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Baghdad used to be a bustling metropolis, but it has turned into a patchwork quilt of heavily fortified compounds, modern-day forts that protect their residents from violence and kidnapping. So the only solution for those who can no longer stand being locked up is to go fort hopping.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new memoir The Tender Bar by Los Angeles Times reporter J.R. Moehringer. It tells the tale of his dysfunctional family on Long Island — and the community's center, the local bar.

Barbara Ehrenreich's latest book, Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, builds on the success of her 2001 bestseller Nickel and Dimed. In it, she goes "undercover" by pretending to be a public relations professional looking for work.

Robert Shaler, former director forensic biology at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, led efforts to identify remains at the World Trade Center attacks. He discusses the challenges that lie ahead for those responsible for identifying the bodies of Hurricane Katrina's victims.

At the dawn of hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash recorded hits like "The Message" and "White Lines (Don't Do it)" with the Furious Five.

DJ Kool Herc is known as the father of the DJ breakbeat, part of the foundation of modern hip-hop. He also wrote the introduction to the recent history of hip-hop, Can't Stop Won't Stop. Kool Herc kicks off Fresh Air's Hip-Hop Week. (This interview originally aired March 30, 2005.)

Jacki Lyden talks with biographer Lyndall Gordon about the life of Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th-century feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Gordon describes Wollstonecraft's violent upbringing, her radical views on education, and her failed love affair.

It's time for an end-of-summer poetry treat: NPR's Tom Cole reads "Blackberry Picking," from Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, found in Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996.

David Kamp and Steven Daly are the authors of The Rock Snob's Dictionary, a guide to the esoterica in rock music that every critic and fan knows — or pretends to know. Meredith Ochs, our own rock snob and music critic, finds the book entertaining, funny and irreverent.

In Iraq, another deadline has come and gone without agreement on a draft constitution. Thursday, the speaker of Iraq's National Assembly, Hashim al Hassani, announced shortly before midnight that negotiators need more time.