MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Arts & Culture Stories from NPR

• 'Joy Enough' Recalls A Daughter's All-Encompassing Love For Her Mother
  Sarah McColl unstintingly puts her heart on the page as she reflects on caring for her dying mother, with whom she is unimaginably close, as her marriage fails.
• 'Fence' Shows That In Sports, Sometimes It's Not About Winning
  C.S. Pacat's comic about rivalries and relationships in the overheated world of elite high school fencers stars a brash outsider up against a sleek yet surly prodigy at the top of his game.
• 'Schitt's Creek' Flows Smoothly Into Season 5
  The characters have grown, their relationships — to each other, and to viewers — have deepened, the writing's sharp and the actors are having a ball. Dive in.
• In Home Of Original Sriracha Sauce, Thais Say Rooster Brand Is Nothing To Crow About
  The Rooster brand, ubiquitous in the U.S., is now being exported to Thailand, where Sriracha was born. But many Thais who taste the U.S. version are not impressed. "I wanted to gag," says one.
• John C. Reilly On The Comedy Of Laurel And Hardy: 'It's Almost Like A Ballet'
  "The brilliant thing about their work when you watch it, it seems so nonchalant," Reilly says of the iconic slapstick duo. He plays Oliver Hardy in the new film Stan & Ollie.
• Everyone Is A Traveler As The CW Returns To 'Roswell, New Mexico'
  In a reboot of the late-'90s drama, three secret space aliens struggle to hide their secret in a town trained to look for them. And believe it or not, it's a solid show.
• Bidding Farewell To 'Hello, Dolly!': Actress Carol Channing Dies At 97
  Channing's big break came in 1949 when she was cast as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But she'll always be remembered for her role as a life-loving matchmaker and "meddler" in Hello, Dolly!
• 'Inheritance' Investigates A Family Secret, With Self-Discovery At The Core
  Dani Shapiro, at age 54, is shocked to learn that the man she thought was her biological father wasn't a blood relative. Her memoir, a quest for the truth, reads like an emotional detective story.
• 'Muhammad: Forty Introductions' Isn't Setting Out To Satisfy
  Michael Muhammad Knight's new book on the religious figure is designed to seduce, educate, and irritate its audience into curiosity about Islam and Muhammad — and on all three fronts it succeeds.
• New Recording Of 'Doctor Atomic' May Be The Opera's Definitive Performance
  John Adams' opera, which premiered in 2005, centers on the first atomic bomb test at Los Alamos, N.M. Now, a new album features a recording of Doctor Atomic conducted by the composer himself.