>> osgood: good morning. i'm charles osgood and this is sunday morning. that today is the sabbath is a matter of faith for christians just as saturday is the day observed by jews and friday is the day of worship for muslims. that doesn't begin to suggest that diversity of faith in this country. martha teichner will be exploring that terrain in our sunday morning cover story. >> you have all these religious options out there. we americans are good consumers. >> reporter: so you're saying that americans choose their faith or their spirituality in very much the way they shop a mall. >> i think they do. >> reporter: startling? a new survey of faith in america in today's parade magazine found that nearly a quarter of the respondents call themselves spiritual not religious.

how about this? half the people polled say they seldom, if ever, attend religious services. later this sunday morning, a barometer of belief. >> osgood: if you're not already seated, please feel free to pull up a chair and consider the variety of seating options people have these days. that's what our daniel sieberg will do. >> reporter: what do you like in an office chair? something regal perhaps? or maybe it's function over form. >> i switch he will all the time. i'm a switch he willer. >> reporter: from the switch he will to the simple, the battle is on to create the next big thing in office seating. >> this is probably a mix of a mercedes and a ferrari. >> reporter: pull up a chair later this sunday morning. >> osgood: paul shaffer is band leader of the cbs orchestra, the main stay of the late show with david letterman. just days before the news spotlight bore down on the

late show this week, both its host and its music man sat down with a talk for our ant niece mason. >> ladies and gentlemen, there's paul shaffer. >> reporter: for 27 years, paul shaffer has been david letterman's devoted side kick. when did you know that this was going to work? >> i don't think we're convinced that it has worked yet. >> reporter: coming up letterman on shaffer. and shaffer on his swinging show biz life. >> hey, kids. stay tuned to this program because later on in the show we are going to pitch a wang dang do it all. >> reporter: paul shaffer, the man and his music later this sunday morning. >> osgood: a stone's throw that could ever land someone in the record books may seem improbable. however it's a notion much on the minds of the people our bill geist has been watching. >> reporter: for most of us skipping stones is idle activity.

something to do when you're not doing anything. >> nice skip. >> reporter: but to a select few, it's a highly competitive sport. >> there he go. that's what stone skipping is all about, folks. right there. >> reporter: we'll take you inside the world of plink, plonk and pitty-pat later on sunday morning. >> reporter: byron pitts introduces us to the surprising number of people who have battled ill illiteracy. the fast draw shines a light on 50 years of the twilight zone. steve hartman has the tale of a lost dog who finally had his day and more. first the headlines for this sunday morning the fourth of october, 2009. eight american soldiers have died in a raid by taliban forces in a remote area of afghanistan near the pakistan border. it is the deadliest attack on coalition forces in more than a year. correspondent mandy clark is in kabul. >> reporter: the insurgents stormed the american outpost in north end eastern

afghanistan in one of the bloodiest battles along the pakistani border some 300 militants came from a nearby village and mosque in what u.s. forces describe as a complex attack, well planned and sustained. now this outpost along with many others is due to close down soon. the new u.s. strategy in afghanistan states that isolated outposts manned by a small number of soldiers are targets of opportunity for insurgents and are just too dangerous for what they can achieve. charlie? >> osgood: mandy clark, thank you. david martin will have more on the situation in afghanistan in a few minutes. and this week on all of our broadcasts cbs news assesses the road ahead in that nation. iran has agreed to a date for an inspection of its new nuclear facility. this morning it announced that it will permit u.n. inspectors inside the uranium he richment plant on october 25. iran has insisted that the goals of its nuclear program are peaceful, but today's "new york times" says experts believe it's capable of build

he an atomic bomb. hundreds turned out in chicago yesterday for the funeral of honor roll student dariane albert who was beaten to death on his way home from school. both the rev. jesse jackson and louis farrakhan called to an end of school violence. president and mrs. obama had a night out last night to celebrate their wedding anniversary, their first as first couple leaving the white house to dine in georgetown on a balmy washington evening. today's weather cooler temperatures and rain are expected across much of the country with snow falling in parts of the rockies. the first full week of october will bring lots of rain to the east and south, the upper midwest will be shivering in winter temperatures. next, a matter of faith. and later, sunday morning visit with the late show's

it's a matter of faith. with such matters there's always plenty left open to interpretation. there may be no scientific way to characterize something as deeply personal as religious belief in this country. still this weekend's parade magazine tries to do that journalistically in a new survey. martha teichner lacks at some of the findings and some surprising perspectives in our cover story. >> reporter: for garrett sarley, yoga was the answer, a way to intensify how he felt his spirituality.

yoga gave him that, going to church did not. >> i think i had a sense that there was a reality beyond the reality that i was just participating in that i saw everybody else participating in. >> reporter: he grew up episcopalian and then was drawn to catholicism. he loved the ritual, the repetition but it was not enough. >> so i kept searching, it's like searching for the water. once you taste it, you can smell it in a spring day. you can smell the water in the spring air. >> reporter: today he is ceo of a huge yoga center near water in the beautiful hills of western massachusetts. every year 30,000 people come here. many for extended retreats. >> exhaling and.... >> reporter: the jesuit seminary it once was closed. that fact alone illustrates the central finding of a

survey published today in parade magazine that the religious landscape in the united states is changing. the poll, conducted on-line, showed that nearly a quarter of the respondents now say they are spiritual but not religious. nearly seven out of ten say they believe in god, more than three quarters pray. but half rarely if ever attend religious services. >> so i think people start to look for how do i produce the experience that i want from my religion without having to adopt the beliefs that don't seem to match or don't seem relevant with how i'm living my life. >> reporter: while we're still among the most religious nations in the western world, the parade magazine poll shows that barely half of the respondents practice the religion they grew up in. americans, it seems, have a tendency to customize belief. >> i have, you know, this sort of composite character i have in my mind, somebody who

considers themselves, say, a good presbyterian and yet does thai che on the park on sunday morning and does yoga when she comes home from work at night and sees no sense of contradiction. >> reporter: randall balm era professor of american religious history at barnard college in new york city and an episcopal priest. >> so you have all these religious options out there. we americans are good consumers. and the criterion seems to be what can this do for me? how can this make me a better person? how can this make me happier? >> reporter: if all that sounds very new age, consider this. the term "new age" in fact was used in the mid '60s, the 1860ingss by followers of a swedish mystic named emmanuel sweden burg. today there's a sweden burg christian church in new york city. >> the first minister at this church was a sweden burgian

and a spiritualist named george bush. >> reporter: yes. same family. but back to swedenberg. >> swedenberg would be the kind of figure that today we would call a channel medium. he reported channel traveling to other realms, the after life, other dimensions, even other planets, and speaking with beings who occupied this other world. >> reporter: in other words, what we would consider the occult employed in the name of religion. a widespread and very american phenomenon according to mitch horowitz, author of a new history of the occult in the united states. >> most people would never even use the word. yet occult ideas have provided the software for most of our self-help and therapeutic religious philosophies like meditation or positive thinking philosophies or some kind of mind/body healings that at one time was very esoteric and is today it's become very mainstream. >> reporter: for a while in

the 1870s, the center of the occult universe was in new york city apartment building, here at the corner ofth avenue and 47th street in what's now an econo-lodge. >> it was home to the founders of the movement. >> reporter: madam was a flamboyant russian emigre and olcott was a respected military man. he was appointed on investigate president lincoln's assassination. their exotic salon was frequented by famous patrons including thomas edison. >> edison spoke very forthrightly to them about his desire to create some kind of a machine or instrument that could measure for ethereal beings or gofs or beings from the after life. >> reporter: like a spiritual geiger counter. >> exactly. >> it's here. >> reporter: yes. just like the film "ghost busters." but it wasn't goofy.

it still exists, by the way. we interviewed mitch horowitz at the society library in new york city. early theosophists were just ahead of their team. >> theosophy pioneered the idea that religions, all the historic faiths had universal truth to them. >> reporter: according to the parade magazine poll, nearly six out of 10 respondents believe that all religions have validity and nearly two- thirds expect to connect with dead loved ones when they themselves die. so the fact that seances were held in the white house after the lincolns lost two of their sons doesn't seem quite so bizarre. or that the wuiji parker brothers sells as a toy was the patented version of homemade talking boards 19th century spiritual i haves used supposedly to contact the beyond.

the on-line parade magazine poll found that nearly one in five respondents claim they've actually had contact with the dead. >> somebody is claiming they were buried with gum. somebody was buried with gum. you bury somebody with chewing gum? >> reporter: it should come as no surprise then that just about that same number, one in five of those polled, watches someone like well known psyche psychic medium john edward on television. >> all right. would this be like a father figure to you? >> it's my dad. >> okay. do you still see his assistant? >> yes. >> he wants you to teach her, a few more slices or like i couldn't have the whole pack? >> reporter: edward sees no conflict between his own catholic upbringing and what he calls his gift. even if in this century the church does. >> major organized religion has failed people by not evolving with the society.

and becoming more open to the reality of things and trying to hold tight to the dogma of fire and brim stone and control and fear. that's going to be the downfall of church. >> you got the sense that anything that didn't have anything to do with church was bad and would corrupt you. i knew that jesus... that wasn't jesus as much as it was the churches i had grown up in. >> reporter: carlene bass deeply unhappy in the evangelical churches of her childhood. she became a catholic. then after 9/11 left the catholic church too. >> i guess when you grow up thinking that god is the cause of nearly everything, it's hard to think how could he let this happen? i'm not listening to god anymore. it's okay if i walk away. >> reporter: she has written a memoir of her break with god which listening to her it's clear was agonizing. her pain is buried in another poll statistic. more than one out of every four respondents practice no

religion at all. but if she is the face of religion lost, rabbi breyer is the opposite, religion found. by way of yoga. growing up her judaism was more a fact of life than the calling yoga became. >> yoga opened my heart, kept me in my body and allowed my soul to do the dance it needed to find judaism. >> reporter: instead of leading her away from her traditional faith, yoga is how she happened to become a rabbi. >> i was able to bring the delight, the fire of the practices of yoga in... to shine upon judaism. judaism came to life. >> reporter: there is little in the parade magazine poll to describe people who are devout but not necessarily in a traditional way. this statistic maybe. that six out of ten

respondents still say religion is an important part of their lives but no poll number can begin to convey the enormity of what that really means. >> osgood: all aboard. we're off on the orient express. next. pollen.

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>> osgood: now a page from our sunday morning almanac. october 4, 1883, 126 years ago today. a day for getting away from it all with style. but that was the day the fabled orient express left paris on its inaugural run eastward through the heart of europe to istanbul and turkey. in the decades that followed the grandly appointed orient express basqued in its reputation as the world's most luxurious train. our friend morley safer evoked that glamorous era. >> just imagine the porter has stowed your bag, the champagne is chilling nicely. >> reporter: in a "60 minutes" story back in 1977. >> anything can happen and usually do on the orient express. >> reporter: or so the novelist and film makers would have us believe. sean connery played james bond on our coke and dagger mission in the 1963 spy film "from russia with love." >> this must be kept quiet.

(train whistle) >> reporter: and with albert finney in the role of detective, an all-star cast who vis ited the train's golden era in the 1974 form of agatha christie's murder on the orient express. sadly in its final aviation challenged years, the reality of the orient express lagged far behind his posh reputation. by the time morley safer took it on its last paris-to-istanbul run in 1977, the express was just a ram shackle shadow of& its former self. fortunately for rail fans, a private company revived the orient express in 1982 and elegantly restored vintage rail cars and premium fares to match. next, we saved you a seat.

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>> osgood: pull up a chair, any chair. we're taking a look at chairs of the future, the office of tomorrow. here's science and technology correspondent daniel sieberg. >> reporter: what do you sit on? and just to be clear, this is a question about furniture not anatomy. where do you park your post tear i don't remember and what does your choice say about you? >> the chair says a lot about

who you are, whether it's the materials or it's sort of in a craft tradition, a more traditional chair or something that's a little whackier. >> reporter: donna corebin is a curator at the philadelphia museum of art which recently received a donation of dozens of modern chairs. >> i mean you only have to look at the queen of england sitting on her throne to realize the importance that a chair can often take on, right? >> reporter: sure. the chair you sit on can say you're royalty or a star. or the president. here at cbs news, it's hard to tell what your chair says. if you look around the offices, it's an eclectic mix. some people don't even sit in chairs at all. as for my chair, well, it's a little generic. i don't know what that says about me. it used to be you could tell the office hierarchy by who was sitting in what kind of chair. the boss bo be in a big leather back chair in the corner office.

not so much anymore. at j.w.t., in new york city, one of the world's largest advertising agencies, they've stripped the status from the seating. angela burton is their general manager. so everybody here has the same chair? >> everybody here has the same exact chair. >> reporter: even the ceo. >> from the ceo to a graphic artist to a copy writer to an administrative assistant. >> reporter: the chair they used, this great equalizer, is the familiar eron by herman miller. >> i couldn't wait to show it off to my friends and make them jealous. >> reporter: chair envy? >> chair envy, absolutely. >> reporter: the eron is based on erg onmanyics, the practice of designing items to work safely and efficiently according to the user. in this case let the furniture adjust not the person. air-on hit the scene in 1994 and became a symbol of the dot- com boom. millions have been sold.

they even caught our eye here at sunday morning. >> ergonomically designed and almost transparent in its cyber styled coolness. >> reporter: it really changed the whole notion of what a chair could do or be. it was much more about becoming this piece of equipment now that you interacted with. >> reporter: did the air-on chair spark a chair revolution in a sense? >> i think it was really one of the first products in the industry that changed the... moved you away from chair status to chair, as i think, performance icon. >> reporter: andrew cogan is ceo of knoll, a herman miller competitor. >> you know it's been 15 years. you know, people are looking for where the next step in seating is. no one was really done anything that has changed that dynamic. >> reporter: until now perhaps. these photos make up some of the research and show that people don't sit in one position all day. with that in mind, they created the ultraflexible generation chair. what they hope will be the next big thing.

>> people have intimate relation s with their chairs. they are bending them and flexing them. so we really wanted something that can be durable and strong. in fact, you know, the arms i can lift my whole weight up off the arm of the chair. >> reporter: the chair, which retails for about $775 won top honors at this year's neo con, the world's largest office furnishings trade show. of course, knoll wasn't alone in introducing new products. the office chair market is worth about $2 billion annually. so nobody takes the competition sitting down. steel case showed us two of its new chairs: i-2-i, and koby. each boasts a flexible back support. >> one of the worst things you can to for your lower back is siting in a static position over a prolonged period of time. >> reporter: and this world chair, the simplicity alone makes it stands out. >> it uses your body weight and it uses physics.

>> reporter: but if someone is going to unseat the air-on, herman miller is determined to do it themselves. >> you need to have a chair that is exactly molded to your shape. >> reporter: with its spine- shaped back support, herman miller makes a pretty bold claim about their new embody chair. >> what it does quite simply is actually make you a healthier user of it. >> reporter: the idea is that the chair's narrow back allows deeper breathing. and its adjustable seat pan keeps the blood flowing. starting at $1100, call it erg ona.m.ics to the n-th degree. of course when it comes to chairs, the sitter is as important as the seat. mohammed akron is an ergonomics expert at columbia university. >> $1500 or $5,000? how about $250? but if you can't adjust it your height, then it's worthless. >> reporter: something to bear in mind. whichever chair might dethrone

the air-on, you remain in the driver's seat. ♪ for the first time >> osgood: still to come, we're in tune with paul shaffer. plus how ella found her way home.

la. >> osgood: word this morning of eight american deaths in fighting in afghanistan reminds us yet again of the ongoing debate over just what course of action is best for us to pursue. after all this time, our forces are still searching for top al qaeda and taliban leaders while the leadership in washington continues to search for the right strategy. national security correspondent david martin this morning begins a series of special reports from cbs news. >> reporter: after an years of fighting and more than 850 americans killed, the u.s. is starting over in afghanistan. >> why isn't it better? >> that's a fair question. >> reporter: at a speech in london in thursday general stanley mcchrystal the american kmachbder in afghanistan said not only is it not better, many things are worse. >> it's true that after eight years after a lot of

tremendous efforts, a lot of expenditures, loss of good people, many indicators, many things are worse. >> reporter: according to mcchrystal violence is up. whether you measure it by the number of taliban attacks, the number of american casualties or the number of afghan citizens living in fear. >> it took us longer than i wish it had to recognize this as a serious insurgency. as the taliban started to come back into effectiveness, i think we lagged accepting that as a clear reality. >> reporter: mcchrystal's dire assessment that the war could be lost in the next 12 months if he doesn't get more troops sent the president and his top national security advisors back to the situation room. what should american strategy be? right now the strategy is counterinsurgency which as mcchrystal explained to his troops in this documents means we need to do much more than

simply kill or capture militants. it's a labor-intensive strategy. american troops going into villages to develop a working relationship with the elders. >> you try to reshape the environment not just to eliminate terrorists but to cut off their ability to replenish their ranks. >> reporter: according to bruce hoffman, a professor at georgetown university school of foreign service, counterinsurgency is is much more ambitious than simply killing or capturing militants, a strategy known as counterterrorism. can you win with counterterrorism? >> no, i think history shows that you can hold an opponent at bay. you can reduce their power but you cannot win a complete victory just relying on counterterrorism tactics. >> reporter: but does the u.s. have to defeat the taliban in afghanistan in order to defeat the real enemy al qaeda which is based across the border? pakistan? and which by all accounts including that of mike lighter the nation's top counterterrorism official is taking a pounding from c.i.a. drone strikes.

>> al qaeda and its allies have suffered significant leadership losses over the last 18 months interrupting training and plotting and disrupting plots. >> reporter: if the goal is to defeat al qaeda, then maybe all we have to do, so the argument goes, is keep up the drone strikes in pakistan and fight on with what we already have in afghanistan. it's a strategy which goes by the name "counterterrorism- plus." >> counterterrorism-plus means failure to me. >> reporter: until recently fred kagan of the american enterprise institute was an advisor to general mcchrystal. taliban returned to power in afghanistan, kagan says, will allow al-qaeda to reestablish its safe havens there. >> you will have recreated in a new and different form the conditions that generated 9/11 s. that's why we need to be there from the standpoint of fighting al qaeda. >> reporter: he thinks that will require 40 to 45,000 more troops. >> we're losing. we need more forces to reverse

momentum that the enemy has acquired. so if you try to hold with the forces that we have now, the situation will continue to deteriorate. >> we need to reverse the current trends and time does matter. >> reporter: the 8th anniversary of the start of the war will come and go this week. but president obama and his add vidzors have not yet figured out how hard afghanistan is worth fighting for. >> osgood: afghanistan, the road ahead. continues this week on the "cbs evening news" and on the early show. >> you're all desperate to point some kind of a finger at a neighbor. >> osgood: ahead now on sunday morning, 50 years in the twilight zone. announcer: right now, all over the country, discover card customers are getting 5% cashback bonus at grocery stores. now, more than ever it pays to discover.

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>> tonight's story on the twilight zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. >> it's sunday morning on cbs and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: it was 50 years ago this week in the golden age of black-and-white tv that rod sterling first introduced us to the twilight zone here on cbs. the show still claims countless fans including mitch butler and josh landis of the fast draw. >> the twilight zone. it dawned half a century ago, changing science fiction forever. >> a man called rod sterling combined fantasy, horror, and suspense, warning people about the dark side of human nature. science fiction as a kind of public service. an episode called "the monsters are due on maple street" told what can happen when citizens let paranoia

prevail. >> you're all desperate to point some kind of a finger at a neighbor. believe me, friends, the only thing that's going to happen is we're going to eat each other up alive. >> reporter: the twilight's predicts were revolutionary for network television but they were also part of a much larger and older tradition of science fiction revealing the future before it happened. back in the 1600s astronomer johannes kepler wrote what many think is the first work of science fiction. wondering what happened if man traveled into space. he predicted weightlessness. >> in the 1800s, men author edward bellamy envisioned a utopian future with no paper money. today we call that fantasy the credit card. >> at the turn of the century even before the first airplane flight, rudd yard kipling wrote about skies full of

aircrafts carrying letters and packages circling the globe. >> what's up there? >> a crazy idea called airmail. >> reporter: and not long after that, near the beginning of the 1900, h.g.wells envisioned a machine that would record the human voice and send it to another machine far away, wirelessly. >> i've been waiting all day for this. >> today it's called the cell phone and voice mail. joort ken perl. >> n who won an oscar for his work on the film abyss says science fiction does more than simply pre-ticket. >> science fiction is a very clear example of a way that we force ourselves to engage in these very serious discussions about our future, our impact on each other and our impact on the world. >> reporter: some of the predicts of the past turn out to be kind of simple and hum drum in retrospect like star trek's commune itors... communicators. you can't even take a picture with one of those things. cell phones are way better. >> teleporting? buying cars? i guess we have to keep

dreaming about those. >> it's all so clear. it makes sense. >> reporter: and what predictions today might prove true tomorrow? >> you'll just have to tune in 50 years from now and see for yourself. right here in a place called sunday morning. >> a show of hands if you're going to college. >> osgood: coming up fighting illiteracy one child at... and one adult at a time. >> it's still hard to say to a four-year-old cccc

>> osgood: sad to say in this day and age one american adult in seven is ill literal. fortunately there are ways to escape from that situation. our friend and colleague byron

pits has some personal story to prove that very point including as it happens his own. >> reporter: meet walter long. he's 59 years old and lives in the town he glue up in just outside pittsburgh. he's got a good job with the county water board, a nice house where he's raised four kids, and a wife who loves him. and for years walter long also had a secret. he could not read. you were faking it. >> i was faking it. >> reporter: then one night walter was reading or pretending to read a story to his four-year-old daughter joanne. >> my daughter looked at me and said that's not how mom read it to me. i'm sorry. it's still hard to say to a four-year-old that you can't read. >> reporter: still tough. >> yeah. because... i'm sorry. >> reporter: lavonne drives a

school bus for the greater pittsburgh school system something she wouldn't have been able to do ten years ago because she couldn't read well enough to pass the driving test. >> have a good day. watch the steps. >> reporter: she hid her lack of reading skills from everyone, even her daughters. >> i was embarrassed. i was ashamed. >> reporter: for your children to know you couldn't read. >> um-hum. >> reporter: a painful thing. >> yes. it hurt. >> reporter: according to a federal survey, 30 million americans, one in seven adults, are functionally ill literal... illiterate. that means they cannot read well enough to function effectively. >> literacy is a very complex subject. >> reporter: emily kirk patrick for the center for family literacy. >> there are 40% of our nation's fourth readers who are not reading at basic level. many of the fourth graders are children of the 30 million who cannot read at the basic level. >> reporter: many times, says kirk patrick, children just give up as they fall behind.

>> early in a person's life they're learning how to read or should be learning how to read. and then as life and education progress, you transition to needing to read to learn. and it's when that transition happens, often in the adolescent years, that an individual falls very far behind and feels unable to catch up. >> reporter: for some, the problem is learning disabilities. most of them undiagnosed until recent years. others come from families where the parents struggle with reading or where english is not spoken. >> both my wife and i have lived here all our lives. >> reporter: for some like walter long, the reasons are not entirely clear even now. for those who will hear your words and say, how is it possible that a man in a major city like pittsburgh couldn't read? >> i would say that i hid a

lot of things. >> reporter: painstakingly copying over work orders at home at night. getting his wife to fill out paperwork and olympics and telling his kids he was too busy when they needed help with homework. that must have been exhausting not telling your co-workers, not telling your wife, not telling your friends. >> it's just not something that you walk up to someone and say, you know, i have a reading problem. how are you doing today? i have a reading problem. can you help me? >> it's very common for people to hide it. they're very intelligent people because they've figured out how to work around disclosing the fact that they can't read or can't read well. >> reporter: the causes are many. but the stigma and the shame are the same. what kind of words would you hear? >> dummy. you're not going to learn. why are you still here? >> reporter: deep in your heart you still hear those whispers? >> yes. >> reporter: the unkind words.

>> yes, i do. >> reporter: literacy for me is more than just another assignment. it's a story i know well. i was a student here at saint catherine elementary school in baltimore when i was diagnosed as functionally ill lat rat. i could not read. there weren't programs for kids like me back then so i placed in the basement with the slow learners. i became one of the basement boys. my journey from st. catharine's in baltimore to cbs news is one i've spent time thinking about and now writing about. it's a journey i could not have made without the unshakable help and support of my mother who when a therapist suggested i might be mentally retarded absolutely refused to give up. there were others along the way-- teachers and mentors-- who helped me retrace and relearn what i somehow missed in my early years and who believed in me even when i

doubted myself. >> the main key is a parent being involved in a child's life, having a person who literally refuses to have a child fail. >> are you taking the highest numberss, sir? >> reporter: these days teachers are trained to diagnose reading problems early before they become life- long handicaps. >> good. excellent. >> reporter: this teacher is in the second grade at st. catharine's where her reading and speech problems are well on their way to not being problems at all. do you like read something. >> yes. >> reporter: what do you like about reading? >> it is fun. >> reporter: it is fun sometimes. yeah. how sweet is is that to hear your daughter describe reading as fun? >> it sounds good now. >> reporter: at neighborhood academy, public charter school in a tough section of pittsburgh, these high school students have high hopes for the future. but for some it wasn't always that way.

a show of hands if you're going to college. did any of you guys struggle with reading ever in school? darius sullivan is a senior. >> i definitely struggle with reading. i struggled in reading and i took it as a joke. >> reporter: a joke, why? >> because i knew i was bad and i didn't want to be made fun of. >> there's a tremendous amount of shame that they assume. they assume often that they're the only ones that have the struggle. the research and statistics verify that that's far from the true case. >> reporter: for darius sullivan the support of his teachers and peers made all the difference. >> and now you're thinking about going to m.i.t.? was that does tell you? >> wow! i mean i've definitely changed, you know. i definitely can say i can look in the mirror like you're not the same person you used to be. proud of you. >> you have to stick with it. it won't be easy. >> reporter: today walter long is also proud, proud of his

decision to get tutoring and go to classes offered by the greater pittsburgh literacy council. but it wasn't an easy decision. >> we sat down with the four children and i said, you know, that i was entering the program and that i didn't know where this journey would take us. but we're going to take the journey together. >> reporter: his children, he says, made sure he stayed on track. >> i would come home from work, want to sit down and want to watch tv and just relax and forget about the day. they would look at me and say, isn't it time to do your homework? >> they would do that. >> i know that i can do whatever i put my mind to do. >> reporter: for lavonne, the journey hasn't always been easy either. but she knows it was worth it. >> change your life? >> change your life, yes. it showed me how i can attain some things that i thought was not attainable.

>> are you ready to tear into the ground? snlt for walter long, the journey has a very happy ending. now you can read to your grandchild. >> yes. >> reporter: those same books that you couldn't read to your own children? >> now i can read. >> osgood: ella's dogged pursuit coming up next.

>> osgood: according to folk wisdom every dog has its day. but can that possibly apply to a poor stray dog? our steve hartman is on a case. >> reporter: over the last 20 years the love me tender animal rescue in central tennessee has rounded up more than a thousand abandoned dogs. although most are timid and untrusting, this one was notably different.

>> i could just tell right away she was someone's baby. she didn't act like a spray dog to me. >> reporter: kathy wilks-meyers found the rotweiller a few months ago. it was emaciated and drinking water from a drainage ditch along this empty stretch of highway. kathy says it's typical for people to dump unwanted pets in the middle of nowhere like this but again the dog's demeanor convinced her there was more to the story. so she did some detective work. what she found is a heart- wrenching tale of unending loyalty. >> she was hoping her family would come back but they couldn't. they couldn't come back. just breaks your heart. >> reporter: kathy found the first clues to this mystery right near where she found the dog. >> all this broken glass and taillights and the ground was all torn up. >> reporter: just down from there, a second set of even more intriguing clues. >> these items had been gathered up over there. >> reporter: gathered up. >> yes. >> reporter: by the dog, she

assumes. >> it's like she was sleeping with them or waiting there with them. >> reporter: she took this picture with her cell phone and gathered the items. they were mostly random personal things. toothbrush, comb, razor, a candle that said michelle. but nothing that would explain anything. although now she did have a hunch. kathy remembered two weeks earlier she had driven by an accident on the same stretch of highway. she remembered because it was such a horrible crash. a single car had flipped over and landed on the side of the road at just about the same spot where she found the dog. based on what she saw that day, kathy figured there was no way a person could have survived. but what about a dog? so she called the highway patrol. >> she gave me the mom's name and the dad's name. and the mom's name was michelle. i just said, oh, my god. this is their dog. >> reporter: thrown from the car, rescue crews never saw her. the dog spent 13 days scavenging for food along the

highway. and 13 nights bedding down with whatever she could find that smelled like her lost family. >> that's the last spot she saw her family. she was going to stay there. >> reporter: kathy figured it all out. but fortunately she got one thing very wrong. someone did survive the crash. >> i think... i didn't think we would make it all of there. >> reporter: in fact all five passengers survived. >> i'm lucky to be sitting here with my family. >> reporter: after two weeks believing their dog ella had died the family of joe and michelle kelly got the most wonderful slobbery surprise of their lives. for the first time since the accident, the kellys had a good reason to cry. >> she's somebody's baby. >> reporter: all thanks to the dog who refused to forget her family. and the stranger who refused to take lost for an answer.

>> osgood: ahead, a musical interlude with the late show's paul shaffer. and later bill geist leaves no stone unthrown. way to plan for what matters to you. way to plan introducing blueprint. blueprint is free and only for chase customers. it lets you choose what purchases you want to pay in full to avoid interest...with full pay. and those you split... you decide how to pay over time. if having a plan matters. chase what matters. create your own blueprint at chase.com/blueprint. to use new crest extra white plus scope outlast. [ female announcer ] new crest extra white plus scope outlast for a whiter smile and a fresh breath feeling that lasts up to five times longer. [ inhales deeply ] ok she's right. my breath still feels fresh. [ female announcer ] new crest extra white plus scope outlast.

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>> osgood: america knows paul shaffer as the band leader on the late show with david letterman. a show has been much in the news this week as a result of its host's on-air admission of sexual affairs in the office and the arrest of a cbs news producer for an alleged extortion plot. all that was still a few days in the future, however, when paul shaffer and his boss talked with our ant niece may onfor this sunday profile. >> ladies and gentlemen, paul shaffer. >> thank you all. so very much. come on. >> reporter: for 27 television seasons now through more than 5,000 shows, he's been the musical maestro, comedyic. >> i was kind of excited.

i got a personal letter from ed mcmahon. >> reporter: and side kick for david letterman. >> paul, do you use mousse. >> you have to be careful not to overmousse. >> reporter: the piano playing tonto to letterman's lone ranger. >> the world's greatest showman. >> reporter: how important is that job to what you do? >> to me? it's essential. it's a long trip. paul is the funny flight attendant. >> wow, thank you. do you want to be a funny flight attendant. >> we're landing. we're landing. >> reporter: paul shaffer leads the cbs orchestra, an eight-eight band revered for its versatility. from behind his for treasure of synthesizers he has to add the melody as letterman sets the tune.

you're watching him the whole time. >> got to because, god help me, if i take my eyes off, like if i'm over here and he'll say... he's got an uncanny ability to sense when i'm not paying attention. >> reporter: i don't know how it is from you. we're like 25 feet apart. for me, it's reflex i have. in a rare interview after a show early last week before thursday night's revelations, letterman talked about their partnership. >> it's not considered. it's not conjured. it's just more or less reflexi have been. is that what it seems like over there? >> i just have to pay attention and react and i've got to be me (singing) >> what i like is we're talking about it like we actually have something here. >> yeah, we don't know. >> the love that we feel for each other as performers really goes beyond the love that ordinary people have. don't you think that's true? >> i think so. it's kind of a, yeah, a super

extra kind of special thing that only performers would understand. >> only people in the industry. >> this is my dressing room. >> reporter: shaffer outfits his kitschy cool las vegas persona in his dressing room on the third floor of the ed sullivan theater. >> if i'm going to entertain, i better look like an entertainer. >> reporter: this is the collection of glasses you've amassed over the years. >> these kinds of things. >> reporter: do they all come from the same place. >> no, wherever i am. i might look in a store and pick up a pair. >> reporter: he's lost track of how many he owns. now in his new book "we'll be here for the rest of our lives" the second banana tells the story of his swinging show biz life. >> i don't know why this concept of what is hip became so important to me. but of course i kind of send it up with this hipster

persona. >> reporter: it's part real and part fake? >> it's both. and there you have i think the strange duality of my whole personality. i can't explain that either. we are driving along highway 61. >> reporter: paul shaffer's journey started where highway 61 ends. up in thunder bay, ontario. >> i think by the end of this day you will have more of a understanding of how i came out to be such a bizarre human being. good to see you. >> reporter: he's a local hero here. with a street named after him. >> here's my star. >> reporter: and the first star on thunder bay's walk of fame. >> right there on the front. >> reporter: even the police stop. to ask for an autograph. >> i almost didn't believe him. i wonder what they're filming.

that's paul shaffer. no. i said that is totally paul shaffer. >> reporter: he took us by the music center. >> i haven't seen you forever. >> it's been a long time. >> reporter: where he bought his first organ. >> you used to spend a lot of time in here. >> i did looking at the instruments that i couldn't afford. >> reporter: the shaffer family lived on sellkirk street. >> this is the old house. >> reporter: paul even play organ at his parents' go-go party in the '60s. >> played all night. 2:00 in the morning i go to my mother and i say can i go to bed now? she says just one more set, dear. i said, mom. >> reporter: the only child of bernard shaffer, a prominent attorney, and his wife shirley, paul started music lessons when he was six years old. >> right after my first lesson i started to be able to figure out melodies myself by ear. all i liked to do was play songs, figure them out and play them. it was like unlocking some sort of a magical kingdom. ♪ day by day >> reporter: shaffer's big

break came in 1972 when he played piano for a friend who was auditioning for the toronto production of the musical god spell and the show's composer steven swartz. >> they said she's good but who is that guy? and steven swartz said i never heard anyone pound a piano like that and made him musical director. >> reporter: martin short who also won a part that day has been shaffer's friend ever since. >> a lot of people, guild a radner got up on stage pig tails to the side and sang zipity do-dah. i thought that poor thing. look at her. they said you're hired. >> reporter: the cast would include eugene levy, dave thomas and andrea martin. >> did i learn a lot from just hanging out with these people. >> reporter: those connections would help bring shaffer to new york. and to a new late night tv show. >> live from new york, it's saturday night. >> reporter: he started out as the band's piano player and

cocktail accompanist for bill murray's lizardry lounge singer. >> nothing but star wars. >> reporter: but soon he was appearing in sketches. >> frank, you are one of the most dynamic performers in the industry today. >> reporter: he was best known for his impression of the painfully stiff rock producer don kirscher. >> let's join his silent brother the blues brothers. ( applause ) >> reporter: when their blues brothers skit became a smash hit, dan akroyd and john belushi asked shaffer to be the musical director for their records but as their movie was about to start shooting, guild a radner asked shaffer to produce a record for her. >> john said to me, don't do this record. just rest. >> reporter: but you couldn't turn guild a down. >> how could i not do gilda's

record? we were close friends. >> reporter: how did you feel about him saying don't do the record? >> well i understood it. there was friendly competition going on. everybody wanted the best for their own project. i just said, john, i'll be able to do that both. don't worry about it. >> reporter: when radner's record took longer than expected john pushed shaffer off the blues brother film. >> john put out a sort of a statement among our group of saturday night live people saying that paul is out. forget it. he is not a blues brother. he will never be a blues brother. this was shattering to me. oh, my goodness. i was just shattered. >> reporter: but in 1982 another new late night show was looking for help. how did you know about paul? >> from saturday night live. >> reporter: david letterman launching his show on nbc was searching for a side kick. >> paul was the only guy we talked to. >> reporter: how did that conversation two? do you remember? >> you didn't say much.

>> i was scared. i didn't know. i mean paul had been on a successful show. i had been on a show that was canceled. >> reporter: when you went on the air in 1982 together, did you work out what the relationship was going to be or was it just organic? >> no. we didn't really. i think we had two weeks of run-through shows. i don't think we've ever had a discussion about it since, have we? >> no, never have. that's the interesting thing about the show. things just happen on the air. >> reporter: off the air at home, the cool cat becomes a family man. with his wife kathy, shaffer has two kids, will and victoria. they describe paul shaffer the dad. >> he's a character. >> good. >> he's loud. >> reporter: he's loud especially she says at concerts. >> it's like everyone is sitting there. and then there's my dad like yeah, yeah, yeah! and then it's like this.

(laughing) >> reporter: has he changed in 27 years? >> i will tell you this. he and i have gotten to be really good friends. that's another great surprise from the relationship that began all those years ago. i knew he was great musically. i didn't know he was so funny. i then didn't realize he would become one of my best friends. that's been a tremendous bonus. >> reporter: why did that happen? >> well, he's an easy guy to like. we're two of a handful of people that do this for a living. he and i know what it is. we know what it is up. we know what it is down. i think all of that contributes to the friendship. >> reporter: he'll be 60 in november. and as paul shaffer himself might say, it's been a nutty marvelous ride. along the way, the boy from thunder bay has brushed up against almost all the greats he idolized. >> i think i've done it. i missed elvis and i missed

sinatra. but otherwise, i did pretty well. my family, while i was building my life, my high cholesterol was contributing to plaque buildup in my arteries. that's why my doctor prescribed crestor. she said plaque buildup in arteries is a real reason to lower cholesterol. and that along with diet, crestor does more than lower bad cholesterol, it raises good. crestor is also proven to slow the buildup of plaque in arteries. crestor isn't for everyone, like people with liver disease, or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. simple blood tests will check for liver problems. you should tell your doctor about other medicines you are taking, or if you have muscle pain or weakness. that could be a sign of serious side effects. while you've been building your life, plaque may have been building in your arteries. find out more about slowing the buildup of plaque at crestor.com. then ask your doctor if it's time for crestor.

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>> osgood: now the week passed by the numbers. cable tv host glen beck's new book "arguing with idiots" knocked the late senator kennedy's edward kennedy's memoir from the hard fiction list while the lost symbol tops the hard cover fiction best seller list for the second straight week. >> these really let themselves go. >> osgood: the new movie zombie land is projecting to finish number one at the box office this weekend. an estimated take of $23.5 million. >> you guys want something?

>> yeah. >> osgood: "i got a feelin'" by the black-eyed peas retains its hold at the top of the billboard chart. ♪ as for the first week of the new tv season, the cbs show ncis took first place in prime time. the miley cyrus music video party in the usa is the most viewed video on you-tube. ♪ it's the party in the usa and government regulators shut down three banks in michigan, colorado, and minnesota forcing the number of closed banks so far this year to 98. the week past by the numbers. now to bob schieffer in washington for a look at what's ahead on "face the nation." good morning, bob. >> schieffer: good morning, charles. we're all about afghanistan this morning. we're going to talk to general

james jones, the president's national security advisor and the chairman of the house and the senate armed services committee about whether the united states should send 40,000 more troops to that country. >> osgood: thank you, bob schieffer. we'll be watching. here ahead on sunday morning, bill geist. >> reporter: professional rock skipping. just a stone's throw away. it was a horrible feeling, like i couldn't catch my breath. i couldn't believe i was actually having a heart attack.

i remember being at the hospital, thinking about my wife. i should have done more to take care of myself. now i'm exercising, watching my diet, and i trust my heart to lipitor. (announcer) unlike some other cholesterol lowering medications, lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and certain kinds of heart surgeries in patients with several common risk factors or heart disease. lipitor is backed by over 17 years of research. lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. i'll never forget what i went through. don't take your health for granted. (announcer) have a heart to heart with your doctor about your risk. and about lipitor. when i really liked to be outside, i did not like suffering from nasal allergy symptoms like congestion.

but nasonex relief may i say... bee-utiful! prescription nasonex is proven to help relieve indoor and outdoor nasal allergy symptoms like congestion, runny and itchy nose and sneezing. (announcer) side effects were generally mild and included headache. viral infection, sore throat, nosebleeds and coughing. ask your doctor about symptom relief with nasonex. and save up to $15 off your refills. go to nasonex.com for details, terms and conditions. >> osgood: a stone's throw is no mean feat for the folks who flock to one relatively unknown sporting event. our bill geist learned all about it firsthand.

>> reporter: franklin, pennsylvania. a gem of a small town set in a landscape worthy of an oil painting. here at the confluence of french creek and the allegheny river, people still enjoy the simple pleasures. >> nice skip. >> reporter: like skipping stones. once a year they get quite competitive about it. >> there you go. that's what stone skipping is all about, folks. right there. >> reporter: hosting a tournament that draws the best skippers from throughout the land. down at the barber shop, folks could barely contain their excitement before this year's tournament. >> it's a big deal. every year it goes on, don't it, john? >> yeah, i think getting bigger every year. >> reporter: the favorite to win once again was five-time champion and world record holder russ spires who hails

from right here in franklin. the people in franklin ask you for your autograph? >> no. this is the pennsylvania trophy actually. >> reporter: his home is full of trophies, medals, record- setting rocks and documentation of his world record skip. >> this will be it. the very first skip. >> reporter: he carefully kpaed video evidence before declaring his toss one for the books. that's ridiculous. i couldn't believe what i was seeing. a stone that skipped and just kept on skipping and skipping 51 times. oh, my gosh. does this stone skipping take a lot of your time? >> no. >> reporter: you don't practice every day. >> no. >> reporter: the only real effort russ puts into it is hunting for good stones. what do you look for? >> i mean that's good. flat. this is kind of heavy and

flat. aate lot of people would go for something like this. >> reporter: a little guy. >> that's pretty good. it's light. not like that. you know, because there's a point on it. >> reporter: tell me about that. that gives you kind of a grip where you can skin it. >> i always want something i can hook my finger on to on the end. just remember keep going through it. think about the spin. >> reporter: the champ gave me some tips. you get a lot of spin on it it will keep going. >> reporter: then he showed me how it's done. i ran out of room. this place can't hold you. that was beautiful. >> folks, we're about ready to get started. i hope all the amateurs have registered. >> reporter: this tournament always draws a formidable field. are you feeling ready today? >> i guess. >> reporter: but everyone knew the man to beat. >> i'm going to put a little

scare into you. >> reporter: russ's chief rival is kurt "mountain man" designer who held the world record of 40 skips that russ obliterated. >> good luck. >> you too. >> reporter: kurt really worked at it. >> when you really push it on the limit, it requires aate lot of precision and a lot of power and a lot of dedication, practice and training. >> reporter: quite different from russ who just rares back and flings. >> we're such polar opposites. >> reporter: how so? >> i'm more interested to find the scientific article, the math that's been done because i like to understand what's going on from the physics point of view. >> reporter: to kurt stone skipping is a science. he pores over the remarkable body of scientific research on the subject. you may have read about it in the american journal of physics or the journal of fluid mechanics. >> maybe i can maximize some of those variables and such.

>> reporter: the 2009 tournament began. and using his knowledge of hydro dynamics and translational velocitys kurt skipped to 27. >> look at that. >> reporter: a canadian bettered kurt's he was. >> from the great north. >> reporter: and then a kilted scott bested both. >> whoa! >> reporter: how do they count all those skips? well, several judges count and then they come up with a number. >> a 38. unbelievable. >> reporter: i tried my hand at it. and using russ's tips and russ's rocks came up with a pretty good number myself. >> 22. congratulations. 22 first-time skipping congratulations bill. >> now, ladies and gentlemen,

the one you've been waiting to see, the current record holder russ "rock bottom".... >> reporter: the crowd was hush as mighty russ took stone in hand. and then skipped it out and out across the allegheny. >> what record book holders are all about. look at that. look at that, folks. 39! a 39! >> reporter: but as the cheering subsided, an unassuming unheralded young man slipped out of the crowd and stepped to the riverbank. and then let fly a mighty heave. >> where did that come from? where did that come from? >> reporter: the shocking 42 skipper came from one grant mitchell. >> a new leader came out of nowhere. >> reporter: a philadelphia med school student who sped five-and-a-half hours across the state, arrived five

minutes before competition and had to borrow rocks. a miraculous tale. a young man hailing a goliath with a single stone, a deed for which david received a central place in the bible. grant, he received a pound of fudge. >> thank you again, everybody. we will see you next year. >> good night, everybody. last year, dad came down with a really bad flu. really bad.

then we learned that a flu shot can reduce the risk of getting the flu by up to 70%. we got our flu shots at cvs pharmacy. best thing we ever did. yes, indeed. [ laughs ] come in to get a flu shot today and get a $100 coupon book just for stopping by. go to cvs.com to find a flu shot location near you. cvs pharmacy. ♪ there's only one word for this ♪ ♪ it's bliss ♪ only one word describes chocolate this creamy, this rich, this indulgent. bliss. hershey's bliss chocolate. it's not just chocolate. it's bliss.

♪ (announcer) try out a few different moms and get all of the extra mothering you need this cold and flu season. the kleenex virtual moms at getmommed.com. >> osgood: we leave you this sunday morning on a wild prairie grassland near thornton, iowa.

>> osgood: i'm charles osgood. please join us again next sunday morning. until then, i'll see you on the radio.

today on "face the nation" should the united states send thousands more troops to afghanistan? general stanley mcchrystal wants 40,000 more troops to continue the