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Legendary jazz musician Charlie Parker died 50 years ago Saturday. Poet Joe Pacheco recalls one of Parker's last performances, when the saxophonist known as "Bird" played in Manhattan. The poem is from Pacheco's book The First of the Nuyoricans/Sailing to Sanibel.

In popstrological terms, Britney Spears is a "daughter" of Olivia Newton-John, born under the 1981 hit song "Let's Get Physical." Ian Van Tuyl's Popstrology: The Art and Science of Reading the Popstars shows how pop music's powerful forces affect us all from the day we're born.

Actress, activist, and former fitness guru Jane Fonda has been in the spotlight since her childhood. Now she's written a candid new memoir, My Life So Far, offering details of her relationship with her father, her ex-husbands, her films, and her part in the 1960s anti-war movement.

In a colorful new cookbook, Alabama chef Frank Stitt shares moutwatering recipes from his award-winning restaurant Highlands Bar and Grill. He talks with NPR's Debbie Elliot about the tradition of food in the South.

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh was among the first to publish details of the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. In a new book, Chain of Command, Hersh alleges that the Bush administration knew in the fall of 2002 about abuse at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

One of the last novelty-item factories in the country, the S.S. Adams Company in Neptune, New Jersey, manufactures joy buzzers, whoopee cushions, and cans of jumping snakes. Mark Newgarden, author of Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item, and NPR's Petra Mayer take a tour.

Mystery writer Alexander McCall Smith is most widely known for his popular The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. NPR's Sheilah Kast speaks to Smith about his newest novel, The Sunday Philosophy Club: An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery. In the book, Smith introduces readers to a new sleuth who has an uncommon method for fighting crime.

Director John Waters, known for making art from sleaze, has a new CD for the season, A John Waters Christmas. It includes such songs as "Here Comes Fatty Claus" and "Little Mary Christmas" — all from the man once crowned the "Pope of Trash" by William Burroughs.

A new book — out in time for the 150th anniversary of the bloody Crimean War battle — takes a look at the events that led to the ill-fated charge memorialized by the Tennyson poem "Charge of the Light Brigade."

Poet Laureate Ted Kooser's American Life In Poetry is a free weekly column providing a brief poem and description as a way to bring verse to the masses. Monday, Kooser won a Pulitzer Prize.