If you know our show, you know selected shorts means strictly short stories, usually.

On today's show, selected shorts also refers to a particularly coveted pair of later

hosin.

So hey, grab some schnitzel with noodles and join me, Meg Wallitzer, for some of our favorite

German things.

We're listening to selected shorts, where our greatest actors transport us through

the magic of fiction.

One short story at a time.

When we put together selected shorts programs, we choose themes to tie together the author's

stories or the ideas in those stories.

Because we record these shows live, arranging stories together into an hour long show can

be a fun sort of puzzle.

We hope to come up with a brilliant new way of looking at the stories, and to help you

our listeners hear new dimensions of the stories you might not notice if they were presented

on their own.

But sometimes we do what sounds fun.

Maybe we just like two stories and we want to hear them back to back.

And rather than looking for the profound resonance that unites the two tales, we hook into some

subtle motif, and we exploit that for all its worth.

In the case of today's show, we notice that both stories had a connection to the German

language.

In these stories, some things are saved and some are left behind.

...