HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we have music fromNellie McKay. And we answer a question about the American dollar.
But first, some rare black-and-white animals are about to appearin color.
Artistic Pandas
HOST:
More than one-thousand artists from around the country recentlyentered a competition in Washington, D.C. The winners will createartwork on one-hundred fifty plastic statues of pandas. As GwenOuten reports, the animal art will appear on city streets and inother places.
ANNOUNCER:
The invasion of the capital iscalled “PandaMania. ” The statues will be shown from May throughSeptember. Later, they will be sold to raise money for the arts. Thestatues will be at least one-point-three meters high. That is aroundthe size of a real panda.
Washington artist Di Stovall (die STOW-vahl) designed a smallpanda to give ideas to other artists. Mizz Stovall also worked on anearlier showing of painted animal statues in Washington.
The event in two-thousand-two was called “Party Animals.” Itinvolved statues of donkeys and elephants. The donkey is theofficial animal of the Democratic Party. The elephant represents theRepublican Party.
Mizz Stovall covered her statue with stars and stripes. Her”America the Beautiful” elephant brought the highest price. It soldfor twenty-five-thousand dollars.
Anthony Gittens heads the District of Columbia Commission on theArts and Humanities. He notes that the city has a long history withpandas – real ones, that is.
In nineteen-seventy-two, China sent two pandas to the NationalZoo in Washington. This followed the historic visit by PresidentRichard Nixon to China. Those pandas lived until thenineteen-nineties.
Now, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang are on loan to the zoo forone-million dollars a year. People often wait a long time to seethem. If the crowds get too large, visitors can look for theartistic pandas on the street.
United States Dollar
HOST:
Our VOA listener question thisweek comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Rodrigo Bueno Therezo asks aboutthe history of the American dollar.
We found a good place to start: a book called “A History ofMoney,” by Glyn Davies, a British professor who died last year. Hewrote that during American colonial times, the British pound was inshort supply. So the colonists had to find substitutes — tobacco,for example, even foreign coins. Some colonies printed their ownmoney. Britain was not happy. This became one of the causes of theAmerican Revolution.
The colonists printed notes called Continentals to pay for thewar. The value of some Continentals was based on the British pound.Others were based on the Spanish peso or dollar coin. The worddollar came from the German word “taler” (TAH-ler). That came fromthe name of a place where silver was mined and made into coins.
The United States declared its independence inseventeen-seventy-six. In seventeen-ninety-two, the nation chose thedollar as its unit of currency. One dollar equaled one-hundredcents. It still does.
The Constitution gives Congress the power to print money and setits value. In nineteen-thirteen, Congress created the United Statescentral bank, the Federal Reserve, to supervise the money supply.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces bank notes for theFederal Reserve System. The bureau began in eighteen-sixty-two as asix-person operation in the Treasury Department. Steam powered thepresses. Today, money is printed twenty-four hours a day. Notes comein one, five, ten, twenty, fifty and one-hundred dollar amounts.Design changes have been made in recent years to improve security.
The United States Mint produces coins. The Associated Pressreported just this week about a special coin. Coin collectingexperts say they have identified a two-hundred-ten-year-old silverdollar. Some consider it the first silver dollar ever made by theUnited States Mint. The American Numismatic Association, acollectors group, says it plans to show the coin to the public as ofnext month.
Nellie McKay
HOST:
Nellie McKay (muh-KYE) is a nineteen-year-old singer andsongwriter with a grown-up sense of music. Her first album is called”Get Away From Me.” Shep O’Neal has more.
ANNOUNCER:
“Get Away From Me” is unusual for a first album. It comesrecorded on two compact discs. Nellie McKay wrote so many songs,they could not all fit on one CD.
She sings jazz, pop, even a little rap. She also plays eightmusical instruments, including the glockenspiel.
Nellie McKay was born in London. Her mother brought her to NewYork City when she was two. This song, “Manhattan Avenue,” is aboutthe street where they lived.
(MUSIC)
Nellie McKay and her mother lived with a dog plus nine cats theyrescued from the streets. One of her songs is about the death of acat whose owner sounds just a little crazy. The song is called “DingDong.”
(MUSIC)
Nellie McKay sings about many subjects in the eighteen songs onher first album. Her sense of humor comes through in most of “GetAway From Me.” We leave you with a song called “Clonie.”
(MUSIC)
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson.
Send us your questions about American life! Be sure to includeyour name and postal address. We’ll send you a gift if we use yourquestion.
Send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic,VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven,USA.
This program was written by Jill Moss, Jeri Watson and CatyWeaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was VoscoVolarich.
I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week forVOA’s radio magazine in Special English