. 500 bln in tax cuts amounts to $13per pay check for mid class fam. I'll enjoy an extra sandwich 2x month

clairecelsi: We've disrupted the old way of doing business, and are in the process of turning this ship around. Give it a chance to work.

TxSkirt: What would I say to Congress? Please stop bailing out irresponsible business/people. No one is too big to fail.

jsfrankel: Get it done - and fast. Put people ahead of politics; work together as if you really care about the country and the world.

tammymoore: cut my taxes, get rid of the waste and get your hands off my freedom #stateofmyunion :)

PapaBradstein: Educate and innovate to renovate the state.

CRA1G: You on the left: be responsive. You on the right: be responsible. You in the middle: make room.

Not on Twitter? No problem. Simply post your own 140-character State of the Union address as a comment below. Remember that 140 characters is basically a sentence (or a haiku if you prefer), so keep it tight!

Steve Proffitt surveys a mass of unattended car keys at the Oscars

Brian Unger, for NPR

 

--Steve Proffitt

Last night, Brian Unger and I got to go to the Oscars. Instead of press passes, we had actual tickets, which allowed us to stroll down the red carpet, hobnob with the stars, and eat really tasty hors d'oeuvres.

But watching what is essentially at TV show from the 4th balcony (you didn't think they would give us good seats, did you?) was less than satisfying. Plus, we knew there would be a great crush after the show, when people wait for hours while valets try to find their cars, and then wait more hours trying to navigate through the traffic.

So we busted out early.

We made our way down to the fifth level of the underground parking lot at the Kodak Theater. When we arrived, there was a huge valet station, with hundreds and hundreds of keys, each marked with a letter and number indicating which space the car was parked in. But there was no one around. No one!

A quick glance showed a nice new Corvette parked in C26, and a Mercedes S600 in C29. Really, had we been larcenous, it would have been too easy to upgrade from Brian's Prius.

But, even though the reality of unemployment and poverty hangs over us, we maintain a thread of morality. Finally after a bit of shouting, an attendant appeared, and in a flash, we were in the Toyota, out of the garage, and into the cool of the Oscar evening.

And not in jail.

Composite: Getty Images

 

--Skye Rohde
I was reading through the New York Times the other week when I came across this article. The statistic is sobering: 82 percent of people laid off since the recession started are men. Fields like health care and education that tend to employ more women haven't been hit as hard by the economy yet. And journalist Catherine Rampell says that we're now at the point where women are just about to become the majority on the payrolls for the first time in history -- in part because of these recent layoffs.

All this starting me thinking about how these layoffs -- and this shift in breadwinning "duties" -- are hitting families where the husband is now out of a job but the wife is still working. What's different about the family dynamics?

On today's program we explore this trend from a few different angles: what's happening across the U.S., how one couple handled it when the wife had to lay off the husband to keep her business alive and how working moms are talking about their situations and choices during the recession.

We'd like to hear from you about how your spouses' layoffs have impacted your family life. How have things changed? How are you coping with these changes? Has your definition of "stability" changed? What do you tell -- and not tell -- your kids? Your family? Your friends?

stolen from Unemploymentality.com

 

--Steve Proffitt

On today's program, we talked to John Henion, co-creator of Unemploymentality.com, a funny blog about the mindset of the jobless (but not hopeless.) If you've recently lost your job, or even if you haven't, we recommend it, under the sage advice that it is generally better to laugh than cry.

 

--Steve Proffitt

Sometimes listeners send us commentaries. Often they are far too long, too obscure, inappropriate or just not very interesting.

So it was with surprise and delight that I read a little something that came in from a Kansas City listener named Jim Cosgrove.

He sent in a personal essay about Florence Henderson, AKA Carol Brady. Henderson turns 75 on Valentine's Day.

Jim is the father of two young children, and he wrote about his amazement watching his kids take to the Brady Bunch. We're airing his commentary today.

But it turns out Jim Cosgrove also has an AKA. He's a children's entertainer known as Mr. Stinky Feet.

Jim has released several albums, he tours, and he's even played The White House.

Here's a bit of Mr. Stinky Feet, in performance: