Glass takes it as his mandate to stand out from the rest of public radio programming, which is hardly a challenge, considering NPR's steady move in the past decade toward big money, pocketbook politics, and the arthritic musings of Bailey White. David Isay's recent and brilliant "Sunshine Hotel" is a Glass-influenced exception that proves the rule. Still, there was a time when "public radio" meant you could show up at the local college station and volunteer to spin some Tito Puente and tell fart jokes. Today, the best you can do is volunteer to fork over some tax-deductible cash, leaving the hands-on duties to professionals like Ira.

More than any other factor, though, the case for a Glass EGG is made by the celebrated couch dance the candidate performs every time some feckless mug artist tries to take his picture. We appreciate the disingenuous stab at modesty, but Ira's coy peek-a-boo comes off less as a mysterious Pynchonian flourish than a camera-shy perp walk, with a particularly vain suspect. We know that he knows that we know he's a handsome devil, so we're pleased to award Ira Glass this EGG, to pay for the cost of a cover shot and full-photo spread in Martha Stewart Living and to publish his personal phone number and email address in Yellow Silk.