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One-room schools still exist in America. They are a legacy of a less mobile, more rural time in American history. In 1919, there were 190,000; now there are fewer than 400 left.

Reggae music has gone a lot of places over the years, from minimalist dub to culture-warring dancehall. Almost 40 years on, Spear still hews to the reggae basics: a deep, easy groove; brassy R&B flavorings; and a mystical take on history. His new CD is Jah is Real.

The auction house Christie's sold a Sunburst Fender Stratocaster guitar Friday for a whopping $965,000. It's the guitar behind what some consider a watershed moment in music history — the moment that Bob Dylan picked up an electric guitar on July 25, 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival.

President Obama ruffled conservative feathers when he bowed to the Japanese emperor during his trip to Asia. Bowing is the standard greeting in Japan, as it once was in the United States. Slate magazine's Andy Bowers explains the history of the gesture and why it feel out of favor in the U.S.

After a record-setting Christmas, Hollywood wraps up the year with more than $9 billion in the till -- the second biggest box office total in its history. Film critic NPR's Bob Mondello says a large part of that money was well-earned: some of 2003's most popular movies were also among the year's best. He offers a list of his top movie picks for the year.

Concepcion Picciotto, a protester who held a keep a peace vigil outside the White House for more than three decades, has died. NPR spoke with her in 1985. The Washington Post speculated that she held the longest-running act of political protest in U.S. history.

Pope Benedict is visiting the United States for the first time as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. R. Scott Appleby, a professor of religious history at the University of Notre Dame, says the pope's message to America's "Cafeteria Catholics" will likely be a positive one, rather than focusing on differences with the Vatican.

Vaughan was, arguably, the foremost interpreter of Brazilian music in jazz history. Recorded three years before she died, Brazilian Romance is her equivalent of Johnny Cash's American Recordings — full of contemporary spirit, propelled by a timeless voice.

Eddie McCoy is an unlikely historian. He grew up and has lived his whole life in Oxford, North Carolina -- a tobacco town of some 10,000 people. When he was injured in a car accident and couldn’t keep working, he found a tape recorder and started interviewing people. His work is a unique window on small town life in the South.

The Avalanche's Cale Makar was awarded the series' most valuable player as the Colorado team defeated the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.