Bill WOLFF:
From NPR News in New York, this is the Bryant Park Project
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RACHEL MARTIN, host:
Overlooking historic Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, live from NPR Studios, this is the Bryant Park Project from NPR News. News, information, sleep-eating. I'm Rachel Martin.
MIKE PESCA, host:
And I'm Mike Pesca. It's Tuesday May 13th, 2008.
MARTIN: Have you ever sleep-eaten?
PESCA: Or is it slept aten (ph)?
MARTIN: I don't know this launched an entire debate that probably no one is going to find interesting except for Mike and I about whether or not we...
PESCA: And many linguists among our audience.
MARTIN: A compound verb like sleep-walking, sleep-eating, two verbs, do you say in the past slept-eaten or slept-walked?
PESCA: And the answer is, it's sleep-walked.
MARTIN: Sleep-walked. You keep the first present and the second in the past.
PESCA: Yes and you asked me, is there another compound verb, you know, two verbs in a word? And I said speed-read.
MARTIN: But those are the only two you can think of?
PESCA: Well, it just came off the top of my head but the past tense of speed-read would be...
MARTIN: Speed-read.
PESCA: Not sped-read.
MARTIN: Not sped-read.
PESCA: Although it's fun to say sped-read.
MARTIN: Although that's what I thought. Why are we talking about this? Why do we care? Because we're going to talk about sleepwalking. You're going to talk about sleepwalking, right?
PESCA: Yeah, sure, I'll talk about it. If asked, I'll talk about it.
MARTIN: We're going to talk about an entire case that's kind of focused on sleepwalking, very provocative, we'll get to that. What else is in the show?
PESCA: Also on today's show, an update from China, where the death toll is more than 12,000 and rising. NPR producer Andrea Hsu is in the region and we will hear from her in just a few minutes.
MARTIN: And the jury in a federal racketeering case against Anthony Pellicano is deliberating. They may deliver a verdict soon. Remember, he's a Hollywood private eye accused of illegally spying on people. We have...
PESCA: I do remember, but I'm not sure I care.
MARTIN: Well, we're going to try to make you care about it. We're going to talk to a guest who's going to do just that.
PESCA: Our patented Make Us Care segment and some music by Jason - is it Mraz?
MARTIN: Mraz.
PESCA: Mraz. His new album "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." is out today and we'll get today's headlines in just a minute, but first...
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PESCA: Nearly 12,000 people are dead and thousands more remain trapped in rubble after a massive earthquake struck central China yesterday.
MARTIN: The 7.9-magnitude quake was centered in Sichuan Province, near the city of Chengdu, 1,000 miles southwest of Beijing. Rescue crews have been working feverishly throughout the night and into today to find survivors.
PESCA: NPR's Melissa Block talked to some of the survivors in the region of Beichuan. Here's some of her report.
MELISSA BLOCK: I find 36-year-old Jao Rong (ph) as she crosses a bridge into town with four children, ages nine to 15, streaked with grime. She tells me they've walked about 20 miles from their town. Incredibly, she's wearing black heels, muddy from the journey. They've come with just the clothes on their backs.
Ms. JAO RONG (Earthquake Victim): (Chinese spoken)
Unidentified Translator: They, actually, they have lost everything. So, actually, they have nothing left.
BLOCK: I see your hand is swollen.
Unidentified Translator: (Chinese spoken)
Ms. RONG: (Chinese spoken)
Unidentified Translator: That's because there's lots of injuries of this sort before those - even seriously injured, they do not have enough, have enough medicine and medical staff.
BLOCK: And it's not just her injury. One of the young boys has a badly bruised and puffy eye. He was hurt when he escaped from his school as the quake hit.
MARTIN: But not all children escaped alive. Yesterday, Block reported from a middle school that had collapsed. She described the scene where anxious parents waited as young bodies were pulled from the wreckage.
BLOCK: After family members identify a body, they cover the child in plastic and take him or her under shelters, where they've set up shrines for their dead. And they gather around in mourning. Some light red candles and incense. Some burn paper money to send their child into the afterlife.
Tonight, there were dozens upon dozens of families going through the same grim ritual, their heads bowed in unspeakable pain, as they sat vigil over small, lifeless forms. Many of these young victims would have been their parents' only children. And in row after row, their parents sat huddled through the rainy night, keeping watch one last time over their babies.
PESCA: We'll have more on the earthquake in just a minute when we talk to NPR producer Andrea Hsu, who is in China. You can also go to npr.org throughout the day for updates. Now let's get some more of today's headlines with the BPP's Mark Garrison. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
