Today is special.

Children today are growing up fast — so fast that they're now being told to have their cholesterol tested before they hit puberty.

Robert Siegel and Guy Raz revisit arguably one of the program's most memorable phrases this week: ninja librarians. Also, they address one listener's email about the degree of Master of Library Science.

Transcript

GUY RAZ, HOST:

And for more on Newt Gingrich, the Republican field and the rest of the week in news and politics, we're joined by our regular Friday observers, David Brooks of The New York Times and E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and the Brookings Institution. Welcome to you both.

E.J. DIONNE: Good to be here.

DAVID BROOKS: Good to be here.

Seven employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission have been disciplined, but no one has been fired, after investigations into how the agency failed to stop Bernard Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme despite repeated warnings that he was stealing billions of dollars from investors, The Washington Post reports.

All the attention this week on the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, the protests afterward by many of the school's students and the actions or inaction of school officials when they learned that a former assistant football coach might have been sexually abusing young boy

The art of the piano is a study in evolution — of both an instrument and of human talent. Among us there have been a rare few whose gifts included the physical dexterity, the innate musicality and the creativity to make the instrument sound brilliant.

Veteran's Day is the day when Americans remember and thank members of the armed forces who fought in foreign wars. Nearly 1.4 million men and women have left the service since serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. A group of musicians in San Marcos, Tex., just down the highway from Austin, has started a songwriting workshop especially for returning veterans, believing that composing music can help a person heal from the wounds of war.