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It's an important indicator, but there's a lot it doesn't tell you.

From compost to mulch, fall leaves can be used to improve the health and ecological diversity of lawns. The National Audubon Society's Melissa Hopkins, who calls the leaves "free vitamins," has some tips on how to make the most of them.

The biggest thing on broadcast TV this fall is the NFL. It's beating the shiny new network shows and, get this, 13 of the top 15 broadcasts this fall were NFL games — the other two were Two and a Half Men. The NFL is killing on cable, too. AMC's The Walking Dead shattered records for a cable drama this year, with had an audience of more than 7 million viewers for its premiere. But another cable series that nearly doubles that number week in and week out is ESPN's Monday Night Football, averaging nearly 14 million viewers per game. It's not news that the NFL rocks the other sports in TV ratings, but for the past few years its ratings dominance has spread to all of TV. So why the rise? Are more women watching? Is it because it looks good in HD? Maybe it's because sports are made to be watched live?

Melissa Block speaks with our regular political commentators E.J. Dionne, of the Washington Post and Brookings Institution, and David Brooks, of the New York Times.

The Obama administration opposes a bipartisan Senate compromise — to the frustration of some of its usual allies. The White House says provisions in the defense bill would tie its hands when it comes to handling some terrorism cases.

Fifty years ago Norton Juster sat down and tried to remember the confusion and dislocation of childhood. His memories became a book, and The Phantom Tollbooth was born. In this essay, Juster looks back at his beloved novel, and the bored, disconnected child who grew up to write it.

Hear the gorgeous voice of a young opera singer with his ears tuned to the great tenors of the past.

In Sybil Exposed, Debbie Nathan explores the life of Shirley Mason — the psychiatric patient whose life was portrayed in the 1973 book and 1976 TV movie. Mason later admitted to her psychiatrist that she'd made the whole thing up — but not before the story manufactured a psychiatric phenomenon.

"Poetry holds the knowledge that we are alive and that we know we're going to die," poet Marie Howe tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. One of Howe's most famous poems, "What the Living Do," was recently included in The Penguin Anthology of 20th-Century American Poetry.

Consumers aren't the only ones paying attention to the quality ratings of private Medicare coverage. Health plans stand to make big bucks by scoring higher in Medicare's rating system.