Two fascinating interviews with two authors of two very different books, The Hit That Never Was and a bonus music track

Paul Greenberg is the author of the New York Times bestseller Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food.He joins Life Elsewhere to talk about his latest book, American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood. The book explores why the United States, the country that controls more ocean than any nation on earth imports 90 percent of its seafood from abroad. Greenberg deftly explores three quintessential American seafoods: The New York oyster, the Gulf shrimp and the Alaskan sockeye salmon. We may believe that we are what we eat, but Greenberg argues that we do not eat what we truly are. We are an ocean nation, the author says, yet we eat a minimal amount of seafood in comparison to meat and poultry. Study after study has touted the benefits of a diet rich in omega-3s from fish, and we have access to a wealth of nutritious, local food options, but we opt out.

Alan Connor is a comedy writer, television presenter, quizmaster and author. He writes a weekly column for The Guardian on crosswords and writes for the BBC on languages and arts. Connor’s obvious passion for the ubiquitous puzzle, led him to write about its fascinating history in his new book, The Crossword Century: 100 Years of Witty Wordplay, Ingenious Puzzles, and Linguistic Mischief . He chronicles every twist and turn from the 1920′s, when crosswords were considered to be a menace to productive society, to World War II, when they were used to recruit code breakers, to their starring role in a 2008 episode of The Simpsons.  He describes the colorful characters who make up the interesting and often bizarre subculture of crossword constructors and competitive solvers. He gives us the A-list names of some of the more well-known among the puzzle solvers, may surprise you. Connor even explains how your character is revealed by the implement you use.

Also in this edition of Life Elsewhere, the Hit That Never Was, featuring Only Real with Cadillac Girl, selected by a listener named Scott. You too can get your Hit That Never Was played on Life Elsewhere by sending your suggestion to hitthatneverwas at lifeelsewhere dot co. With a critical eye on the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, Norman B decided to play an uplifting piece of music from Riff Cohen, a sing-songwriter, actress and musician who was born in Tel Aviv, to a Tunisian father and an Algerian-French mother. Riff performs in Hebrew and French and in her single A Paris, she happily touts the pleasure of her adopted home.

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