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In the United States, there are more Chinese restaurants than McDonald's, Burger Kings and KFCs combined. Chances are, you've got your own favorite wonton spot. The Presidents Bush—41 and 43—do: the Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church, Va., which has installed bulletproof glass in front of table N17, just for them. In Iraq, homesick American troops frequented the two Chinese restaurants in Baghdad's Green Zone until they were shut down. Even at the American scientific outpost in Antarctica, every Monday is Chinese-food night (though good luck getting it delivered). Beyond peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches or a burger and fries, there may be no food that's more American than Chinese. The boardinghouse where John Wilkes Booth planned the assassination of President Lincoln? It's now an eatery called Wok 'n' Roll. But as Jennifer 8. Lee writes in her book "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food," the irony is that much of what we think of as Chinese food isn't Chinese at all. Chop suey is an American creation. Fortune cookies were invented in Japan. And get this: Kari-Out, the largest Chinese restaurant supplier in the United States, uses no soybeans in its soy sauce.

Nearing 87 years old, Yuri Kochiyama lives in a small room in an Oakland, Calif., senior living facility. Her walls are adorned with photos, posters, postcards and mementos detailing a living history of the revolutionary struggles of the 20th century. She is quiet, humble and small, and has trouble at times retrieving the right word. Yet, with a sparkle in her eyes, she has no trouble recalling that incredible history--not from books, not from documentaries, but from living it, on the front lines.

SAN FRANCISCO — The 80-20 Initiative, a nonpartisan political action committee dedicated to forming a politically cohesive Asian American voting bloc, announced on Jan. 18 its endorsement of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for president in California’s upcoming Democratic primary election.Â

But Tilt and Sparks have an ingredient that similar-looking caffeinated drinks such as Amp and Rockstar don't have: alcohol, in concentration of 6 percent to 8 percent by volume, which is more than many popular beers. "A lot of adults aren't aware of the alcoholic ones," said Mary Segawa, executive director of Together, which will cover the topic at a talk Tuesday.

A lot of TOH fans have been hoping that the show would do some work down in New Orleans to help with the post-Katrina rebuilding. Well, that time has come. As the Newton project draws to a close, the work on the next project, which TOH TV has already begun to document for shows that begin airing in January, revs up. This 1892 Italianate-style shotgun house is in the flood-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward, in a neighborhood on the banks of the Mississippi called Holy Cross.

While there are no national statistics tracking how many animals are abandoned or dropped off at shelters, Shain said anecdotal evidence has shown "huge spikes" in areas hardest-hit by the housing downturn that shows no sign of easing.

The robin’s-egg blue kitchen looks out on the brown grass of the empty plains. The gas stove lurches away from the wall, and, in the wild yard, the white bones of a deer bleach in the sun. Plaster fragments litter the floors of the rooms, and down in the cellar a galvanized wringer washer stands watch by the long-dead coal furnace. In the upstairs bedroom, a window sash has slipped and become a trapezoid framing the abandoned orchard to the west. Two old cars rust nearby, caressed by the moan of the wind. The stone footing of a vanished barn stares east at wheat and grass. Ghost towns stud North Dakota, and this empty house is just one bone in a giant skeleton of abandoned human desire.This is the place where American assumptions about the land proved to be wrong. The homesteaders believed rain followed the plow. In the grasslands of western Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, they learned better. And so for almost a century we’ve watched stranded towns and houses fall one by one like autumn leaves in the chill of October. In most of the United States, abandoned buildings are a sign of change and shifting economic opportunities. On the High Plains, they always mean that something in the earth and the sky mutinied against the settlers.Successive human waves have been bested on the High Plains of North Dakota. Indians on horseback lived a dream of motion and buffalo for more than a century before the U.S. military and hide hunters destroyed their world. For several decades in the early 19th century, trading posts thrived off fur-bearing animals until both the beasts and the traders were also gone. For three years in the 1880s, a cattle kingdom rushed into the cemetery of the bison until blizzards and drought snapped everyone back to reality.Then, around the turn of the 20th century, the railroads lured settlers, largely Norwegians and Germans, into the void with promises of homesteads. Towns were planted everywhere—what one state historian calls the Too Much Mistake—in this isolated, semiarid region until, starting with the Depression and the dust storms of the 1930s, the farms faltered, then failed. The state now holds dozens of abandoned towns. Today in western North Dakota a 3,000-acre (1,200 hectares) spread of wheat is necessary for survival, and so the ground is littered with dead towns and empty kitchens where people once painted the walls a cheery robin’s-egg blue.Greg Bjella, in his 50s, has no memory of who once lived in the house with the blue kitchen, but then there is almost a willful amnesia in North Dakota. He lives just down the road on land his grandfather homesteaded. Epping, with about 75 people, has been home to the family ironworks since 1906, a business Bjella still runs during the warmer months of the year.“We’ve even had a baby born to a family in Epping,” he says, “which I’m sure has not happened in 20 years.” Ten years ago, a strong wind ripped the front off the ironworks, and Bjella has rebuilt it in stout fashion because, he explains, “when I’m gone, it will have to stand on its own.”(1 of 4) Next >>Subscribe to National Geographic magazine.

Karen Heimdahl, right, and Anne Wittnebel browsed the racks of used clothes at the Prop Shop in Eden Prairie. Heimdahl joined the Compact last April. “It’s really taught me patience,” she said. “Solutions will come if I wait.” And, says husband Andy, “Our pocketbook really looks much better.”

1) to go beyond recycling in trying to counteract the negative global environmental and socioeconomic impacts of U.S. consumer culture, to resist global corporatism, and to support local businesses, farms, etc; 2) to reduce clutter and waste in our homes (as in trash Compact-er); 3) to simplify our lives (as in Calm-pact)

In the final paragraph of my last column, I observed that the report of the New York State Commission on Higher Education slights – indeed barely mentions – the arts and humanities, despite the wide-ranging scope of its proposals. Those who posted comments agreed with David Small that “the arts and the humanities are always the last to receive any assistance.”

A St. Paul woman gave birth to the first baby born in the Twin Cities in 2008.Carter Strong Lam arrived at 12:03 a.m. Tuesday at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. He weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces and was 19 inches long, said hospital spokeswoman Ashley Burt.It's the second child for parents Annie and Randy Lam, who have a 4-year-old daughter.Annie is a patient care assistant at Regions Hospital. Randy works for a company called Pioneer Packages.Mother, father, daughter and baby are all doing fine, Burt said.TIM HARLOW

When he was still a child his father was lost at sea off Hawaii. With no breadwinner, his family was forced to move to Japan, where Iwatake was drafted during the war. He lost a brother when the bomb fell on Hiroshima.

Last week, I visited a Muslim place of worship. A schedule for Islam's five daily prayers was posted at the entrance, near a sign requesting that shoes be removed. Inside, a barrier divided men's and women's prayer space, an arrow informed worshippers of the direction of Mecca, and literature urged women to cover their faces.

Today’s Show Headlines: Anthropologists Up in Arms Over Pentagon’s “Human Terrain System” to Recruit Graduate Students to Serve in Iraq, Afghanistan

I love the Ingrish in this blog, which is primarily a marketing tool for Nippon Kodo (which really does make great if expensive incense, btw) but unintentionally gives me great happy ness.