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Classics commentator Elaine Fantham describes what life was like in Alexandria, home to Marc Antony and Cleopatra, among others. Its brief period of glory left a distinctive legacy that is finding new currency with scholars.

Former President Reagan's state funeral is being held at the Washington National Cathedral, which towers over the nation's capital. Bishop John Bryson Chane, the dean of the cathedral, says it was created as "a national house of prayer for all people." NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

Writers often have precise rituals for putting their thoughts on paper. Spy novelist Daniel Silva admits his approach is manically methodical. As part of the Creative Spaces series, Silva invites NPR's Michele Norris into his den to talk process.

With summer reading season about to begin, Michele Norris talks with publisher Jamie Raab and writer Augusten Burroughs about whether authors need to have had difficult childhoods in order to write interesting books. Raab and Burroughs say not necessarily, but it helps.

Robert Siegel talks with American Enterprise Institute resident fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht and Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at Brookings Institution. Gerecht and O'Hanlon talk about the leak to The New York Times of recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, scheduled to be released next week.

In theory, a beer poured at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level would have quite a head on it -- far more foam than at sea level. Intrepid NPR science reporter Joe Palca offers a Morning Edition report on the results of an experiment that began in the Andes Mountains and concluded in Washington, D.C.

The new World War II Memorial was formally dedicated this past weekend, welcoming thousands of veterans to the National Mall. It honors those who served in the Second World War, as well as the workers and families who supported the war at home. But the memorial also has a little-known neighbor: the World War I Memorial. NPR's Noah Adams reports.

Google, Yahoo, Cisco and Microsoft will be on the Capitol Hill hot seat for their role in helping the Chinese government monitor and censor the Internet. The House International Relations subcommittee on global human rights will hold hearings Wednesday about high-tech firms doing business in China.

At just about every event or campaign stop, there are young people holding up signs. Their mission: to get their candidate's name on television. High school senior Robert Mack, a volunteer for Sen. John Edwards' campaign, talks about why he signed up.

Yippie Abbie Hoffman was arrested in one while protesting the Vietnam War in 1968. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wore one while joining fellow Vietnam veterans for a tribute this past Memorial Day. Their attire? Shirts that looked like flags.