HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

(THEME)

This is Doug Johnson.

On our show this week, we answer a question about the musicyou're hearing. And we tell about an unusual celebration this weekin Hawaii.

But first, one of the best-known places in America has just had abig birthday party.

Times Square Birthday

HOST:

Times Square, in the heart of NewYork City, is one-hundred years old. Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut ahuge birthday cake to help start the celebrations earlier thismonth. Faith Lapidus tells the history of Times Square.

ANNCR:

"Times Square is New York." Those are the words of the head ofthe Times Square Alliance, a coalition of area businesses. Themillions of visitors to Times Square each year would probably agree.The area has one of the most recognizable names in the world. But,Times Square is not really a square. It is the name for the areaaround where Broadway crosses Forty-Second Street in Manhattan. TheTimes Square area stretches more than ten blocks north to south. Theborders to the east and west are uneven. Some people call the shapeof the area a bow tie.

Times Square gets its name from the New York Times newspaper. Innineteen-oh-four, the newspaper began to build its headquarters inwhat was then called Long Acre Square. The city's underground trainsystem built a stop under the Times Tower. The city renamed the areaTimes Square.

On December thirty-first, nineteen-oh-four, the newspaper held abig celebration in Times Square to welcome the New Year. Fireworkslit the sky. Celebrations have taken place every year since then.Now, crowds also watch a big glass ball slide down a pole as the NewYear arrives.

Hundreds of businesses are in Times Square. The alliance saystwenty percent of all hotel rooms in New York City are in TimesSquare. It says Times Square also has about six and one-half millionsquare meters of office space. And more is being built.

Times Square used to have a lot of adult businesses and was notconsidered very safe. But the area has been redeveloped in recentyears. In fact, businesses now have to pay a lot for space there.

Times Square is home to famous Broadway theaters. And severaltelevision companies have studios there. MTV is one of them. TimesSquare is probably most famous for its huge colorful signs. Thealliance says Times Square is the only place in New York wherebusinesses are required to use them.

Spam Jam

HOST:

Do you know what Spam is? We don't mean the unwanted e-mail thattries to get you to buy something. The real Spam is a meat productthat has been made since nineteen-thirty-seven. It is cooked porksold in a small blue can. The name comes from "spiced ham." ShepO'Neal reports on a celebration of Spam in Hawaii.

ANNCR:

An event called "Spam Jam" willtake place near the famous Waikiki Beach April twenty-third andtwenty-fourth. This is the second year that Spam has been celebratedin the Hawaiian Islands.

You probably want to know why the people of Hawaii would chooseto celebrate canned meat. That is a good question. Well, you shouldknow that people in Hawaii eat more Spam than any other Americanstate. Almost seven-million cans of Spam are eaten in Hawaii eachyear. Hawaii is really the Spam capital of the United States.

Some people believe Spam became popular in Hawaii because workerscould take the little cans with them into the sugar cane fields. Theheat of the fields would not spoil the meat. It was protected in thecan. Maybe. But no one really knows if this was the reason.

The real question is: what are people in Hawaii doing tocelebrate Spam? Cooks from some of the hotels along Waikiki Beachwill each try to make great tasting meals using Spam.

A huge street party with singers and dancers will be held. Thiswill continue for two days. Don't laugh. Last year, more thanthirty-thousand people attended the party. One lucky person will wina special prize -- a trip to the city of Austin, Minnesota. That iswhere the Hormel Foods company puts Spam in the little cans. Theprize includes a visit to the Spam Museum.

Organizers of Spam Jam also want to get into the Guinness Book ofWorld Records. They plan to build the longest ever musubi(moo-soo-BEE). A musubi is a food made of sticky rice, seaweed and,of course, Spam. It is a favorite in Hawaii.

The organizers say the musubi will be about ninety-one meterslong. It will be enough to feed one-thousand-two-hundred people.That... is a lot of Spam.

Mosaic Theme

(MUSIC)

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Osaka, Japan.Toshikatsu Tada asks about the music you are hearing now -- thetheme music we play each week on American Mosaic.

The song is called "Lover's Leap."It is performed by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

We started to use it as the Mosaic theme about two years ago.This song is the third one used since the show began innineteen-eighty-five.

"Lover's Leap" is on Bela Fleck's record called "Live at theQuick." Let's listen to more:

(MUSIC)

"Lover's Leap" is an unusual song. Bela Fleck has broughttogether instruments that are usually not heard in combination.These include the electric banjo, French horn, oboe, bass guitar,electric drums, clarinet and steel pan. Steel pans or steel drumsare commonly used to play music in the islands of the West Indies inthe Caribbean.

We leave you as we began -- with Bela Fleck and the Flecktonesplaying "Lover's Leap."

(MUSIC)

This is Doug Johnson.

I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week forVOA's radio magazine in Special English.

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and PaulThompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba.