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HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — a VOA Special English program aboutmusic and American life. And we answer your questions.
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This is Doug Johnson. This week – music from the group LinkinPark. And a listener wants to know about a movie actor named GordonMitchell.
But first – we tell why millions of Americans will get an extrahour of sleep this weekend.
Time Change
HOST:
This Sunday, most of the United States will make the yearlychange from daylight saving time to standard time. Shep O’Nealexplains.
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Standard time is a worldwidesystem of time keeping based on longitude. Longitude is the distancearound the earth measured east or west of the first longitude linein Greenwich, England. In the system of Universal Time, whenannouncers talk about “zero hour,” that is midnight local time in Greenwich.
The earth is divided into twenty-four areas, called time zones.Each one is fifteen degrees longitude wide. Under standard time, thetime kept in each local area is that of its central longitude line.These lines fall fifteen degrees, thirty degrees and so on east orwest of Greenwich. The difference in time between each zone is onehour.
About seventy countries use daylight saving time in some way.Most Americans move their clocks forward one hour to use daylightsaving time during the summer months. The only states that do notare Hawaii, Arizona and most of Indiana.
Daylight saving time provides an added hour of daylight in theearly evening. This saves energy. It reduces the use of electricityfor lighting. Many countries first used daylight saving time duringwars. Britain, for example, went on this system during World WarOne. So did the United States, which used it again during World WarTwo.
After the war, many American states established some kind ofdaylight saving time. But this became confusing. So, innineteen-sixty-six, Congress established a system for the nation.The time change began the last Sunday in April and ended the lastSunday of October.
Then, in October of nineteen-seventy-three, Arab nations reducedoil exports to the United States during the Arab-Israeli war.Americans faced shortages of fuel. So Congress extended the periodof daylight saving time for two years.
In nineteen-eighty-six, new legislation changed the start ofdaylight saving time from the last Sunday in April to the firstSunday. But standard time still returns on the last Sunday inOctober. So this is why most Americans will set their clocks backone hour before they go to sleep this Saturday night.
Gordon Mitchell
HOST:
A listener in Iran namedAbderrahim sent us an e-mail about Gordon Mitchell, an Americanmovie actor who died last month at the age of eighty. The listenerwas very sad. He wanted to know why we did not report about thedeath in our news. So we decided to tell about the life of GordonMitchell.
He was born Charles Pendleton in nineteen-twenty-three in Denver,Colorado. His parents ended their marriage when he was young. Hismother moved the family to Inglewood, California. Gordon Mitchellbecame interested in bodybuilding and developed large muscles. Heserved in the Army during World War Two. After the war, he got acollege degree in guidance and counseling. Then he became a highschool teacher.
In the early nineteen-fifties, Gordon Mitchell was one of a groupof good-looking bodybuilders who gathered at Muscle Beach, in LosAngeles. Film star Mae West saw him there. She invited him to joinseveral other handsome men in her musical show.
Gordon Mitchell began to appear in movies in thenineteen-fifties. He had small parts in some famous ones. One moviewas “The Man With the Golden Arm” which starred Frank Sinatra.Another was “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston.
In the early nineteen-sixties, movie producers from Italy beganto look for large, handsome men to appear in films about heroes fromancient times. These were called “sword and sandal” movies. GordonMitchell moved to Italy to star in “Atlas in the Land of theCyclops.” He did not speak Italian. So he spoke in English, andlater another actor recorded the words in Italian. Gordon Mitchellmade most of his movies this way.
He lived in Italy for almost thirty years. He returned to theUnited States in nineteen-eighty-nine. During his forty years as anactor, Gordon Mitchell appeared in more than two-hundred films. Hedied at his home in Marina del Rey, California.
Linkin Park
HOST:
The group Linkin Park has a newalbum. These six young men formed their band in Los Angeles innineteen-ninety-six. Faith Lapidus tells us more.
ANNCR:
Linkin Park released its first album in two-thousand. “HybridTheory” sold almost five-million copies. One member of the groupsays the album dealt with a young person’s feelings of anger, fearand confusion. One of the most popular songs was “In the End.”
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The second album from Linkin Parkis “Meteora.” It is also dark. It mixes hard rock, hip-hop and pop.But there are more hopeful messages about the need to need to changefor the better. Here is “Breaking The Habit.”
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Many fans like the honesty they hear in the music of Linkin Park.We leave you with another song from “Meteora,” the new album by thisGrammy-winning group. This is “Somewhere I Belong.”
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HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life!Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. If we use your question,we’ll send you a gift. So make sure to include your name and mailingaddress. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English,Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA.
Our program was written by Shelley Gollust, Chi Un Lee and NancySteinbach. Our producer was Caty Weaver. And our engineer was VascoVolaric.
I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.