Arts & Culture

An 'Unlikely Pilgrimage' Toward Happiness

Credit Fatimah Namdar /

Before her debut novel, Rachel Joyce acted in London's Royal Shakespeare Company, and wrote more than 20 plays for BBC Radio 4.

By editor

Originally published on Sun July 22, 2012 1:43 pm

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Rachel Joyce's novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is about a man who very suddenly, with no warning or planning, sets off on a pilgrimage from the very southernmost part of England to the very northernmost part. It's a old-fashioned pilgrimage: He walks all the way, talking to the people he meets, on his way to the bedside of his old friend Queenie, who is dying.

11:03 pm

Sat July 21, 2012

This Puzzle Is One For The PROs

By Will Shortz

Originally published on Sun August 5, 2012 1:21 am

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On-air challenge: Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first word starts with "P" and the second word starts with "RO." For example: For the clue, "A moving part of an automobile engine," the answer would be a "piston rod."

3:57 pm

Sat July 21, 2012

From Juvie To J.D.: The Story Of A 'Runaway Girl'

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By editor

Originally published on Sat July 21, 2012 4:24 pm

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When Carissa Phelps was 12, she dropped out of seventh grade in the small town of Coalinga, Calif. Her homelife was dysfunctional and soon, she ran away.

Her life on the streets took its toll, and before long the unthinkable happened: she was kidnapped by a pimp and forced into prostitution.

3:24 pm

Sat July 21, 2012

Immigration, The Gold Mountain And A Wedding Photo

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Credit U.S. National Archives and Records

Wedding photograph of Wong Lan Fong and Yee Shew Ning, 1926.

Credit National Archives, Records of the Public Health Service

Immigrants arriving at Angel Island in 1931.

Credit National Archives

A Raumo Egyptian cigarettes package from 1914-15 contained an accompanying "coaching note" in Chinese. Hopeful immigrants would memorize answers to make sure they were responding to questions from immigration officials correctly. A note was found hidden in this pack and reads, "Grandmother bound feet. Chun Seak with me not recognize. Sure remember."

Credit U.S. National Archives and Records

The wedding photograph of Wong Lan Fong and Yee Shew Ning, in front of the Mei Yi Mei Church, a Chinese Methodist Church, at the island of Honam, across the Pearl River from Canton (now Guangzhou) in 1926.

Credit U.S. National Archives and Records

Wong Lan Fong only spent one to two nights at Angel Island at a time when most were detained for up to two weeks. This is Fong's "Declaration of Non-immigrant Alien about to Depart for the United States" document from April 27, 1927.

Credit U.S. National Archives and Records

Michael Pupa at age 13 in 1951. Pupa, who is now 73, is the only living individual featured in the National Archives exhibit.

Credit U.S. National Archives and Records

In the first page of Michael Pupa's pre-hearing summary from 1951, under "additional comments", it says "Parents taken to ghetto in 1942 supposed to be shot." Pupa, who is now 73, is the only living individual featured in the exhibit.

Credit U.S. National Archives and Records

Wong Lan Fong, like many Chinese immigrants, came through Angel Island in California. Here, immigrant children pose for a photo at Ellis Island.

Credit National Archives

This coaching note reads, "Grandmother bound feet. Chun Seak with me not recognize. Sure remember."

By editor

Originally published on Mon July 23, 2012 6:50 pm

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Deep inside the National Archives in Washington, D.C., old case files tell the stories of hundreds of thousands of hopeful immigrants to the U.S. between 1880 and the end of World War II.

These stories are in the form of original documents and photographs that were often attached to immigrant case files. Many of them are part of a new exhibit at the Archives, called "Attachments."

For University of Minnesota history professor Erika Lee, one of these attachments turned out to be very special.

6:35 am

Sat July 21, 2012

'Our Kind': Unpacking Misconceptions About AIDS

By editor

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5:17 am

Sun July 22, 2012