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Liane Hansen talks with singer/songwriter/playwright/actor scar Brown, Jr. His 1960 debut album SIN & SOUL ...AND THEN SOME Columbia/Legacy CK 64994) has just been re-issued. He also sings one of his riginal songs for us in NPR's performance studio.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports on the expected return of President obutu Sese Seko (moh-BOO-too SEY-sey SEH-koh) to Zaire. He has been in France or the past four months undergoing treatment for cancer while his country truggled with civil war.

LETTERS: Liane Hansen reads mail from listeners and presents omments from our listener hotline.

- The Museum of the City of New York has organizied an exhibit displaying the toys children played with 100 years ago. Jacki talks with collection curator Sheila Clark, who describes the toys of yesteryear and imagines what might have been on a 19th century Christmas wish list.

Jacki speaks with Paulette Giles, author of "Northern Spirit," (Hungry Minds Press, Doubleday Canada) her account of seven years of living among the Ojibway and Cree Indians in Canada's north woods. Giles says she discovered and learned to appreciate a world apart during her years in the wilderness.

Musicians and record companies stand to benefit year after year from the staying power of such albums... like Nat King Cole's " >Christmas Album", which has remained a favorite for nearly four decades.

NPR's Edward Lifson reports on the rebuilding of Bosnia. The area has been quiet for nearly a year and hopes for easing unemployment lies heavily on the reconstruction. The United States has loaned money, as has the Islamic community. Glass is being installed, roofs are being built over burnt out houses. The rush is on to beat the winter weather. But Bosnians know that rebuilding their country will be a long-term struggle.

Poet and Commentator Andre Codrescu brings us a modern adaptation of an old Romanian fairy tale. Set in modern New Orleans, it is a cautionary tale about a wish for eternal youth. A young couple tries desperately to have a child. Finally when they were about to give up, a supernatural method brings them a baby, but at a cost...they must promise him that he'll never grow old. When the child, nicknamed Almond Joy, turns 18, he sets out on a quest for what his parents can't deliver. He winds up in the Valley of Christmas, but this paradise of eternal youth bores him and he hits the road. But when he arrives in New Orleans, there is nothing there. His home is covered with dust and Almond Joy has become an old man.

Linda speaks with Elizabeth Neuffer, the European Bureau chief for the Boston Globe, about the problems facing the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The Tribunal must serve justice to those who participated in the genocidal attacks on Rwanda's Tutsi people in 1994. More than half a million people were slaughtered. Neuffer says the Tribunal's efforts have been hindered by a lack of funding, staffing, and equipment, as well as corruption inside the Tribunal itself.

Scott speaks with writer Lee Smith about her experience teaching adult literacy students creative writing at the Hindman Settlement School in Kentucky, and with one of her students there, Florida Slone, about how she feels finally being able to write down her songs and stories.

New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani has announced plans to send 1000 poorly-performing students from the city's public school system to local Catholic schools. We visit Bishop Loughlin (LOCK-lin) High School in Brooklyn to talk with students and educators about the differences between the public and parochial school settings. As NPR's Barbara Mantel reports, teachers feel that Catholic schools like Loughlin bring a sense of a mission to the job of teaching -- giving students a greater feeling of belonging than they receive in public schools.

ilm Critic JOHN POWERS reviews "Evita". The new film starring Antonio Banderas and Madonna and he reviews "Portrait of a Lady". REV. :Rock Critic ED WARD has selected some of his favorite awful Christmas music. Ed Ward is co-author of Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll. Originally broadcast 12/11/90.