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Now appearing on All Things Considered: The comedy troupe responsible for such classic spoofs as I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus. Today, Firesign Theatre tackles the issue of homeland security, and the government's program to get civilians to "tip" the government to suspicious activity.

Novelist Chaim Potok died Tuesday at the age of 73. Potok was raised in the Orthodox Jewish tradition, was ordained as a rabbi, and later became a best-selling author of the novels The Chosen, The Promise and My Name is Asher Lev. Much of his writing explored the conflict between spiritual and secular worlds, a subject that earned him readers from all faiths. This interview first aired in 1986.

Our summer reading series profiles novelist Jackie Collins, author of 22 novels, including Lucky and Hollywood Wives. This summer Collins is reading Her (Knopf; ISBN: 037541388X) by Laura Zigman, Billy (Overlook Press; ISBN: 1585673080) by Pamela Stephenson, and Killing Pablo (Penguin USA; ISBN: 0142000957) by Mark Bowden.

Adam Goren and his electronic sequencer (his package) produce quirky, funny, self-referential songs wrapped in a retro '80s synth groove. NPR's Neda Ulaby looks at the improbable musical career of Atom and His Package on Weekend Edition Saturday.

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History opened a new exhibit Monday featuring the Cambridge, Mass. kitchen where Julia Child filmed many of her television shows -- and where many Americans learned to be less afraid of French cooking. See photos and a video of the exhibit -- and learn about Child's life as a World War II spy. See http://americanhistory.si.edu/kitchen/index.htm.

This week the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival features high school contributors. Jennifer Steele and Laura Mandelberg are two of the writers featured in the 10th annual Young Poets Competition, co-sponsored by the festival. They read from their poems for Weekend Edition.

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. (This week's winner is Doug Shemin from Providence, Rhode Island. He listens to Weekend Edition on member station WRNI in Providence.)

Joe Palca goes in search of jellyfish at the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and talks with oceanographer Christopher Brown who says he can predict where the creatures will be and when. Research by Brown and his colleagues appears in the journal Eos. Also, jellyfish salad? We talk with Chef Mario Batali. He's the author of The Babbo Cookbook. (Clarkson Potter Publishers, ISBN 0609607758).

As we move into the dog days of summer, NPR's Susan Stamberg ferrets out at least one recipe for the perfect iced tea -- a drink some call the "house wine of the South." Stamberg talks with Iced Tea author Fred Thompson, who shares a recipe he grew up with, Friday on All Things Considered.

NPR's Richard Knox spent a year with Phil Simmons and his family to chronicle his long struggle with Lou Gehrig's disease -- and to report on how an extraordinarily dedicated group of friends banded together to help take care of Simmons. He died last weekend at his home in the New Hampshire woods. For All Things Considered, NPR's Richard Knox reflects on Simmons' life.