Weekend Edition Sunday

Jackie Northam covers foreign affairs for NPR news. She has spent two decades covering the world's hot spots, reporting on international and foreign policy issues. She was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

The one question that came up repeatedly since I started my U.S. naturalization process nine months ago was: why?

On May 30, 1911, a literal multitude swarmed into Indiana with all the subtlety of the eighth plague of Egypt. Dozens jammed into hotel rooms. Those who couldn't fit slept in hallways and on the streets. The Indianapolis Sun described the horde as "speed-lust kings and queens, trimmed in gold and perfumed with gasoline and lubricating oil."

On that day, the Indianapolis 500 was born. This weekend, the race celebrates its centennial, and the speed-lust kings and queens are still there, now in even greater numbers.

On-Air Challenge: You are given a statement and must determine whether it is true or false.

Last Week's Challenge Is This Week's Challenge: (Listeners get an extra week to solve it.) Think of two five-letter words that are exact opposites, in which the first two letters of each word are the same as the first two letters of the other, only reversed. Hint: The fourth letter of each word is A. What two words are these?

In a speech to the country's largest pro-Israel lobby on Sunday, Obama focused on the U.S. alliance with Israel and said a delay in the peace process would undermine the security of the Jewish state. NPR's Ari Shapiro tells host Liane Hansen more about the speech and the reaction to it.

When we checked in with composer Robert Kyr last September, he was at Christ in the Desert Monastery in northern New Mexico, sitting at a creaky upright piano, composing harmonies for an ambitious choral project. I've been following this musical creation from inception to completion — and I have the final chapter.