John Cech

The green beans in New England are ready for harvesting. Time for another story from the late Princess Redwing, recorded in 1981, about the third Thanksgiving in the Native American calendar to give thanks for the green bean.

If you haven’t visited a full-service candy counter lately, you probably aren’t aware that old-fashioned things like lollipops or chocolate bars are simply passé.

You’re hearing a small section from the first, mood-setting movement of the American composer Jeffrey Stock’s music for Lulie the Iceberg.

That’s Bert from Sesame Street, played by Frank Oz, singing his signature song, “Doing the Pigeon,” just in time for his birthday today.

Today, we are talking with Gabriel Schwartzman, who at the time he accomplished it, was the youngest person to become an international Chess Grandmaster. He won the US Open Championship in 1996 and shared the title in 1999. He told me how chess began for him.