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Frank talks with writer Thomas Glave about Whose Song? And Other Stories, his new collection of works about life in the New York and the Caribbean. Glave's work focuses on issues involving race, sexuality and the interaction of people from different cultures. (9:25) (NOTE: Whose Song is published by City Lights Books).

Blending into a new city can be a difficult thing in any country, and foreigners living abroad often need to find ways to decompress. Commentator Shai Oster describes the almost religious experience of the morning commute in Beijing.

Maura Ferrelly of Georgia Public Radio reports that residents of Savannah, Georgia are divided over a statue that would commemorate slaves and their contribution to the city. The focus of the controversy is an inscription on the proposed slave memorial by poet Maya Angelou describing the horrors of the "middle passage," the voyage slaves took from Africa to the New World. Opponents say the inscription is divisive, others believe it is an accurate reflection of the voyage.

Noah Adams talks with Ben Miller about the closing of Fresh Kills, the world's largest landfill and the largest manmade object on earth. Fresh Kills opened in 1948 and received its last barge of New York City garbage this week. The garbage mounds will be covered with dirt and seeded with vegetation, but it will take decades for the waste to decompose. Miller is the author of Fat of the Land: Garbage in New York -- the Last 200 Years.

Robert Siegel talks to Helene Stapinksi, the author of Five Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History, a book about growing up in Jersey City, N.J., where the whole town seemed to be on the take. (7:30) Five Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History, by Helene Stapinski, is published by Random House, 2001, ISBN # 0679463062.

Noah talks with Milwaukee County Supervisor Jim McGuigan about the controversy over Dennis Oppenheimer's sculpture of a giant blue shirt. The 35-foot-tall shirt is planned to decorate a parking structure at the Milwaukee Airport. Some people in town are worried that the sculpture will reinforce the city's blue collar image. The artist says that's not what he had in mind.

NPR correspondent Charles Maynes in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don explains Russian attitudes towards the invasion into Ukraine and Western responses.

Food writer Patricia Wells has lived in Paris for 20 years, dining in the city's finest restaurants. Now she has a cookbook showcasing those restaurants' recipes. All Things Considered host Linda Wertheimer talks to Wells about her new Paris Cookbook. (5:15) The publisher is Harper Collins; ISBN # 0060184698.

If Cole Porter and George Gershwin provided a soundtrack for the city, then Hoagy Carmichael was the voice of America's heartland. A new Carmichael biography and song collection — both called Stardust Melody — lead a resurgence of interest in the prolific songwriter's work. Sing along Wednesday on All Things Considered

NPR's Eric Westervelt has an update on the war in Afghanistan. An explosion outside a United Nations guesthouse in Kabul yesterday punctuated the U.S. military's sober assessment of the war that came just hours earlier. Instability still seems to plague Afghan cities. The war is now characterized by skirmishes, while coalition forces hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives along the Pakistani border.