Wednesday's post about the brouhaha this week aboard a Ghana-bound flight that began when one passenger reclined his seat and the person behind responded with a smack (and not the kissing kind), generated many comments with tips about how to handle that sort of situation.

The piano is an inviting instrument. That's why drummers, bassists and blues guitarists all record as pianists, and even non-musicians will tickle a few keys when no one's around. The piano's easy to get a sound out of, and on the keyboard, you can see all the tonal patterns laid out in black and white. You can approach playing it as a visual puzzle, connecting the dots. You don't have to be a virtuoso to get a rhythm going, or to set the wooden box of wires humming. And every piano has its personality to discover, pliant or not so much.

It's a pretty safe bet that not many people will mourn the demise of the U.S.

"Jill Abramson, a former investigative reporter and Washington bureau chief for The New York Times, will become the paper's executive editor, succeeding Bill Keller, who is stepping down to become a full-time writer for the paper," the Times announced this morning.

On April 15, 2011, distinguished guests, including US Ambassador to Germany Philip D. Murphy, joined US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a memorial service for Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke (1941-2010).

Holbrooke, a founder of the American Academy in Berlin, held many diplomatic positions during his career, including US Ambassador to the UN.

This Saturday evening at 19:00, and Monday morning at 08:00, NPR FM Berlin, 104,1, presents Hillary Clinton's remarks at the American Academy memorial service for her friend Richard Holbrooke.

Scott Carney is a contributing editor at Wired and the author of The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers, published this week, from which this essay is adapted.

Language Advisory: This is a live concert recording, and may not contain language suitable for all audiences.

Fishing enthusiasts can test the waters for free this weekend as the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources sponsors the annual free fishing weekend. State residents and nonresidents can fish in any body of water Saturday and Sunday without a license. The weekend is part of a program to get more people familiar with fishing in Kentucky.

With Mitt Romney officially entering the race for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, expect to hear a lot more from the former Massachusetts governor on how the health-care legislation he signed in his state differs from that signed into law by President Obama for the nation.

One approach Romney has used to try to distance his health-care law from the federal Affordable Care Act is to say that his legislation only had 70 pages compared with 2,700 pages for the Obama-signed law.

Residents in the city of Wallins will soon be faced with a petition to dissolve their long defunct city. It is the county that plans to go door-to-door to gather signatures. The petition will mark the start of a legal process to formally dissolve the city by circuit judge’s order. “No one ran for anything in the city during the last race for offices in the county,” said Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop. “That is telling of where people are. They have accepted the fact that Wallins can not go back to what it was.”