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Thirteen All Things Considered commentators narrate a spooky story they collaborated on. It's a story of a lonely chicken salesman and his voyage of self-discovery. The story takes him on an eerie train ride, to a farmyard populated by bizarre poultry and Yiddish-speaking farmers. The authors passed the story around by e-mail and fax, chapter by chapter. They are Alan Cheuse, Bailey White, Leon Wynter, Laurie Anderson, Andrei Codrescu, Bill Harley, Daniel Pinkwater, Joyce Maynard, Bob Garfield, Amy Dickinson, Teller, Marion Winik and Kevin Kling.

political contributions can be hard to distinguish. While it's illegal for a U.S. political party to accept money from a foreign corporation, it's not against the law to take money from a domestic subsidiary of a foreign company.

Linda talks with Andy Kohut, the director of the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, about the latest results of the Center's polls, which indicate a solid lead for Bill Clinton in the upcoming presidential race, and a small gain for Congressional Democrats in local races.

- N-P-R's Jennifer Ludden reports on the delayed efforts of Zaire to hold democratic elections. In 1990, President Mobutu Sese Seko (moh-boo-TOO say-SEE say-KOH) mandated that Zaire hold democratic elections in 1995. Elections were never held and, one year later, reform groups are calling on Mobutu to follow his 1990 mandate. In calling for elections, reformers are identifying Mobutu and his corrupt government as the primary reason for the delay in Zaire's transition to democracy. But Zaire's troubles are not limited to governmental corruption; logistical and organizational problems abound.

NPR's Claudio Sanchez asks: when is a child's kiss an innocent show of affection..and when is it sexual harassment? Judging from two incidents this week, some public school officials are having a hard time telling the difference. One involved a six-year-old, the other a seven-year-old...both were suspended for kissing a classmate. The kisses illustrate the difficulty schools have with defining -- and dealing with -- the topic of harassment.

NPR's Vicky Que reports on the rise of drug use, particularly marijuana, among teenagers and how researchers are still deciding on the best method for curtailing it. One problem may be that baby boomer parents haven't been as concerned about marijuana use by teenagers as experts think they should be. Marijuana is also much cheaper and more readily available today, which makes it difficult for law enforcement to control.

David Baron reports on the three U.S. scientists who won the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of a form of helium that has shed unexpected light on the first moments of the universe...and a form of helium called Helium-3 has properties called superfludity at extremely low temperatures. the two Texans and the British chemist who won the prize in chemistry for discovery of a carbon molecule that sparked a new field of study.

about last night's Vice Presidential debate.

Today would have been jazz saxophonist John Coltrane's 70th birthday. This past weekend, the town where he grew up...High Point, North Carolina (known as "the furniture capital of the world")...dedicated a marker to him. Paul Brown, of member station WFDD, talked to some of the townspeople who remember Coltrane...and some who don't.

Banning Eyre reviews "Sarala: Hank Jones Meets Cheick-Tidiane Seck and the Mandikas". Eyre, who has lived and studied music in Mali, finds that American jazz pianist Hank Jones, now 79 years old, uses his well-honed jazz sensibilities to mesh perfectly into the traditional music of that west African country.