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Writer Meline Toumani grew up in a tight-knit Armenian community in New Jersey. There, identity centered on commemorating the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I, a history that's resulted in tense relations between Armenians and Turks to this day.

In her new book, There Was and There Was Not, Toumani recounts her attempts to understand Turkey and the Turkish people — people she was always taught were her bitter enemy. She also explores what she calls the Armenian community's "obsession" with genocide recognition, which she herself harbored.

"There would be moments where I felt almost embarrassed by a certain deep-seated prejudice in me," Toumani tells NPR's Eric Westervelt. "For example, if a friend comes back from vacation in Turkey and they're talking about it and I'm kind of bristling or brooding and just waiting for that to be over because I know that I can't say what I feel — which is, you know, 'I would never go to Turkey. The Turks, you know, killed the Armenians in 1915.'"

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There Was and There Was Not

A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond

by Meline Toumani

Hardcover, 286 pages | purchase

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Read an excerpt

On why she decided to move to Turkey, a sort of forbidden place for Armenians

I'd have these feelings rise up in me and they didn't fit anymore in the life that I had created, which was otherwise very progressive and intellectually oriented. And that was when I decided I kind of need to explore this. And through a series of events, it entered my mind that exploring it would mean going to Turkey, talking to Turks; not to try to take seriously the Turkish version of the history of the genocide, but just to understand how does it happen that another group of people have learned this history in a completely different way leading to a completely different conclusion? And is there any way that we can connect if I find the right way to talk about it, or the right way to listen about it?

On being attacked on Armenian-American news sites for taking on this project

It's actually surprisingly painful given that I've just written a book that describes the kinds of attitudes that lead to that kind of criticism. ... I knew that there would be people who would feel that way, and yet part of what my book is about is this incredible tension between belonging to a community and trying to individuate from it.

And it's sad for me to see that some people are so threatened that they're not even willing to engage, because most of the people publishing those attacks haven't read the book. In fact, one of them celebrates the fact that he hasn't read it and in the same breath calls for a boycott.

On how people in Turkey reacted when they learned she was Armenian

I was perhaps recklessly optimistic in thinking that things wouldn't be quite as bad in Turkey regarding the Armenian issue as I had been taught to believe. ... In some ways, they were even worse. The thing that shocked me the most was the fact that on a daily basis, you know and this is over the course of two and a half years of living there, people would find out that I was Armenian and sometimes the reaction would be so blunt: "Well, I guess you came here to prove that there was a genocide. I want you to know that I don't believe that that's what happened." Or something like that. And those moments were really jarring and made it very difficult for me to ever really relax. There was a lot of stress in my daily life.

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And I want to be clear, of course, that I also had the opposite reactions, you know. There was a young man who I met outside of a restaurant with some friends, just totally at random on a Saturday night, and when he found out I was Armenian he put his hand over his heart and he said, "I want to welcome you back to your country and I want to apologize on behalf of the Turkish nation."

So I would have every manner of reaction, but to be honest, most of the reactions ranged from pretending I hadn't said anything at all to saying something sort of blunt and harsh.

On where relations between Turks and Armenians stand today

It was a few years ago already that I left Turkey. And in the time since then, there have been some big changes. For example, on April 24, 2014 — which was the 99th year commemoration of the Armenian genocide — in Istanbul you had several events commemorating the genocide openly and without any kind of the contorted language that you might have had in the past.

Also [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan made a statement that was very much falling short but at the same time really breaking new ground in acknowledging that something tragic had happened to the Armenians. And although he, you know, was very careful not to call it a genocide and to say everyone suffered and to use a lot of the same rhetoric that he has always used, I consider it a major step.

Read an excerpt of There Was and There Was Not

Roberts got to Pakistan in early fall of 2013. There were problems with his papers, so he had to repeatedly leave and return to keep his visa valid. He relied on ace Pakistani cameraman Ali Zaidi, formerly with the BBC, to do the filming, most of which was done in February and March of this year. Roberts, Zaidi and the rest of the crew had to keep a low profile — vaccinators were getting killed.

When Roberts started talking to Pakistanis, his "Why bother?" turned into a film about a whole new approach to vaccination.

Before his eyes, desperate local health officials, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and others were realizing that ramping up the door-to-door polio vaccination program would never work. There was just too much fear and opposition. The program needed rebranding as something homegrown and broadly helpful.

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Led by the World Health Organization, and promoted by a powerful member of the political opposition, health officials came up with a new idea — "Justice for Health."

The goal was still "every last child," but the method was different.

No more 3 or 4 days of knocking on doors and begging parents to let vaccinators give their children the polio drops. Instead, by combining already existing programs, Justice for Health provided not just the polio vaccine but a "sanitation bucket" containing water purifying pills, bars of soap and clean towels. Women (because men aren't allowed entry into Pakistan homes unless they're part of the family) provided general health information, and vouchers for other, popular, vaccines, such as measles and diphtheria. Justice for Health was a health campaign, not a polio campaign. And each vaccination round lasted just one day, so opponents didn't have time to mobilize.

Roberts and his crew were able to document the tense planning meetings, the press conferences, the dramatic moment as the planners got a phone call with details of shootings in another province.

There's a shot of Pakistani soldiers suiting up in riot gear, getting ready to go out and protect vaccinators. The WHO's Elias Durry says, "This is not supposed to be a war zone." And maybe it has stopped. No one was killed in the first Justice for Health campaign in Karachi and Peshawar in early 2014.

Hundreds of thousands of children were vaccinated between February and the end of April. The polio wildfire was stifled, at least temporarily. Where polio virus once appeared in rivers and streams around Peshawar, none could be found.

The key to any health project is sustainability, and Roberts has his worries. The annals of public health are filled with projects that tested well but never got scaled up. "The question is, will it continue?" Roberts asks. The program is being promoted and supported by the political opposition — if the party loses the next election, there's no telling what will happen to the campaign. Still, a planner who doesn't want to be named says yes, Justice for Health will be back, and soon — possibly in the next few weeks.

The film, meanwhile, with its drama and intense you-are-there feel, is headed toward film festivals, and eventually, its producers hope, to public television.

Every Last child

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Pakistan

Inside the Boston Wine School, Jonathon Alsop places empty glasses and plate of figs and cheese before a small group of students. Alsop, who founded the school in 2000, is doing a test run of a new class that poses the question: What would Jesus drink?

"This is ... a cheese that Jesus might have eaten," he tells students. "It's called Egyptian Roumy — it was a cheese that was introduced to the Egyptians by the Romans. It's a sheep's milk cheese."

He opens a red blend from Lebanon. "This is something that citizens in biblical times would not have been acquainted with – the screw cap," he jokes.

Alsop founded the school 14 years ago and has taught food and wine classes on everything from pairing wine with meat to tasting the wines of Tuscany. Alsop came up with this latest idea after reading the Gospels.

"This picture of Jesus as a foodie and a wine lover, slowly but surely, starts to emerge. I mean, his first miracle was turning water into wine," he says.

As Alsop opens a bottle of Italian wine, he explains to his students that the wine they are sampling bears little, if any, resemblance to wine during Christ's time.

"It's clean. It's clear. It's in a bottle," says Alsop, holding up the wine glass and examining it. "These wines were shipped around the Mediterranean in ceramic or wood casks; they would have taken on that flavor. This is almost certainly different."

The details of wine and winemaking practices from the Holy Land are debated among experts. There isn't a lot of archaeological evidence or written records.

But we do know that in Jesus' day, wine was being produced in Galilee and modern-day Jordan, says archaeologist Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. And vino of that era came laced with additives like tree resins, peppers and capers, says McGovern, who is known as the "Indiana Jones" of ancient fermented beverages for his scholarship on the topic.

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"The idea was not just to cover up the signs of a deteriorating wine, although that was an added incentive, but to keep the wines for a longer time and produce new, exciting tastes for jaded palates," says McGovern.

Students in Alsop's class inquire about taste and texture, but they also raise two frequently debated questions surrounding ancient wine: Was it safer to drink than water, and was it alcoholic?

We asked McGovern, who is not involved in Alsop's class. McGovern says the antioxidants found in the additives and alcohol killed harmful microorganisms, so wine was much safer than raw, unfiltered water. And it certainly had a boozy kick: Fermentation is a process that occurs naturally when yeasts residing on the skin of the grapes consume the sugar in the fruit and create alcohol.

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Erica Frye came to the class from nearby Wayland, Mass. She was raised in a family of Methodist ministers that abstained from alcohol, but she was curious about biblical wine in a historical context.

"If you really dig down into history, and into the history of wine, it's coming from those areas of the world," she notes.

Jenna Nejame attended Catholic Catechism classes as a kid, but references to wine were typically avoided. "They don't really dwell on ... the drinking alcohol part," she says with a laugh.

Alsop stresses that his interpretation is subjective. As an example, he cites Christ's offering of bread and wine as his body and blood during the Last Supper.

"He's saying, spiritually, take me inside you and let me spirit suffuse your spirit, but naturally he does that through these wine and food metaphors," Alsop says.

When asked if he thinks Jesus would have preferred red or white wine, Alsop doesn't hesitate.

"I'd like to think that Jesus was a red guy," Alsop says. "I don't know why. I guess it's just my own personal desire to see it that way."

We'll never know, of course. McGovern says the Romans preferred white wine, but according to inscriptions found on ancient bottles and casks, most wine from the Holy Land was, indeed, red.

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The economy was floored by the polar vortex early on in 2014 — plus, businesses and consumers were still a little dazed by a government shutdown and debt ceiling fight late in 2013.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, says it all produced an anxious start to the year. "Yeah, a lot of worry, particularly because we had misstepped a few other times during the recovery," he says. "We had these false dawns when we really thought the economy was going to kick into gear and then we kind of fell back into the morass."

But the economy rebounded. "Most obviously, in the job market, almost 3 million jobs will be created in 2014," Zandi says. "That's as good a year since the late 1990s, when the economy was booming. And the quality of the jobs improved."

Amanda Eschenburg and her husband from Waukesha, Wis., are good examples of that trend. The young couple, both in their mid-20s, quit their jobs and found new ones in 2014.

"The fact that my husband and I have both been able to quit our jobs in the same year, and start at new places and be able to have more spending power and savings power, seems to me, like — at least in our situation — it's gotten better," Eschenburg says.

Amanda moved from a job at Walgreens to a position with the Department of Children and Family Services. Her husband got a good industrial design and engineering job. And they've started to look for a house to buy — home ownership seems more realistic now they're incomes are higher.

“ "The fact that my husband and I have both been able to quit our jobs in the same year, and start at new places and be able to have more spending power and savings power, seems to me, like — at least in our situation — it's gotten better."

- Amanda Eschenburg of Waukesha, Wis.

"I'm working 40 hours. My husband generally works, like, 50 hours a week," she says. "They've told him he can take as much overtime as he wants. There are some days, depending on when projects are due, that he's there much longer, so we've had some really, really big checks coming in from his job."

Zandi says other pluses for the U.S. economy include less debt weighing down U.S. companies, stronger banks and lower energy costs — all of which make U.S. businesses more competitive.

"And that means that we will see businesses expand, locate, operate more here in the U.S. than everywhere else in the world. And that goes right to jobs, that goes right to incomes, that goes to wealth and our growth prospects," Zandi says.

Zandi thinks wages, which have lagged during this recovery, will rise in the new year, making it possible for the Fed to raise short-term interest rates. They've been near zero for 6 years.

But Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research thinks that raising rates would be a bad idea.

"People should understand that's a policy designed to give us fewer jobs. I mean, if they're raising interest rates, they're trying to slow the economy, which, of course, has the effect of reducing employment growth, fewer jobs, is a hit to the economy that is completely unnecessary," Baker says.

It's unnecessary because inflation is already low and falling because of the drop in oil prices.

Baker points out that the growth rate for 2014 is likely to be under 2.5 percent — disappointing, he says, given how much ground the economy still needs to make up to shake off the effects of the Great Recession.

"We're still down somewhere in the order of 7 million jobs from the pre-recession levels of employment," Baker says, "So given that sort of weakness in the labor market, most workers have very low bargaining power and what that means is we see very, very little wage growth," he says.

With all those workers on the sidelines, Baker argues, the economy is performing $700 billion dollars below its potential output. That's like giving up about $2,000 in annual income per person.

Baker expects 2015 to be another year much like this year for the economy, with steady growth and more jobs added, but not much improvement in wages.

Zandi expects a very good year in 2015. With more than 3 million jobs created and wages rising, he says the economy will be off and running.

Monetary Policy

Wages

Economy

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Federal Reserve Board

Wall Street

Pope Francis, in his Christmas Day blessing in St. Peter's Square, denounced the "brutal persecution" of religious and ethnic minorities and condemned conflicts in Ukraine, Libya and elsewhere.

It was his second "Urbi et Orbi" ("to the city and to the world") message since becoming pope last year, the pontiff also lamented the deadly Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan that killed 149 people, mostly children, and the deaths of thousands due to Ebola in West Africa.

"Truly there are so many tears this Christmas," he said.

At one point in the address, Francis, 78, departed from his text to lament that so many children "are victims of violence, made objects of trade and trafficking."

He urged Ukraine, which is locked in a Moscow-backed separatist conflict, to "overcome tensions and conquer hatred and violence."

On the violence in Syria, the pope invoked "the Savior of the world, to look upon our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria.

"[For] too long now [they] have suffered the effects of ongoing conflict, and ... together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution," he said.

"May Christmas bring them hope, as indeed also to the many displaced persons, exiles and refugees, children, adults and elderly, from this region and from the whole world."

The blessing follows the pope's Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, but his words were carried on a phone line to Iraqi refugees who had been forced to flee their homes because of an a assault by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq.

"You're like Jesus on this night, and I bless you and am close to you," Francis told the refugees, at a camp near the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, according to the audio of the call provided by TV2000. "I embrace you all and wish for you a holy Christmas."

Islamic State

crisis in Ukraine

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When you step into the bright red barn at Claybrooke Farm in Louisa, Va., it instantly feels like Christmas. A pot of hot cider bubbles on the stove. Friends, neighbors and extended family make wreaths while owner John Carroll hauls in wood for the fire. It's gray outside, but the barn is full of holiday cheer.

As Christmas tree farmers, holiday cheer is the Carroll family business. As we leave the warmth of the barn and board the tractor for a tour of the fields, Virginia Carroll tells me this land has been in her family for generations. But she and John, a forester, switched from cattle to Christmas trees after they got married.

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The Carroll family has turned the holiday season into their family business. The family is pictured here with Santa, who visits their Christmas tree farm on weekends in December. Claybrooke Farms hide caption

itoggle caption Claybrooke Farms

The Carroll family has turned the holiday season into their family business. The family is pictured here with Santa, who visits their Christmas tree farm on weekends in December.

Claybrooke Farms

"We planted our first trees when we were expecting Matthew," she says, as the tractor takes us through the fields. "A little while down the road we had another son, Tyler. It just seemed like a good use of the land and a good fit for us, particularly at the time."

Matthew and Tyler, now grown, point to "their fields," the plots of land planted when they were born. Where Matthew's white pines once were, now there are just a few overgrown evergreens and an empty field, ready for the next planting.

The trees take seven to 12 years to mature, assuming you don't run into drought, deer, invasive species, or any of the other factors that can endanger the young trees.

Despite the long timeline, most farmers are confident planting them. Americans buy 25 million Christmas trees every year and the holiday trend, around since the 1850s, seems unlikely to dissipate any time soon.

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And trees can generate a good return. You can plant about 1,000 seedlings per acre, and 400 to 800 of those turn into sellable trees. And anyone who's bought a Christmas tree knows, they can sell for $50, $100 or more.

For Virginia and John, with two young children and acres of land to maintain, "it seemed like it would be a good idea to maybe [raise] something other than livestock, which had to be fed and cared for on a regular basis."

John and Matthew are both trained foresters and Matthew's wife, Charley Gail, is the agriculture teacher at the local high school. Even Tyler, who studied political science in college and now works for the Virginia Department of Tourism, comes back on the weekends to shear and sell the trees, and manage the social media accounts.

In other words, this is a family that knows their trees — and understands the work involved in growing the perfect tree.

"When the tree is young, you don't do much trimming," Matthew says. "After two or three years, you do some light trimming with hand shears. When it gets to about four, you have to start using some other equipment, like a modified weed whacker. And when we think the tree is ready to be sold, we do less trimming — we want to keep it looking natural."

The shearing, which they try to get done by the Fourth of July each year, is a massive undertaking for the whole family. But they aren't discouraged by the slog. What started as an investment crop has turned into a family passion. And the tradition is still growing: Matthew and Charley Gail had their first child, Coleman, in August.

Coleman's college fund will be planted this Spring.

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farmers

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Coca-Cola got a lot of attention in November when it announced that it was going into the milk business. Not just any milk, mind you: nutritious, reformulated super milk.

It also invited ridicule. "It's like they got Frankenstein to lactate," scoffed Steven Colbert on his show. "If this product doesn't work out, they can always re-introduce Milk Classic."

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Fairlife milk, shown here on sale in Minneapolis, Minn., in April 2014, is a partnership between Coca-Cola and Select Milk Producers, a dairy cooperative that owns Fair Oaks Farms. Courtesy of Alice Seuffert hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Alice Seuffert

Fairlife milk, shown here on sale in Minneapolis, Minn., in April 2014, is a partnership between Coca-Cola and Select Milk Producers, a dairy cooperative that owns Fair Oaks Farms.

Courtesy of Alice Seuffert

In fact, the idea for New Milk didn't come from Coca-Cola at all. It emerged from a huge, high-tech dairy farm in Indiana.

That dairy, called Fair Oaks Farms, doubles as America's one and only dairy theme park, a bit of Americana that interrupts a monotonous stretch of Interstate 65 between Chicago and Indianapolis.

It grabs the attention of drivers with a series of tank trucks parked broadside like billboards in fields beside the highway. Painted on the tanks are cryptic messages: "We Dairy You To Exit 200." Then: "We Double Dairy You." The final tank truck has two huge fiberglass cows mounted on top of it.

The pitch may be goofy, but the farm is serious business. It's one of the biggest and most sophisticated dairies in the country, and it is home to 37,000 cows, divided among 11 different milking operations.

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The amphitheater where you can watch cows give birth. Dan Charles/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Dan Charles/NPR

The amphitheater where you can watch cows give birth.

Dan Charles/NPR

The visitor's center offers a cheerful picture of milk production. The most startling touch: a small amphitheater where you can watch, through a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, as cows give birth.

Then it's off to the working part of the farm aboard a small bus. The bus rolls right down the middle of a barn that's almost 500 yards long, past about 1,000 cows that are eating, standing around, and lying in stalls on beds of sand.

There's also a stop at the "milking parlor," where visitors watch from a balcony as cows, one by one, step onto an enormous rotating turntable to be milked. Sensors identify each cow and computers record how much milk she's producing.

"Take a look! They're calm, cool, and collected, exactly the way the farmers want them to be," says my tour guide, Terry Tracy.

This is the frontier of dairying. In fact, the people who run this place are so ambitious, they're ready to change milk itself.

Coca-Cola is now a partner in this venture, but the idea began years ago, when two of the founders of Fair Oaks, Mike and Sue McCloskey, were running a big dairy operation in New Mexico. They ran into a problem with bad water, and had to buy some expensive membranes to filter out impurities.

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Sue McCloskey, who co-founded Fair Oaks Farms with her husband Mike. Dan Charles/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Dan Charles/NPR

Sue McCloskey, who co-founded Fair Oaks Farms with her husband Mike.

Dan Charles/NPR

Sue McCloskey says they started thinking what those filters might accomplish with milk. "Is there there something else we can do with this milk that will give it a premium value, that we're not thinking about?"

They realized that the filters could separate raw milk into its different parts, such as protein, lactose, minerals and water. Perhaps they could put those parts back together in different proportions, altering milk's time-honored recipe.

"I remember sitting down with Mike, and we were talking about this," McCloskey says. "And I told him, 'Listen, if you could make a milk for me, as a woman, where I could get all of my calcium and a bunch of my protein in one glass or serving — holy mackerel, that would be the most awesome thing!' "

They did, in fact, create a kind of milk with extra protein and calcium but no lactose. The H-E-B supermarket chain in Texas sells it as Mootopia. It tastes like a slightly thicker, richer version of milk.

Now the idea is going national, propelled by the immense marketing and logistical muscle of Coca-Cola. The beverage giant has joined forces with Fair Oaks Farms and Select Milk Producers, the cooperative that the McCloskeys founded in 1994. They created a venture called Fairlife to produce a new line of milk-derived beverages. The first product, which is similar to Mootopia, will arrive in the dairy sections of supermarkets in January.

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Denzil Saldanha is over 80 but far from retired.

He takes orders on the phone, surrounded by workers, newspapers spread out in front of them, cutting slices of fruitcake with thick almond icing.

The family-run Saldanha Bakery and Confectionery is making 600,000 pounds of cake this Christmas. Denzil's daughter Debra Saldanha, who gave up banking to join the family business, says customers appreciate that it's all made to order.

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This is part of a series of stories exploring the rich diversity of Christmastime edibles around the world, and the stories behind the food.

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"They get the smell of hot cake coming out of the oven and literally wafting in the air," she says.

Her father lists the ingredients that go into their rich fruitcake: raisins, plums, cashews, lemon peel, red peel, preserves. And the most famous Indian rum — Old Monk.

The British are long gone from Calcutta, but they left behind the fruitcake. The West jokes about indestructible fruitcake as the gift that keeps on giving, but Calcutta — the old British capital — embraces it. Around Christmas, bakeries set up counters just to sell these treats, which also are known as plum cakes.

Flurys, a legendary European-style tearoom, stays open all night on Christmas Eve, says manager Rajeev Khanna. He says the big draws are the old favorites: "It's the plum cake which has been marinated just last week of November. Dundee. Rum and raisin. Mince pie."

In Goa, the former Portuguese colony, where the Saldanhas are from, Christmas still has a strong Catholic feel to it. But here in Calcutta, a far more mixed city, Christmas is simply called Boro Din, or Big Day. And it's universal.

"Christmas is celebrated by everybody, irrespective of whatever religion they belong to," Debra Saldanha says.

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At Calcutta's famous New Market, vendors do brisk business in fruitcake as Christmas approaches. Sandip Roy for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Sandip Roy for NPR

At Calcutta's famous New Market, vendors do brisk business in fruitcake as Christmas approaches.

Sandip Roy for NPR

Cake knows no religion. At Nahoum and Sons, the city's only Jewish bakery, a lady who gave her name only as Mrs. Maxwell waits in a long line as her grandson plays with a toy pistol. She says that despite all the fancy new patisseries in malls, she comes here every year. "Nothing to beat Nahoum," she says. "You buy the same plum cake from somewhere else at a much higher price, you immediately find the difference."

At Sheik Nuruddin's storefront bakery, there's a photograph of Mecca on the wall. But in December, you can rent his oven and his bakers for your own Christmas cake. The wood-fired oven turns out seven cakes an hour, from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., says Nuruddin.

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A worker slices rich fruitcake with almond icing at the family-run Saldanha Bakery. Sandip Roy for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Sandip Roy for NPR

A worker slices rich fruitcake with almond icing at the family-run Saldanha Bakery.

Sandip Roy for NPR

At Christmas, these small bakeries give customers what the big chains can't – a personalized, homemade feeling. The Saldanha bakery will open even on Christmas Day — for that last-minute, desperate walk-in.

"You can't say no, because people come, and you can't send them back disappointed — such a sad face," says Debra Saldanha.

Jewish bakeries and Muslim bakers in a predominantly Hindu city, baking Christmas cakes round the clock. You could call it a triumph of capitalism. Or a slice of peace and goodwill for all. With almond icing.

Based in Calcutta, Sandip Roy is a senior editor with Firstpost. His upcoming novel is Don't Let Him Know.

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A government job in China used to be a gravy train: easy hours, little scrutiny and – usually – a chance to make good money through perks and corruption. This year, though, more than a 100,000 fewer people signed up to take China's civil service exam.

Most people think the reason is the government's fierce anti-corruption drive, which has taken a lot of the profit out of public service. Recently, a low-level Shanghai official vented to NPR about life under China's toughest crackdown in modern memory.

The stereo-typical Chinese official is a middle-aged man with nicotine-stained teeth and a taste for expensive alcohol and young women. But Wang, the Shanghai official NPR spoke with for this story, doesn't fit that image.

He's a boyish 31, with a mop top and a passion for sci-fi movies. In fact, Wang spent the first 15 minutes of our interview raving about the movie, "Guardians of the Galaxy," and playing some of the 1970s hits from the soundtrack, which he'd downloaded onto his cell phone.

The conversation shifted gears when Wang began to talk about the radical impact the anti-corruption crackdown has had on officials' lives here.

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In the past, Wang regularly racked up a laundry list of perks, everything from moon cakes, a traditional autumn sweet, to a bonus of more than $3,000 at the Chinese New Year.

All that changed this year due to the anti-corruption campaign.

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"All of a sudden, my income fell about 30 percent," said Wang over a mocha at a Shanghai Starbucks. "Practically all our perks vanished. It's a very big blow to everyone's morale."

The President's Campaign

Chinese President Xi Jinping is two years into a furious effort to clean up the Communist Party. Corruption had become so bad, Xi said it threatened the party's grip on power.

Some 180,000 party officials have already been disciplined, according to state media. The campaign has also targeted some high level officials. This week, the party announced it was investigating Ling Jihua, who has served as the equivalent of chief of staff to former Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Wang, who asked that NPR not use his full name, said he not only lost his perks, but trickle-down corruption has dried up as well.

"For instance, for every $16 a higher-level official embezzles, he can spit about $3 down to us lower-level officials," said Wang. "The problem now is upper level people can't embezzle the $16, so there's no three bucks for us."

Wang said these days many higher-ups are focused on cleaning up past crimes by destroying evidence. Wang refers to it in Mandarin as, "ca pigu," or, literally, "wiping their butts." After years of rampant corruption, Wang says there's a lot to clean up.

"Some officials had made investments, even opening karaoke parlors and private clubs," said Wang. "This is very common. Recently, they've closed them down and destroyed documents linking their names to the businesses."

"They've also sent their mistresses and illegitimate children overseas and moved assets out of the country," Wang said.

Resistance From Bureaucrats

Li Yongzhong, vice-director of a government institute that trains anti-graft investigators in Beijing, said Wang's description rings true. Li said the anti-corruption drive has forced many officials to pull back from past practices of collecting bribes and embezzling public funds.

However, he added: "there are also many problematic and corrupt officials that are passively or actively resisting."

Li said some officials engineer work slow-downs, designed to make the public angry, in hopes they'll put pressure on Beijing to call off the dogs.

Wang, the Shanghai official, wishes they would. It's why he talked to NPR. He said he wants President Xi to hear about this story and understand just how bad things are in the trenches. Like many officials, Wang doesn't believe in communism and he doesn't have much loyalty to the party.

"So long as my income isn't cut, whatever goes on above me is just the higher-ups' business," said Wang. "It doesn't matter whether the Communist Party or the Nationalist Party [the ruling party on the island of Taiwan] is in charge. As long they don't adversely affect the common people's lives, we don't care."

China

"This is a very, very depressing year for film," critic David Edelstein tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "because none of the great material came from Hollywood studios."

Studios, he says, direct their financial resources into sequels and comic-book movies, which leaves little room for "creative expression, and for doing something weird and potentially boundary-moving."

“ This year was a wonderful year for indie films. ... It's just the gap has been widening every year between indies and studio pictures — and it has never been wider.

- David Edelstein, film critic

However, Edelstein says, in an era in which some 1,000 films may be released in the U.S. each year, the law of averages dictate that there will be some great movies. Edelstein says it was a wonderful year for indie films.

Here are his favorite movies this year:

Boyhood: Richard Linklater's film is about a boy in Texas whose parents have separated. Filmed over 12 years, audiences watch him grow up — and his worldview evolve. The movie catches the passing of time like no other movie, because it's literal.

Selma: Ava DuVernay's epic is about Martin Luther King Jr., played by the great David Oyelowo. It takes a deep look at the civil rights movement, from King's relationship with President Lyndon Johnson to the battle for voting rights for black Americans — and the incident on March 7, 1965, when state police beat peaceful protesters trying to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.

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In an independent, Australian film, a single mother (Essie Davis) and her troubled young son (Noah Wiseman) are terrorized by a mysterious character from a children's book called Mister Babdook. Matt Nettheim/Causeway Films hide caption

itoggle caption Matt Nettheim/Causeway Films

In an independent, Australian film, a single mother (Essie Davis) and her troubled young son (Noah Wiseman) are terrorized by a mysterious character from a children's book called Mister Babdook.

Matt Nettheim/Causeway Films

The Babadook: In this Australian chiller by Jennifer Kent, a bogeyman announces himself in a rhyming, pop-up book on a 7-year-old's shelf. But the real horror is that the boy's mom, a grieving widow, is battling psychic demons. It's a phenomenally scary pop-out storybook of a movie.

Whiplash: Director Damien Chazelle's film centers on the agony of a drummer in a high-powered music school. The movie ties you into knots: The fear of failure is omnipresent. So is the jazz vibe.

Only Lovers Left Alive: Jim Jarmusch's film is about vampires Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, who are deadpan, undead hipsters in a dying world.

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Timothy Spall finds beauty in the unlikeliest places as painter J.M.W. Turner in the film Mr. Turner. Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

itoggle caption Sony Pictures Classics

Timothy Spall finds beauty in the unlikeliest places as painter J.M.W. Turner in the film Mr. Turner.

Sony Pictures Classics

Mr. Turner: Mike Leigh's marvelous J.M.W. Turner biopic stars that great grunter Timothy Spall, who adds a dollop of the grotesque. Spall depicts a man whose mind is barely engaged by anything other than his work. He's a mystery, and his art is magically indefinite — just like the movie.

Two Days, One Night: The Belgian Dardenne brothers' latest triumph stars Marion Cotillard as a desperate woman begging coworkers to forgo a big bonus so she can keep her job.

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Marion Cotillard stars in The Immigrant, director James Gray's film about a Polish woman's experience after she disembarks at Ellis Island. Anne Joyce/Courtesy of the Weinstein Company hide caption

itoggle caption Anne Joyce/Courtesy of the Weinstein Company

Marion Cotillard stars in The Immigrant, director James Gray's film about a Polish woman's experience after she disembarks at Ellis Island.

Anne Joyce/Courtesy of the Weinstein Company

The Immigrant: Marion Cotillard plays a Polish woman trying to free her sister from the island's infirmary in this moody period drama. Joaquin Phoenix co-stars as a shady businessman.

Documentaries:

Tales of the Grim Sleeper: Nick Broomfield's documentary will come to HBO in 2015. It's an incendiary look at a South Central Los Angeles serial killer who murdered as many as 100 women, and Broomfield finds out more about the case in a few weeks than the Los Angeles Police Department did in 25 years.

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Laura Poitras' avant garde paranoid conspiracy thriller is the real story of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Radius/TWC hide caption

itoggle caption Radius/TWC

Laura Poitras' avant garde paranoid conspiracy thriller is the real story of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Radius/TWC

Citizenfour: Laura Poitras' avant garde paranoid conspiracy thriller is the real story of Edward Snowden and the technological infrastructure that can monitor everyone in the world. It will make you look both ways when you're on the street.

The Overnighters: Director Jesse Moss tells the story of a North Dakota pastor who provides shelter for economically desperate temporary workers — and discovers that no good deed goes unpunished.

Interview Highlights

On why Boyhood was his favorite of the year

There are all sorts of ways on film to denote the passing of time, and Richard Linklater has done that by setting a lot of films in real time and using time as a kind of marker, [like in] Before Midnight. ... But you know, time is really important to him and here, when he follows over 12 years this one boy aging, we get to see the changes on a kind of molecular level. ... Since the movie is about things that are lost that can't be recovered, you can't go back in time. Once you see him age, you can't bring the little boy back. ... That, to me, makes the movie so poignant and so profound. It gives a kind of documentary element, but it kind of transcends documentary.

On the best performances of the year

Julianne Moore gives a performance in a film called Still Alice; she plays the victim of early onset Alzheimer's disease; she's 50 when the diagnosis comes in. ... Moore gives an extraordinary performance. She plays a character who has always defined herself by her intellect and so for most, if not all of the movie, you're just riveted on her face. You're just watching her think. There's more and more distance between her thinking the thought and being able to articulate it, being able to chase it down — it becomes heartbreaking in a kind of visceral way that I've really never seen.

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David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. and Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King in Selma. Paramount Pictures hide caption

itoggle caption Paramount Pictures

David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. and Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King in Selma.

Paramount Pictures

The other major performance of the year is by David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King [in Selma]. How do you play Martin Luther King convincingly? Well, for one thing, he's a British-trained actor, he's got this marvelous voice and when you can take Martin Luther King's words, many of which we know already, and you can make it sound like they're coming out of your head and, more important, your diaphragm, then you've gone a long way. He's a spectacular actor.

On Into the Woods

Into the Woods is an extraordinary case because early in the movie, I was jumping out of my seat I was so happy. We know it's the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical, which farcically mixes up a bunch of Brothers Grimm fairytales. And ... they've said they wrote it to explode the sugary Walt Disney treatment of fairytales and here it is, opening on Christmas Day, a big budget Disney movie and working amazingly well. ...

Edelstein's Best Of Films From Years' Past

Movie Reviews

In A 'Miraculous Year' For Movies, Edelstein Picks His Favorites

Movie Reviews

David Edelstein's Top 12 Movies of 2012

Arts & Life

Flicks, Picked (Redux): Edelstein's 2011 Top 10 Films

But, as most people know, the musical takes a turn into the apocalyptic in the second half, really the last third, and man, it doesn't work in this context. I didn't much care for it when I saw the show on Broadway in 1987, but I respected it. But in a Disney movie opening Christmas Day — and pitched to the whole family — this sudden wave of awful things, it seems like child abuse. I say see it and I say leave at what's clearly the end of Act 1. I'm actually not being facetious. You get all the enchantment and even some of ambiguities and the ... doom, but you won't come out thinking the Big Bad Wolf directed the ending.

On indie films

This year was a wonderful year for indie films. I mean, I actually consider Selma an indie film; I consider the Babadook an indie film; I consider Whiplash an indie film, even though they were released by a major studio, in some cases the smaller divisions. ... Kids are coming out of film schools; the cost of making a movie has plummeted in terms of your equipment; you can always find a lot of out-of-work actors; people are creating really meaningful movies from nothing. It's just the gap has been widening every year between indies and studio pictures — and it has never been wider.

A buddy flick about killing North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un will be shown on Christmas Day after all, at least in about 200 independent theaters. This kind of small-scale distribution model, and the politics surrounding The Interview gives what was once a big-budget Hollywood release the spirit of an art house film.

Movie Interviews

Satirizing Dictators Is Nothing New — Just Ask Charlie Chaplin

In the satirical film, which is at the center of a geopolitical tussle, Seth Rogen and James Franco play television producers who get an interview with Kim Jong Un, but are then hired by the CIA to "take him out."

The reaction to this film from one of the most cut-off countries on earth — and its dictator — came quickly. North Korea went to the United Nations trying to get the film banned. In November came a hack of Sony Pictures, the studio behind the film, that the FBI links to North Koreans.

Subsequent threats invoking Sept. 11 led major theater chains to say they wouldn't show it. bit when Sony pulled the film from release last week, President Barack Obama joined a chorus of Americans expressing their disappointment.

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Hollywood Pros Fear A Chilling Effect After Sony Bows To Hackers

Obama Says Sony Made A 'Mistake' In Cancelling 'The Interview'

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"We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship in the United States," Obama said on Friday.

Then, 48 hours before its original opening day, Sony changed its mind. It un-canceled The Interview after independent theater operators started an online petition to show the film.

"It's kinda classic little-guy stuff that we support. I think it's really important that there's small places that can take a stand," says Hadrian Belove, executive director of The Cinefamily, a non-profit cinema in Los Angeles. The Cinefamily will screen the film.

Now it's the little guys — a couple hundred independent theaters — that get to run a big budget film originally set for broad release. The Atlanta's Plaza Theater is among them. So is the Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse chain.

"Tickets are going really well," said Drafthouse CEO Tim League. "There's a lot of demand. I think there's a lot of people who wouldn't normally go see a Seth Rogen-James Franco film that want to do it just for support of freedom of expression."

It makes sense that Alamo Drafthouse theaters — and independent theaters like it — will brave the terror threats and show The Interview. They're known for their personality — hosting sing-a-longs, themed-screenings complete with food and cocktails — and embodying defiant American attitudes. As League says in a Drafthouse promo, "the Alamo is not your average every day movie theater."

The more everyday movie theaters — megachains like Regal (which boasts more than 7,000 screens) — continue to opt out, which means Sony still could take a loss on the film. But all the intrigue has given a major motion picture an art house quality.

"It's become in many ways a protest film, which is unusual and probably not intended," Belove says.

The Alamo Drafthouse's Tim League also notes the oddity.

"It's strange that it's morphed into having an identity like an art house film. I think a lot of the art house film theaters across the country have a strong track record of showing films that have a political message or there's some controversy or even protest associated with them. Oddly enough this wacky Seth Rogen comedy now falls firmly into art house territory, in my book," said League.

In the ever-twisting tale of bringing this film to audiences, its unconventional release is only one of its stranger elements.

independent theaters

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alamo drafthouse

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There are some Christmas foods you make far in advance that just get better and better with age and anticipation. Like British fruitcakes that age into their boozy ripeness, and German gingerbread cookies called lebkuchen that get softer and spicier as they mature.

In Guyana, a small South American country wedged between Venezuela and Suriname, certain Christmas foods are also prepared weeks in advance, and aged at room temperature. But they're not sweet; they're meaty, and they sit out for weeks. Although it may sound a bit suspect, these dishes — called pepperpot and garlic pork — have been eaten safely for generations. And Guyanese say it wouldn't be Christmas without them.

More In This Series

This is part of a series of stories exploring the rich diversity of Christmastime edibles around the world, and the stories behind the food.

Explore All The Stories In This Series: The 12 Days Of Quirky Christmas Foods Around The Globe

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To understand pepperpot and garlic pork, you first need to know a that Guyana is part of South America but also part of the Caribbean. The native Amerindian population was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries and then by the British in 1796. The country was then further infused with enslaved Africans, East Indian indentured workers and Portuguese laborers.

All of these groups became part of the fabric of Guyana and its cuisine. And in the days before refrigeration, they came up with their own unique ways of both preparing and preserving celebratory dishes.

Pepperpot, the first course served on Christmas Day, comes from the native tradition. It's basically a stew of aromatics and tough beef parts like shanks, trotters and tails that benefit from a long cooking. They're tossed in with cinnamon and cloves from neighboring Spice Islands and peppers. And when we say slow cooking, we mean it: Pepperpot is cooked, off and on, for days. And between stewing it sits out on the stove at room temperature.

Usually, leaving meat at room temperature would give bacteria — the sort that would land you in the hospital — a field day. But pepperpot has a secret weapon: cassareep.

Cassareep is a thick sauce made from the juice from cassava root, one of the country's oldest traditional foods. The juice is boiled down to a molasses-dark syrup, which has powerful antiseptic properties that's used in medicine as well. And it also contributes its own unique flavor.

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Garlic pork comes from the Portuguese culinary tradition. It involves a preparation that seems to fly in the face of food safety common sense: The meat sits out at room temperature for weeks in a vinegar bath. Courtesy of Cynthia Nelson Photography hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Cynthia Nelson Photography

Garlic pork comes from the Portuguese culinary tradition. It involves a preparation that seems to fly in the face of food safety common sense: The meat sits out at room temperature for weeks in a vinegar bath.

Courtesy of Cynthia Nelson Photography

"A really good cassareep is supposed to have the complexity you can find in a good caramel," says Guyanese food writer Cynthia Nelson. "There'll be notes of sweet, and notes of bitterness at the end." Nelson makes her pepperpot with the traditional beef cuts and cassareep, as well as cinnamon and cloves, and ginger and orange peel for brightness.

As the stew cooks, the meat breaks down, infusing the sauce with its essence, and vice versa. The end result is as richly layered as a Mexican mole.

The second essential Guyanese Christmas dish, garlic pork, comes from the Portuguese culinary tradition. As with pepperpot, it involves a preparation that seems to fly in the face of food safety common sense: The pork sits out at room temperature for weeks. In this case, it's not cassareep that keeps you safe: It's salt and vinegar.

This puckery preservation method is similar to Portuguese adobo recipes, and the vindaloo dishes in the former Portuguese colony of Goa. In this case, chops are rubbed with a paste of garlic and a Guyanese varietal of fresh thyme.

Matt Thompson, deputy editor of TheAtlantic.com and the former director of vertical initiatives at NPR, grew up on the dish. "You can't really overdo the garlic and thyme," says Thompson, whose parents and siblings are Guyanese. (He was born in the U.S.) The seasoned meat is then covered with a salt and vinegar solution, and aged for weeks.

After at least two weeks in the brine, the meat is fried up. The long bath (and a heating of vinegar) creates some pretty distinct flavors and aromas. "It's a very intense dish," says Nelson. "And you always know whether or not your neighbor made garlic pork."

Usually the pork is sliced into small pieces and fried up, giving a flavorful jolt to your ham and eggs. "I can't remember a time when we had garlic pork left over after Christmas morning," Thompson says. "And it's not because we made too little, it's because the stuff is irresistible."

Guyana

meat

South America

It's been a good year for commercial airlines.

With the economy recovering, more people are getting on planes and flying for both business and pleasure. And the cost of fuel, one of the airlines' biggest expenses, is dropping.

But as anyone traveling for the holidays can tell you, airfares remain high. And many frequent fliers at Chicago O'Hare International Airport say they wouldn't give the airlines perfect grades this year.

Tanya Lawson, an attorney on her way home to Miami, says she doesn't have too many complaints. She gives the airlines high marks for being on time, for the most part, but she's not happy with everything.

"I'd probably give them a 'B,' " Lawson says. "I think comfort has gone out the window completely. Another airline I traveled on recently, my knees were too long, and I was in pain literally for the entire flight, and I'm only 5-foot-8."

Sidney Moragne, a psychiatrist from Jackson, Tenn., says his experience flying this year was just average.

“ "I think it would be fair to say that the game here is pay to play. If you want the cheapest fare, don't look for the primo product."

- George Hamlin

"I'd give 'em a 'C'," Moragne says. "When it's bad, it's pretty bad, but a lot of times it's efficient. The planes are always pretty full now, that's one thing. You're packed in there pretty tight."

Fuel Costs Are Down; Airfares Are Not

Both Moragne and Lawson say they're tired of airlines charging for everything from extra baggage to extra legroom.

As for base fares, though, many travelers say they aren't terribly high, if you buy far enough in advance.

But Moragne has noticed that, while the price of fuel plummets, airfares are still up. "They're not coming down relatively speaking the way gas has come down," he says.

The International Air Transport Association estimates the world's airlines will rake in nearly $20 billion in profits this year, and the group expects that figure to soar to a record $25 billion next year.

With fuel making up close to half of the airlines' expenses, they are saving — but the airlines say it's not as much as you'd think. The fuel price plunge, they note, comes after near record high prices.

Business

Regulators And Airlines Fight Over Fares, Fees And Fairness

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House Votes To End Full-Fare Rule For Airline Tickets

John Heimlich, chief economist for the industry group Airlines for America, says the airlines are using their windfalls to pay down debt, to give investors dividends for the first time in decades and to improve the flying product.

Business

Holiday Travelers Should Expect Packed Planes, Higher Fares

"So we continue to see new aircraft coming into the system, facilities improving, a more stable, better trained workforce, in-flight tablets, proliferation of Wi-Fi, now you're seeing it more in international markets," Heimlich says.

More Classes, Fewer Cheap Seats

But at least some of those amenities won't be free to all passengers. Airlines have begun offering far fewer cheap seats, and they're separating passengers into more classes, with each increasing level in price coming with a few more perks and comforts.

"Bells and whistles are being added if you are paying premium prices," says George Hamlin, president of Hamlin Transportation Consulting. "I think it would be fair to say that the game here is 'pay to play.' If you want the cheapest fare, don't look for the primo product."

Looking ahead to 2015, Hamlin says travelers should continue to expect jam-packed planes and high fares, since demand for air travel continues to rise, recent mergers reduce competition and airlines have reduced excess seat capacity.

commercial flight

air travel

Travel

Airlines

Goats and Soda

Endless Ebola Epidemic? That's The 'Risk We Face Now,' CDC Says

Ebola has cast a shadow over Liberia, but it can't stop Christmas.

Goats and Soda

A Game Of Ludo Helps Liberians Catch A Break From Ebola

Despite the trauma of the past year, Liberians are trying to have a happy holiday season. Carols are playing on the radio and there's lots of decorating — and painting — going on.

"At a certain time of the year we want our homes to look good," says journalist Siatta Scott Johnson, "It's like a competition in Liberia when it comes to the festive season."

According to Johnson, there's a government order to paint all office buildings, shops and private houses by mid-December. Otherwise you face a fine. She says Ebola has not changed that practice.

"So if you don't paint your house to really look good, people kind of think that you're not a normal Liberian," she says. "And in Christmas, we do a lot of decoration. You find a lot of Christmas trees in homes. We have Christmas flower designs. Those that have houses with fence ... they do a design around the fence. I think the idea came from the U.S. It is something that's within us. So I think that was one culture that was not touched by Ebola."

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The Liberian government demands a fresh coat of paint on every building before Christmas. Painters spruce up the United Methodist Church in Monrovia. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption John W. Poole/NPR

The Liberian government demands a fresh coat of paint on every building before Christmas. Painters spruce up the United Methodist Church in Monrovia.

John W. Poole/NPR

That doesn't mean Ebola has been forgotten. "Protect yourself. Don't give anybody Ebola for Christmas," says deputy public affairs minister Isaac Jackson. "We want to make sure you keep it safe."

The past couple of months have seen the number of new cases declining and stabilizing in Liberia, after the terrifying highs of the summer. Ebola specialists warn that creeping complacency is the new enemy and that Liberians must remain vigilant. A presidential order is in force, banning large gatherings in the capital city of Monrovia to keep people from crowding together and possibly spreading the virus. (And neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone have banned public celebrations altogether during the festive season because of Ebola.)

Manasseh Peters strides up the narrow main street in the tough, congested West Point slum district of the Liberian capital, where there were riots over Ebola in August. Dodging noisy three-wheeler rickshaw taxis, the 19-year-old street trader is selling brightly-colored lengths of tinsel.

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Liberian Santa, right, sings and dances in downtown Monrovia. Passers-by toss him coins so he'll have a happy and prosperous new year. John W. Poole/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption John W. Poole/NPR

Liberian Santa, right, sings and dances in downtown Monrovia. Passers-by toss him coins so he'll have a happy and prosperous new year.

John W. Poole/NPR

"How's it looking this year — with Ebola?" I ask him.

"By God's grace," says Peters, "it'll be fine for us."

And the weather outside isn't frightful. Siatta Scott Johnson is thankful that the rains are over in time for the holidays.

But there's one little anomaly.

"We just don't have snow," she says. "So sometimes when they play, 'Let it snow, let it snow,' I say, 'No, we should play 'Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine' — because the sun will surely be shining."

ebola

Liberia

Christmas

The daily lowdown on books, publishing and the occasional author behaving badly.

When picking up a book before bed, sleepy readers ought to give some thought not just to what they read but also how they read. It doesn't matter how boring the material may be; if you're plodding through it on an e-reader, a new study shows it'll likely be tougher to fall asleep — and to get a good rest while you're at it.

A team of researchers corralled a dozen healthy young adults into a private room at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital for two weeks, asking half to read from print books for five straight evenings before bed and asking the other half to read e-books on an iPad. Then, the groups swapped places.

The results, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offered a clear distinction: Participants noted they were less sleepy at night after staring at e-readers, taking about 10 more minutes to fall asleep than the print set. And though both groups got eight hours of sleep, the e-reading group also spent less of it in REM.

"Furthermore," the report adds, "not only did they awaken feeling sleepier, it took them hours longer to fully 'wake up' and attain the same level of alertness than in the printed book condition."

The researchers attributed this change to the short-wavelength light emitted by many e-readers, which can confuse and delay the daily rhythms of our bodies. This type of light is common not just in iPads, but also in phones, the Nook Color and the Kindle Fire. Unlighted e-readers like the original Kindle, however, share more characteristics with print books than their electronic cousins.

"Many people read things to help them fall asleep," Charles Czeisler, one of the study's authors, told The Wall Street Journal. "They probably don't realize that this technology is actually making them less likely to feel sleepy."

The Sickness That Saved Middle-Earth? Readers may owe The Lord of the Rings to a nasty bout of trench fever, reporter Allison Flood suggests. According to documents recently made public by the U.K.'s Forces War Records organization, a 25-year-old JRR Tolkien narrowly survived his World War I combat experience, likely because of a timely separation from his battalion to recover from the illness.

Flood reports: "Forces War Records said that while he was convalescing, the 11th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers with which he was serving was hit by German mortar fire, wounding many, with a 'massive bombardment' of its frontline following."

A Song Of Ice And Attire: Explorer and author Patrick Woodhead just unveiled his novel Beneath the Ice in Antarctica. Now, I feel a bit less guilty pairing the news with a pun (or two) — Woodhead nails the cold open! What a way to break the ice! — because Woodhead didn't refrain from using one of his own.

Noting the thousands of penguins surrounding him, Woodhead told the Belfast Telegraph: "It's the only book launch I've done where everyone turned up in black tie."

Freud Aloud: In what promises to be a bleak affair indeed, Sigmund Freud will soon be getting a marathon reading. Spurred by what The New York Times calls "a response to the beheadings, school shootings and other violence" that have permeated the year, a long list of participants — including Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham and philosopher Simon Critchley, according to the the Times — will take turns reading aloud from Freud's seminal meditation on aggression and violence, Civilization and Its Discontents. The reading is to take place Jan. 3 in New York.

Book News

books

A man who led a group that beheaded a French journalist has been killed in an attack by Algeria's military. Abdelmalek Gouri had been a wanted criminal in Algeria for nearly 20 years. His Islamic State splinter group claimed responsibility for killing hiker Herve Gourdel in September.

Gouri, a former al-Qaida figure who France 24 says also used the name Khaled Abu Suleiman, was killed along with two other members of extremist group Jund al-Khilafah, which in September announced it is now affiliated with ISIS. The group said Gourdel's killing was retaliation for France joining the fight against ISIS in Iraq.

The AP explains how Gouri was targeted for the attack:

"A local security official said the military had been tracking Gouri for a while and nearly caught him a month before.

" 'This time the intelligence services had information that he was coming to visit his parents so they set an ambush,' the officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media."

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Algeria

Falling oil prices are perhaps nowhere more welcome than in northern New England, where most homes burn heating oil in their furnaces. But cheaper heating oil is refilling consumers' pockets just as high electric prices are emptying them out.

For example, a heating oil truck delivers 600 gallons of heating oil every two weeks to an old, four-story brick building in Concord, N.H. At last year's oil prices, each refill would have cost around $2,200. Right now, it's more than $300 cheaper.

Since several apartments in this building share one furnace, the building's owner, Leon Azniv, pays their heating bill, but he says he's not exactly watching the commodities market.

"It's on automatic delivery. The only time I find about it is when it doesn't work!" Azniv says.

Well, he is saving money. The Energy Information Administration estimates that between the falling cost of oil and forecasts for a slightly milder winter, the average heating oil customer should save around $630 through the heating season.

Great news for anybody with an oil tank, right? Yes, but unfortunately there's bad news out there for anyone with an electric meter. Electric rates across New England have jumped. That's because while New England has dramatically expanded the number of natural gas plants powering the region, it has not built out the pipelines to supply those plants.

For some, bills are increasing by as much as 50 percent. Ryan Clouthier, who administers a low-income energy assistance program in southern New Hampshire, says for many, rising electric bills have gobbled up the savings.

"Some people will rely on electric heat to try to reduce their oil burden, so they might be putting electric heat on in just one or two rooms and heating that way for the winter," he says.

Energy

New England Electricity Prices Spike As Gas Pipelines Lag

Clouthier notes that the program has had 800 more applications for assistance this year than at the same time last year.

Cheaper oil could mean a reprieve from a different trend in New England: fuel switching.

"We have seen in the past few years a fair amount of market share disappear to alternatives like cordwood, wood pellets," says Rob Stenger, owner of Simple Energy, a fuel oil dealer in Lebanon, N.H.

He notes that in all of the New England states, the number of homes heating with oil has fallen over the past decade, while wood, propane and natural gas are on the rise.

So will that slow down?

"People, they sort of get amnesia. The price goes up, they get discipline; the price goes down and they forget all about it," Stenger says. "And I think ... over the last decade, I think that the disciplines associated with using less have some real staying power."

Stenger says customers he talks to say they expect higher prices to be just around the corner.

If you visit a local strip mall or downtown shopping street, it's not hard to find a store where customers can lease-to-own. That is, you can pay over time and eventually, after some chunky fees, a flat screen TV or living room set is yours.

Well, now there's a way to do that for a smartphone. A Silicon Valley startup called Better Finance is lending money so that just about anyone can buy the latest iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. It's raised millions of dollars from some of the most respected tech investors, like PayPal and Venrock.

But according to public records reviewed by NPR, the real cost of the deal isn't clear to many customers.

A New Lending Business

Better Finance CEO Ryan Gilbert says he noticed a problem in retail stores: "When a consumer is standing in front of a sales associate, wanting to buy an iPhone or a Samsung phone today, they want to walk out of the store with that phone."

But not everyone has the cash, and lots of people can't get credit from the phone company. So Gilbert created a new program called SmartPay.

"We're in about 5,000 active stores right now," he says.

Shoppers give their Social Security numbers and get sized up under a formula that the company created. It's not a traditional credit score, and it gives approval in no more than three minutes over the Internet. Customers can instantly buy the phone of their dreams, and even a nice case and accessories.

Better Finance makes money by charging fees and taking money directly from the customer's bank account.

So for a phone bought over, say, a 10-month period, "you'd be paying back off a $900 product, approximately $150 a month, for the full term," Gilbert says.

After 10 months, that's a markup of nearly 70 percent. Do people really know they're signing up for that?

"Oh, absolutely," Gilbert says. "I mean, this is a business where disclosure is 100 percent of the rule. And there's no shortcuts in that regard."

The Shortcut

But when you look at how it works inside stores, like the retailer MetroPCS, there is a shortcut.

"They said that they work with this company SmartPay and that I could get approved for up to $700," says Michael Atchley, a customer from Fort Worth, Texas. "But also with SmartPay, I have a 90-day same-as-cash policy."

The policy means you have 90 days to pay back the full amount of the loan without being charged any fees. Atchley says he wasn't even in the store when he got it; he had called his local MetroPCS from work when his old phone broke.

"Never actually signed anything," Atchley says. "Just took it on the rep's word that what they were going to set up was exactly like he said it."

It was only after Atchley picked up his Samsung Galaxy Note 2 that he got an email from SmartPay.

All Tech Considered

The Market For Low-End Smartphones Is Looking Up

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New Smartphone Upgrade Plans Can Be Costly In The Long Run

"It said that I actually had a 60-day same-as cash-policy, which was not what I was sold," he says.

That was a whole month less than Atchley expected.

All Tech Considered

Will A Kill Switch Stop Cellphones From Being Stolen?

NPR visited six MetroPCS locations that offer SmartPay and called a dozen more, and their representatives made the same 90-day pitch — even though many customers don't qualify for it.

Atchley doesn't have a lot of spare cash, and he wanted out. He couldn't return the phone for a refund to MetroPCS because, he says, he had already talked on it for over an hour. And when he called a Better Finance, their rep didn't help either, he says.

"I mean, I even asked her, are you actually paying attention to what I'm saying? Because the responses you're giving me — they don't make sense,' " Atchley says.

Accountability Gap

Atchley and 231 other SmartPay customers have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and five have filed with federal regulators, consistently saying they were misled.

MetroPCS, which is owned by T-Mobile, declined to comment on its SmartPay sales. Better Finance says the sales person in Atchley's case violated procedures, and that CEO Gilbert can't control what happens in every single store.

Gilbert says once customers sign up, "They do get an email confirming the full extent of the contract they've entered into with us and 100 percent disclosure through that process."

Predatory Products Or More Options?

"This is a new area for the Silicon Valley kids," says Ed Mierzwinski, a consumer advocate with U.S. PIRG, the decades-old nonprofit. "They've got a lot of money, they burn a lot of money, they work really fast."

Under federal regulations, a company has to disclose the terms of a lease before — not after — it begins. In an email, Better Finance told NPR that salespeople in stores are "expressly instructed to make sure that it is the customer him or herself that directly reads the terms and conditions."

But Mierzwinski says sales reps working on commission are going to focus on pushing the product.

"When the consumer says, 'Oh I like your phone, but I can't afford it,' they say, 'Oh, you don't have to pay for it today. Just push this button,' " he explains.

Mierzwinski says some buttons just shouldn't be that easy to push.

smartphones

If you visit a local strip mall or downtown shopping street, it's not hard to find a store where customers can lease-to-own. That is, you can pay over time and eventually, after some chunky fees, a flat screen TV or living room set is yours.

Well, now there's a way to do that for a smartphone. A Silicon Valley startup called Better Finance is lending money so that just about anyone can buy the latest iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. It's raised millions of dollars from some of the most respected tech investors, like PayPal and Venrock.

But according to public records reviewed by NPR, the real cost of the deal isn't clear to many customers.

A New Lending Business

Better Finance CEO Ryan Gilbert says he noticed a problem in retail stores: "When a consumer is standing in front of a sales associate, wanting to buy an iPhone or a Samsung phone today, they want to walk out of the store with that phone."

But not everyone has the cash, and lots of people can't get credit from the phone company. So Gilbert created a new program called SmartPay.

"We're in about 5,000 active stores right now," he says.

Shoppers give their social security numbers and get sized up under a formula that the company created. It's not a traditional credit score, and it gives approval in no more than three minutes over the Internet. Customers can instantly buy the phone of their dreams, and even a nice case and accessories.

Better Finance makes money by charging fees and taking money directly from the customer's bank account.

So for a phone bought over, say, a 10-month period, "you'd be paying back off a $900 product, approximately $150 a month, for the full term," Gilbert says.

After 10 months, that's a markup of nearly 70 percent. Do people really know they're signing up for that?

"Oh, absolutely," Gilbert says. "I mean, this is a business where disclosure is 100 percent of the rule. And there's no shortcuts in that regard."

The Shortcut

But when you look at how it works inside stores, like the retailer MetroPCS, there is a shortcut.

"They said that they work with this company SmartPay and that I could get approved for up to $700," says Michael Atchley, a customer from Fort Worth, Texas. "But also with SmartPay, I have a 90-day same-as-cash policy."

The policy means you have 90 days to pay back the full amount of the loan without being charged any fees. Atchley says he wasn't even in the store when he got it; he had called his local MetroPCS from work when his old phone broke.

"Never actually signed anything," Atchley says. "Just took it on the rep's word that what they were going to set up was exactly like he said it."

It was only after Atchley picked up his Samsung Galaxy Note 2 that he got an email from SmartPay.

All Tech Considered

The Market For Low-End Smartphones Is Looking Up

Business

New Smartphone Upgrade Plans Can Be Costly In The Long Run

"It said that I actually had a 60-day same-as cash-policy, which was not what I was sold," he says.

That was a whole month less than Atchley expected.

All Tech Considered

Will A Kill Switch Stop Cellphones From Being Stolen?

NPR visited six MetroPCS locations that offer SmartPay and called a dozen more, and their representatives made the same 90-day pitch — even though many customers don't qualify for it.

Atchley doesn't have a lot of spare cash, and he wanted out. He couldn't return the phone for a refund to MetroPCS because, he says, he had already talked on it for over an hour. And when he called a Better Finance, their rep didn't help either, he says.

"I mean, I even asked her, are you actually paying attention to what I'm saying? Because the responses you're giving me — they don't make sense,' " Atchley says.

Accountability Gap

Atchley and 231 other SmartPay customers have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and five have filed with federal regulators, consistently saying they were misled.

MetroPCS, which is owned by T-Mobile, declined to comment on its SmartPay sales. Better Finance says the sales person in Atchley's case violated procedures, and that CEO Gilbert can't control what happens in every single store.

Gilbert says once customers sign up, "They do get an email confirming the full extent of the contract they've entered into with us and 100 percent disclosure through that process."

Predatory Products Or More Options?

"This is a new area for the Silicon Valley kids," says Ed Mierzwinski, a consumer advocate with U.S. PIRG, the decades old non-profit. "They've got a lot of money, they burn a lot of money, they work really fast."

Under federal regulations, a company has to disclose the terms of a lease before — not after — it begins. In an email, Better Finance told NPR that salespeople in stores are "expressly instructed to make sure that it is the customer him or herself that directly reads the terms and conditions."

But Mierzwinski says sales reps working on commission are going to focus on pushing the product.

"When the consumer says, 'Oh I like your phone, but I can't afford it,' they say, 'Oh, you don't have to pay for it today. Just push this button,' " he explains.

Mierzwinski says some buttons just shouldn't be that easy to push.

smartphones

Sweets this time of year take on all kinds of whimsical shapes: cookies cut into stars, stockings and gingerbread men, candy canes, peanut butter balls ... or logs covered in frosting.

Yes, really — logs.

Not real logs, of course — these are holiday cakes, rolled and frosted to look like a yule log and known as buche de Noel. Sometimes the cakes are dotted with little meringue mushrooms or edible holly leaves. While the cake may not be on every American's baking list, cookbook author Dorie Greenspan says it's iconic in Europe.

"It's really traditional in Europe and has been for years," she says. "But boy, oh boy — in Paris, it's news-making."

Greenspan, the author of Baking Chez Moi, lives part-time in Paris, and says pastry is fashion in the City of Light. Every year before fall fashion week, pastry chefs gather to show off their most dazzling buche de Noel creations.

"They're amazing. I've seen some that are shaped like musical instruments," she says. "One was a collaboration with an architect, and instead of the log going lengthwise, it stood up tall like a skyscraper. They're just phenomenal."

Baking Chez Moi

Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere

by Dorie Greenspan

Hardcover, 477 pages | purchase

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Like "every other Parisian," Greenspan says she ogles the beautiful buche de Noel displayed in shop windows. Most years she'll buy one, as well as make one.

"I do this kind of Franco-American buche de Noel. This is American flavoring and French technique," she says.

She uses a gingerbread spongelike cake, spiced with cinnamon, ginger and pepper. "The pepper really brings up the flavor of the other spices," Greenspan says.

Once the cake is baked, she spreads a cream cheese filling on top of the unrolled cake and sprinkles it with pecan praline. Then, after rolling it into a log shape, she tops it with a marshmallow frosting.

"[The frosting is] billowy and white and sweet and so easy to put over the log, you can do anything with it," she says. "You can make it sleek and sophisticated (I never do) or you can use the back of a spoon and just go swirl crazy — just make swirls and whirls and then sprinkle the whole thing with nuts."

The result, Greenspan says, is an "ooh and ahh" dessert that's "just as good as birthday cake."

Recipe: Gingerbread Buche De Noel

Makes 12 servings

Everything but the frosting can be made ahead, so you can get a jump on things. You need to spread the frosting as soon as it's made, but the cake needs to be refrigerated after it's frosted and it can stay in the fridge for up to 2 days, so there are no last-minute to-dos with this beauty. And just because it's called a buche de Noel doesn't mean you can't stud it with candles and call it a birthday cake.

A word on tools: You'll need a candy thermometer for the frosting and a stand mixer.

For the praline:

1 cup pecan halves or pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

For the cake:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch, sifted
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 large eggs
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting and rolling

For the filling:

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Pinch of fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the frosting:

1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 large)
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

To make the praline: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat and spread the pecans out on the baking sheet. Bake the nuts for 3 minutes (you want to heat, not toast, them), stir them around and then put them in a warm spot while you cook the sugar.

Put the sugar in a small saucepan and pour the water over it. Swirl to moisten the sugar, then put the pan over medium-high heat. Cook the sugar, washing down the sides of the pan if needed with a pastry brush dipped in cold water, until the sugar turns a medium amber color. (Stay close; sugar changes color quickly.) Turn off the heat, add the nuts to the saucepan (set the lined baking sheet aside) and stir a few times with a heatproof spatula or a wooden spoon, just to coat the nuts with syrup.

Pour the caramelized nuts out onto the baking sheet and use the spatula, spoon or an offset metal spatula to spread them out. If they won't spread out, no matter — you're going to chop them anyway. Let cool completely. (The praline can be made up to a day ahead, packed in a container and kept in a cool, dry place — moisture is praline's nemesis.) Finely chop 1/2 cup of the praline; coarsely chop the remainder.

To make the cake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Butter the paper, dust with flour and tap out the excess. Whisk the flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, ginger, salt and pepper together in a small bowl.

Have a wide skillet about one-third full of simmering water on the stove. Working in the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a heatproof bowl in which you can use a hand mixer, whisk together the eggs and brown sugar. Set the bowl in the pan of simmering water (pour off some water if you're concerned that it will slosh over the sides) and whisk nonstop until the mixture is very warm to the touch, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

If you're using a stand mixer, attach the bowl to the stand and fit it with the whisk attachment, or use a hand mixer. Working on high speed, beat the sugared eggs until they are thick and pale, have more than doubled in volume and have reached room temperature, 7 to 10 minutes. Switch to a flexible spatula and fold in the flour mixture in two additions. Be as delicate as you can and don't be overly thorough now — you're going to continue to fold when the butter goes in. Put the melted butter in a small bowl, scoop a big spoonful of the batter over it and stir. Turn this mixture out onto the batter in the bowl and fold it in: Cut deep into the center of the bowl and search the bottom for unincorporated flour — find it and fold it. Scrape the batter out onto the prepared baking sheet and spread it evenly with an offset spatula.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown, lightly springy to the touch and starting to pull away from the sides of the baking sheet. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack, but keep it on the rack for no more than 5 minutes; you want to roll the cake while it's hot.

Lay a cotton or linen kitchen towel (not terrycloth or microfiber) on the counter and dust it generously with confectioners' sugar. Run a table knife around the sides of the cake and invert the cake onto the towel. Carefully peel away the parchment. Lightly dust the cake with confectioners' sugar and replace the parchment, putting the clean side against the cake (or use a new piece). Starting at a short end, roll the cake into a log; this is a preroll, so it doesn't have to be tight or perfect. If the cake cracks, keep rolling — the filling and frosting will patch everything. Return the rolled-up cake (still in its towel) to the rack and let it cool, seam side down, to room temperature.

Meanwhile, make the filling: Put the softened cream cheese, butter and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or work in a large bowl with a hand mixer. With the mixer on medium speed, beat until the cream cheese and butter are homogeneous and smooth. Beat in the cinnamon and vanilla. If you're going to use the filling now, stir in the 1/2 cup finely chopped praline; if not, wait until you're ready to fill the Yule log. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate. (You can make the filling — without the praline — up to 2 days ahead and keep it well covered in the refrigerator.)

To fill the log: If the filling has been chilled, give it a good whisking to return it to a spreadable consistency; add the praline if you haven't already done so.

Unroll the log and carefully remove the parchment; leave the cake on the kitchen towel. Beginning with a short end, gently roll up the cake, peeling away the towel as you go. Unroll the cake onto the towel or a clean piece of parchment.

Spread the filling across the surface of the cake, leaving a scant 1-inch border uncovered on the long sides. Again starting from a short side, roll up the cake, leaving the towel or parchment behind and trying to get as tight a roll as you can. If you'd like, tighten the log using the paper-and-ruler technique [You can find more detail on this technique in Baking Chez Moi]. Place the cake on a parchment-lined cutting board, cover it and chill it for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the frosting: Put the egg whites in the clean, dry bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl that you can use with a hand mixer.

Stir the sugar, cream of tartar and water together in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then cover and boil for about 3 minutes. Uncover, attach a candy thermometer to the pan and cook until the thermometer reads 242 degrees F (this can take almost 10 minutes).

When the sugar reaches 235 degrees, begin beating the whites on medium speed. If you get to the point where the whites look like they're about to form stiff peaks and the syrup isn't at 242 degrees yet, lower the mixer speed and keep mixing until the sugar is ready.

At 242 degrees, with the mixer on medium speed, stand back and carefully and steadily pour the hot syrup into the bowl. Try to get the syrup between the side of the bowl and the whisk. Perfection is impossible, so ignore any spatters; don't try to stir them into the frosting. Add the vanilla and keep beating until the frosting cools to room temperature, about 5 minutes. You'll have a shiny, marshmallow frosting, which you should spread now.

To frost and finish the log: Remove the cake from the refrigerator. You can frost it on the cutting board and then transfer it to a serving platter or put it on the platter now. To keep the platter clean during frosting, tuck strips of parchment under the log, putting just a sliver of the parchment under the cake and leaving the lion's share to protect your platter.

If the ends of the log look ragged, trim them. Using an offset spatula, table knife or the back of a spoon, swirl the frosting all over the cake in a thick layer. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to set the frosting and firm up the filling.

Sprinkle the cake with the remaining coarsely chopped praline before serving.

Serving: Bringing the cake to the table is its own dramatic event, but there's no reason not to add to the drama by making it the sole event. Instead of waiting to serve the log apres dinner, have an afternoon holiday party and serve just the cake and Champagne. It's a very chic way to say Merry Christmas!

Storing: Covered lightly and kept away from foods with strong odors, the cake will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Serve it chilled.

Recipe excerpted from Baking Chez Moi, copyright 2014 by Dorie Greenspan. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

In what could prove a sneak peek at the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a strong critic of President Obama's decision to open relations with Cuba, appears to be stepping up an attack on fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul over his support of the policy shift.

Speaking to ABC's This Week today, Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, took the Kentucky senator to task for supporting the new U.S. policy. Both lawmakers are considered potential White House contenders.

Rubio reiterated his displeasure with the president's decision, calling it "absurd." He said Paul had become Obama's "chief cheerleader."

Last week, Paul told a West Virginia radio station that starting trade with Cuba is "probably a good idea."

"Rand, if he wants to become the chief cheerleader of Obama's foreign policy, he certainly has a right to do that," Rubio said after This Week host George Stephanopoulos asked about the growing feud between the two senators over Cuba policy.

"I'm going to continue to oppose the Obama — Obama-Paul foreign policy on Cuba because I know it won't lead to freedom and liberty for the Cuban people, which is my sole interest here," Rubio said.

On Wednesday, the president announced the historic shift in U.S. policy.

For more than five decades, the U.S. has maintained a commercial, economic and financial embargo on Cuba and isolated the nation diplomatically. The tense relations were triggered by Cuban leader Fidel Castro's communist revolution that in 1959 overthrew the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista, who enjoyed U.S. support.

Relations continued to sour as the Soviet aid went to Castro's government and a CIA-sponsored invasion of the island at the Bay of Pigs failed in 1961. A year and a half later, the U.S. and USSR nearly came to war over Soviet missiles based in Cuba. The so-called "Cuban Missile Crisis" ended with Moscow withdrawing the weapons.

Sen. Marco Rubio

Sen. Rand Paul

Cuba

Many beer aficionados are familiar with the rare breweries run by Trappist monks. The beer is highly sought after, but it's not the only food or drink made by a religious order. Many abbeys and convents have deep roots in agriculture, combining farm work with prayer.

Just five miles south of the Colorado-Wyoming border you'll find one of these places. Idyllic red farm buildings sit in the shadow of the main abbey, all tucked in a stony valley. At the Abbey of St. Walburga, cattle, water buffalo and llamas graze on grass under the watchful eye of Benedictine nuns.

Sister Maria-Walburga Schortemeyer runs the abbey's ranch. Other sisters volunteer their time to work. The list of agricultural activities is long. In addition to the cows and llamas, they raise chickens and bees, most of which are used within the abbey's kitchen. The water buffalo are the newest addition, brought on in April 2014, and milked to make mozzarella cheese. But because the sisters need a health certification for their operation, the cheese making is currently on pause.

The biggest moneymaker on the farm comes from the beef cattle. The sisters are very aware of their marketing edge, Schortemeyer says.

"We have kind of a corner on the market — you know, nuns selling natural beef. People just kind of believe in it," she says.

i i

The farm buildings sit in the shadow of this, the main Abbey of St. Walburga, all tucked in a stony valley. Sonja Salzburg /for Harvest Public Media. hide caption

itoggle caption Sonja Salzburg /for Harvest Public Media.

The farm buildings sit in the shadow of this, the main Abbey of St. Walburga, all tucked in a stony valley.

Sonja Salzburg /for Harvest Public Media.

They've been in the grass-fed beef business now for about seven years. Because their operation is so unique, they've never had a problem selling out their product.

"Some of our customers want it because of the beef," Schortemeyer says. "Some of them want it because they know how [the animals are] being are cared for. We didn't have much trouble, and now we always have a waiting list for the beef."

To keep the baby cows safe from the region's numerous predators, the nuns employ a set of unorthodox security guards — the aforementioned llamas.

"We have seen them chase a mountain lion off the property," Schortemeyer says. "Llamas have various weaponry. One of them is their breath. They also kill with their front feet. They try to disembowel you — if they were upset with you."

That's right, a disemboweling guard llama raised by nuns. The sisters say the llamas usually save their spit and hooves for intruders, not the nuns who feed them.

i i

From left: Sisters Maria-Gertrude Reed, Ann Lee, Maria-Walburga Schortemeyer and Elizabeth Baumgartner. The Benedectine nuns blend work and prayer on the farm run by the Abbey of St. Walburga, located near the Colorado-Wyoming border. Sonja Salzburg /for Harvest Public Media hide caption

itoggle caption Sonja Salzburg /for Harvest Public Media

From left: Sisters Maria-Gertrude Reed, Ann Lee, Maria-Walburga Schortemeyer and Elizabeth Baumgartner. The Benedectine nuns blend work and prayer on the farm run by the Abbey of St. Walburga, located near the Colorado-Wyoming border.

Sonja Salzburg /for Harvest Public Media

When many religious orders were founded centuries ago during the Middle Ages, agriculture was more than a way of life; it was a way of survival. Monasteries were self-sustaining, growing the food they ate. While farming has become less common as we've urbanized as a society, Schortemeyer says the abbey's farm is more than just a quaint business. Other sisters have questioned the ranch's value, but Schortemeyer says it keeps the sisters connected to the outside world.

"When our neighbors are suffering from drought or suffering from flooding, we can totally relate to them. We're not above and beyond. ... It's good to be at the mercy of the environment, and so that other people know we don't live some ethereal life," she says.

Benedictine monasteries, with orders like the Trappists and Cistercians, use the motto Ora et Labora, meaning prayer and work. That motto doesn't represent separate ideas to the sisters. All day long, prayer and work are intertwined.

"Praying with the scriptures is like chewing your cud," Schortemeyer says. "So all through the day, we're ruminating on it. We chew, chew, chew, swallow, regurgitate. So it's not just 'the Lord is my shepherd,' it's 'the Lord is my cowboy.' "

In their simple farm clothes of plaid shirts, jeans and Carhartts, it can be easy to forget the women are nuns — save for the fact they still wear the familiar fitted white coif covering their heads.

Back at the main abbey, Schortemeyer dons the traditional black and white habit. No more Carhartt jacket. With farm work done for the morning, it's time for prayer. It won't be long before they're headed back out to the ranch to round up some rogue llamas.

This story comes to us from Harvest Public Media, a reporting collaboration that focuses on agriculture and food production.

livestock farming

food and religion

farming