Terry Gross

Back in 1974, New Yorker jazz critic Whitney Balliet placed Blossom Dearie alongside Bobby Short and Mabel Mercer as part of the consummate triumvirate of supper-club singers who rule the upper regions of American popular song. A great singer with the tiniest of voices, Dearie says that voice coaches have called her trademark sound the result of improper breathing.

John Linnell and John Flansburgh, of They Might Be Giants, have just published a children's book (with companion CD) titled Bed, Bed, Bed. Linnell and Flansburgh have known each other since childhood. They started They Might Be Giants in Brooklyn, where they still have a phone machine called Dial-a-Song. You can call up every day and hear a new, original tune. TMBG has released numerous albums, including Factory Showroom, Mink Car and a children's record entitled No! Their best-of CD is Dial-a-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants.

We catch up with him about the latest news from Iraq. He's in the United States for just one day, and then he goes back to Baghdad. Burns has won several Pulitzer Prizes for his overseas war reports.

His new novel is Screaming With the Cannibals. Maynard has been an assignment writer for Reader's Digest for over a decade. He's also written for many other magazines and newspapers. Screaming with the Cannibals is a sequel to his 1988 debut novel, Crum.

He's just received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at this year's National Book Award ceremony. The best-selling author is credited with ushering in a new era of horror with his first novel, Carrie, published in 1974. His newest novel is The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla.

Freeman was a favorite photographer of the Beatles. He shot the covers for five of their albums: With the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles for Sale, Help! and Rubber Soul. He has a new collection of photos, The Beatles: A Private View.

Triumph, a regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, is a puppet and the creation of Robert Smigel. Smigel also created the animated short TV Funhouse on Saturday Night Live. Triumph has a new CD, Come Poop With Me, featuring such tracks as "Underage Bichon" and "Lick Myself." He's appeared on Hollywood Squares and on the MTV Video Music Awards, where he almost came to blows with rapper Eminem.

Sarsgaard portrays editor Chuck Lane in the new film Shattered Glass. Previously Sarsgaard played the sweet-faced killer in the film Boys Don’t Cry. His other films include K-19: The Widowmaker and The Man in the Iron Mask.

The two collaborated (along with journalist Liz Sly) on a three-part series in The Chicago Tribune about illegal Muslim immigrants living in the United States who were required to register with the government after the Sept. 11th attacks. Now many of them are facing deportation or have already been deported.