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Mitch Moxley, a freelance writer who lives in Beijing, discovered that he could make a living as a fake American businessman. He wrote about his experience making $1,000 a week as a fake quality control expert in The Atlantic article "Rent A White Guy: Confessions of a Fake Businessman from Beijing."

A potentially fatal fungal disease called downy mildew has been attacking basil plants in New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Florida. Gardeners are worried that it could spread farther throughout the summer. Margaret McGrath, an associate professor of plant pathology at Cornell University, says that at first sign of the blight, make pesto and freeze it.

As curator of the Museum of Bad Art outside Boston, Michael Frank stays on the lookout for atrocious acrylics and inferior oils. He frequents garage sales and thrift stores -- and drives extra slowly on trash night.

Patrick Swayze, one of Hollywood's most iconic heartthrobs, died Monday after a 15-month battle with advanced pancreatic cancer. His performance as rough-hewn dance instructor Johnny Castle in the 1987 cult classic Dirty Dancing permanently embedded him in the anthology of American pop culture.

President Obama was never considered a front-runner for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. But the names of the nominees are kept secret, which fuels a vigorous guessing game each year before the announcement.

Eighty years ago this week, the roaring free market of the 1920s came to a devastating collapse. What we didn't understand then — and still don't wholly understand now — is that capitalism is not a perfect system. It needs rules and regulations, and more than ever, it needs them now.

A scandal is growing over the nature of a relationship between a teenage female and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He believes he is the target of a smear campaign by the leftist opposition and has gone on the offensive against the foreign media.

President Obama has pledged to work with religious communities to address the country's most pressing problems. To head up that effort, he named Joshua DuBois the executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. DuBois, a Pentecostal minister, talks about responsible fatherhood, a new initiative launched by the White House.

Although the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist says working in an office is his idea of hell, he admits loving fictional portrayals of the workplace. He talks with Steve Inskeep about some of his favorite literary takes on office life.

Straightforward and kid-friendly, Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo isn't the animation master's most complicated film. But in some ways, the film's simplicity offers a clearer look at the director's greatness.