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It's the first Saturday of the month and host Jacki Lyden is joined by novelist Paul Auster to bring you the National Story Project. Interested in submitting a story? Send your stories to: PMB 206 123 7th Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11215. You can also email your submission to NationalStoryProject@npr.org. For more information on the National Story Project and to read this month's stories, please visit the National Story Project area on NPR's web site at http://www.npr.org/programs/watc/991002.storyproject.html.

Is it OK to gloat privately at a former friend's misfortune? What should you do about the gift you really don't like but are afraid to toss? Randy Cohen, who writes The Ethicist column for The New York Times Magazine, joins NPR's Steve Inskeep for this week's installment of ethical dillemas from our listeners. (If you wish to pose an ethical question to Randy, write to the broadcast via email: watc@npr.org Put the word "ethics" in the subject line, and leave a daytime phone number.)

Host Lisa Simeone talks with Rob Bamberger about the life and music of Mildred Bailey (1903-1951). Bailey was a popular singer of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. She sang with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, and was married to bandleader and xylophone player, Red Norvo. Rob Bamberger is the host of the radio program, Hot Jazz Saturday Night, on member station WAMU,Washington DC (www.wamu.org) and on NPR Worldwide, NPR's international service. Listeners can reach Rob by e-mail at "hotjazz@wamu.org". A new re-mastered collection of Mildred Bailey's Columbia 78s is on Mosaic Records (www.mosaicrecords.com).

NPR's Senior Foreign Correspondent Anne Garrels was one of the few journalists still in Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq. Often she reported from her room at the Palestine Hotel as bombs flew overhead. In her new book, Naked in Baghdad, she writes about the war and its aftermath. The book also contains the e-mails that her husband Vint Lawrence sent to friends keeping them informed of her daily life in Baghdad. Garrels has also reported from the former Soviet republics, China, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Israel, and is the recipient of the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University award and the Overseas press Club award.

The family of Nicholas Berg, the U.S. civilian beheaded in Iraq, blames the U.S. government for their son's death. Berg's father, Michael Berg, cited e-mails that he said indicated that Berg was in American military custody at the time he had planned to return home. The CIA has identified the man who killed Berg as terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports.

Her book Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a best seller in Britain, is a narrative history of punctuation. Truss claims that with the advent of e-mail and text messaging, proper punctuation is an endangered species. Truss is also the author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas. She has been a television critic and sports columnist for The Times (London). She also won Columnist of the Year award for her work for Women's Journal. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London.

She posted the photo to her neighborhood email group. Someone then forwarded it to a snake expert, who identified it as a venomous copperhead.

John Hoopingarner of Ohio got an email announcing a bicycle race in Birmingham. He signed up and planned the trip to Alabama before realizing the race was in Birmingham, England. He went any way.

When commentator Aaron Freeman's mother makes cornbread, she measures by sight -- not with a measuring cup -- and that bugged Aaron. Future generations of Freemans would not be able to make the cornbread, too, if she didn't write it down -- and she refused to. So he did -- and happily e-mailed it to anyone who wanted a copy -- and he carefully measured ingredients every time he made it -- until one day, his measuring cup was dirty.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry chooses Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina as his running mate. Edwards, who challenged Kerry for the presidential nomination, was the popular choice of many Democrats. The decision was announced this morning via an e-mail the campaign sent to Kerry supporters. Hear NPR's Scott Horsley and NPR's Michele Norris.