Ah, gyros. The giant cones of rotating meat (pronounced YEE-ros, which is Greek for "spin") have been a staple at Greek restaurants and take-out stands. But where do they come from? The meat's uniform shape and source has been a mystery— until now. Intrepid New York Times reporter David Segal tracked down the origins of the U.S. version of the Greek treat in a factory in Chicago. He joins us now with his report.

For more, read David Segal's article, The Gyro's History Unfolds, in The New York Times.

The NAACP has gathered in New York for a six-day convention celebrating its 100-year anniversary. It’s an enormous affair with giants such as Cornel West, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and President Obama paying tribute to the accomplishments of the civil rights organization. The civil rights group was formed by a multi-racial coalition in 1909, sparked in 1908 by a deadly race riot in Springfield Illinois. Nearly a century later, Barack Obama launched his presidential campaign not far from where the riot took place. Looking at the challenges ahead and its past accomplishments we are joined by Melissa Harris-Lacewell. She is an Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University.

Read about what was life was like for black Americans in 1909.

The Takeaway will be covering the convention all week long. Tomorrow we continue the conversation with the artists' take on the NAACP’s legacy. We’ll be joined by musical sensation DJ Spooky and poet Elizabeth Alexander.

 

 

The National Assessment of Educational Progress asked eighth graders across the country in 2008 a series of questions on music and visual art. The results of that test, revealed on Monday, may be disappointing to some.

Some of the questions asked were:

•Identify form of musical examples as theme and variations.

•Identify pitch contour of melody in a recording

•Identify an example of 20th-century western art

•Identify compositional emphasis in a Bearden collage

•Identify a compositional feature of a medieval artwork

Could you answer these questions? The previous test in 1997 revealed low scores, and the 2008 results are even lower. Is cultural literacy being lost? Joining us on the show is Richard Kessler, executive director of the Center for Arts Education. Also joining the conversation is Emily Downs, an art teacher for elementary school kids in New Jersey.

In his new book Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back, author Douglas Rushkoff says that to get out of the current economic crisis, Americans must rethink their relationship with companies like Wal-Mart. He favors local economies, local currencies, and even the old-fashioned concept of getting to know your neighbors. He joins The Takeaway with more.

For a sneak peek at the book, here's a brief film of Life, Inc.

The modem. The rotary phone. "You've Got Mail!" These are sounds you may not hear much longer. The Takeaway is joining the BBC World Service in a project called Save Our Sounds. From all over the globe, people are sending in sound clips that they think should be saved. BBC Producer Kate Arkless Gray joins John and Femi to talk about the project. Send us your sound here. You can also follow the project on Twitter.

When Obama meets with top leaders and government officials, he often puts an arm around their shoulders. To some, this could be seen as a friendly gesture, but to others it's a power play. What does a politician's body language really mean? Joining The Takeaway to decipher this for us is Karen Studd, a teacher of movement analysis at the Laban Institute of Movement Studies, who is an Associate Professor of Dance at George Mason University.

William Grimes of The New York Times sent along these recipes for Prohibition-era cocktails — drinker beware, as these were originally concocted during an era of tommy guns and bathtub gin. ...(more)

Glamorized in the movies, the 1920s were a gala time of flappers, jazz, and the eighteenth amendment. The so-called Noble Experiment of Prohibition created a culture of subterranean speakeasies where people could illicitly imbibe. But according to New York Times writer William Grimes, the atmosphere may have been lively, but the drinks were lousy. That hasn't stopped a new interest in underground cocktail lounges from popping up across the country. From Bourbon and Branch in San Francisco to Milk & Honey in New York, there's a speakeasy renaissance going on. And this time, the drinks are good. William Grimes joins The Takeaway with a look at the past, present, and future of speakeasies.

Read William Grimes' article in today's New York Times on the new speakeasy: Bar? What Bar?

And to learn what goes into these Prohibition drinks check out the Grimes' list of Prohibition-era cocktails.

Things have changed since the 1970s, especially for women. But a new study published this week in the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that those changes may not be making women more content. In fact, the research reveals that women are less happy now then they were in the 1970’s. With all the gains that women have made in the past three and a half decades, why is happiness on the decline? The Takeaway talks to the co-authors of the paper, “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness", Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson. Both are assistant professors in public policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt decided that even unemployed writers needed to be put to work. So as part of the New Deal he created the Federal Writers Project and dispatched scribes to all corners of the nation to document, among other topics, food. "What America Eats" became a national compendium of what people were cooking and eating, region by region. Being a "locavore" is a fashionable lifestyle choice now. But in 1940 you ate locally because you had to—the lack of highways and freezers kept diners to a regional and seasonal menu long before it became chic. Notable writers including Eudora Welty who covered Mississippi meals and Zora Neale Hurston who tackled her favorite Floridian foods all weighed in on regional cuisine for the project. In his new book, "Food of a Younger Land," author Mark Kurlansky revives the unfinished America Eats project. He joins The Takeaway for a look back at the diet of a nation.

Click through for an Indiana Persimmon Pudding Recipe

It's a recipe for frustration. In tough economic times, many people are working too hard to take off for an hour-long lunch. And who wants to leave your desk empty when the threat of layoffs is looming? So we dine "al desko": a sandwich in one hand and the mouse in the other. The culinary cost of "just grabbing a sandwich" everyday quickly adds up. But the task of making lunch the night before can be daunting, and boil-in-bag food can be dull. Is there anything you can do at your desk to prepare or pep up your midday meal? New York Times food writer and friend of The Takeaway Melissa Clark has some tips.

What should be in your food pantry at work? Here are Melissa's suggestions for the must-have items for the cubicle gourmet: Red wine vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, good olive oil, Tabasco sauce or other Chili Sauce, sharp mustard (no need to refrigerate!), pepper grinder with fresh pepper, good salt (kosher or coarse sea salt), block of good, dark chocolate (much more satisfying than the vending machine - and cheaper, too!), a bag of roasted salted almonds, and peanut sauce.

Have access to your office fridge? Melissa suggests keeping a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, feta or goat cheese for salads, bagged spinach, and jars of olives and anchovies.

Don't forget to store in your pantry a fork and a sharp knife for cutting an avocado, tomato or zucchini (or for fending off lunchroom thieves).

Have your own ideas for eating al desko? Tell us!

Bud Selig woke up at 4 a.m. again last night, screaming and bathed in sweat. “What’s bothering you, Bud?” his wife says, distracted as she tries to remember if she signed a pre-nup.

“Frankly,” he tells Sue, “It’s not that Selena Roberts is reporting that Alex Rodriguez is a liar who’s been using steroids most of his life. And I’m not worried that Darren Oliver or Francisco Cordero will take ARod’s head off with a fastball after they heard he was tipping their pitches when they were all in Texas. He’d tell opposition hitters what to expect from Rangers pitchers and expect the same ‘courtesy’ as a way of padding his stats.”

“So why were you screaming?” Sue says. “Is it that Manny Ramirez thing?”

“Frankly, no. It’s not that we’re going to have to bust Manny for steroid use, and that a lot of people are beginning to wonder why 15 of the 24 major leaguers who’ve been suspended since 2005 are Latinos, and most of the minor leaguers, too. Or that Manny in LA has been one of the best stories in major league baseball and he just defecated all over it.”

“Is it the Yankees, Bud? How bad they’ve been? I know how important it is to you that they dominate baseball.”

“You raise a good point, Sue. I’ve been watching and wondering why the Yankees didn’t bother to get someone to help out after ARod went down. The three guys they used at third base were a combined 22 for 102 with no home runs and six errors through Wednesday’s games. That and Chien-Ming Wang are why they’re under .500. If I have to sit through another World Series without the Yankees, Sue, I swear I may slit my wrists. If Fox doesn’t do it for me.”

“Well, for heaven’s sake, Bud, what is it?”

“You’re not wearing a wire, are you, Sue?” ...(continue reading)

Imagine this: It's Game Seven of the most hyped NBA playoff in recent memory...and your TV goes out. Takeaway Contributor and sports blogger Ibrahim Abdul-Matin fled to the nearest sports bar for the exhausting finale of the now epic Celtics-Bulls match up. He's got his thoughts on what's up next in the NBA and in the NHL, where the semi-finals are finally bringing hockey fever to Washington D.C.

ESPN has some of the highlights of the Celtics-Bull game, but if you missed it, you missed out:

Historian and author Philipp Blom’s latest endeavor makes the case that the period between 1900 to 1914 in Europe was, as the title of his new book calls it, The Vertigo Years. Those tumultuous times at the start of the last century were an era that was marked by revolution and war, but was also a time where cultural and technological changes happened at an accelerated pace. Blom joins The Takeaway from Vienna, Austria for a look at how the dizzying turn of the 20th century compares to these vertiginous times.

It may not be that easy to find a mall to go hang out and shop anymore. General Growth Properties, one of the biggest mall operators in the country, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. And we are seeing more and more malls die out. In fact as our next guest wrote in The New York Times earlier this month, no new malls have been built in the U.S. since 2006. So what is happening to the mall? And what should happen to the near empty malls now littering the American landscape? To help answer that question, The Takeaway is joined by Ellen Dunham-Jones, Director of the Architecture Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs.

Read the New York Times article, 101 Uses for a Deserted Mall, including a contribution from our guest Ellen Dunham-Jones.

How I Met Your Mother's Robin Sparkles knows how to love a mall:

President Barack Obama became the first sitting President to hit the late night talk show circuit when he joined Jay Leno on the Tonight Show last night. But did it make good television? For a recap and a judgment of his performance we are joined by Julie Mason, White House Correspondent for the Washington Examiner and comedian John Frusciante who is an artistic associate at the Upright Citizens Brigade.

In case you missed it, here's the clip. Judge for yourself!:

Sexuality is a key component of the human experience. And many people who are intellectually or physically disabled may find it difficult to express their sexuality in satisfying and appropriate ways. Otto Baxter, a 21-year old man with Down's Syndrome, wants to have the same sexual experiences that his peers are experiencing and his mother, Lucy Baxter, is doing her part to make this a reality. But at what point does the search for a meaningful sexual experience become a universal one? A quest that proves to be no harder or easier whether you are disabled or not? Joining us to sort this through is Otto Baxter, and his mother Lucy Baxter as well as Karen Avery. She is the Associate Director of Independence First. Independence First is an independent living center dedicated to giving power and independence to people with disabilities.

Lucy's mission has garnered a lot of media attention. Here is one appearance:

In Post-World War II America, when the American Dream was in full bloom, African-Americans were systematically written out of the narrative. Key programs of FDR’s New Deal consciously excluded African-Americans and reinforced patterns of racial segregation. Today as we see the dream dwindling, a new Pew study reports that African-Americans are the most optimistic group about their economic future. An upbeat vision that persists even though unemployment among African-Americans is at 13.4 percent; a rate that surpasses the nationwide average.

Joining The Takeaway to sort through the trajectory of the African-American experience in pursuit of the American dream is Ta- Nehisi Coates. Coates is a contributing editor and blogger for The Atlantic, he’s also the author of “The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood”.

Former Secretary of Defense, William S. Cohen and his wife Janet Langhart wrote the book “Love in Black and White: A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Romance,” published in 2007, about their marriage and life together as an interracial couple living in the United States. They met in 1974 and married on Valentine's Day, 1996. They are hosting the 2nd annual Race and Reconciliation in America conference in Washington D.C. Both join The Takeaway to talk about race in America.

Watch William S. Cohen and Janet Langhart discuss their book and their marriage in the video below.

Jennifer Baszile grew up black in the affluent, predominantly white suburb of Palos Verdes Estates, California in the 1970s and 1980s. She was part of the first generation of Americans born after official segregation came to an end. The experience of growing up African-American in that context hasn't been chronicled much, and now Baszile has written a book, "The Black Girl Next Door," to fill the gap. She shares her story with John and Farai.