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Here's a story about that blue dress. No – not that blue dress.

Artist Nelson Shanks, who has painted royalty, popes and world leaders, tells the Philadelphia Daily News that his portrait of President Clinton for the National Portrait Gallery has a not-so-obvious reference to the infamous blue dress worn by Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern with whom Clinton had an affair.

Here's the excerpt:

Q: Who did you find was the hardest to capture?

Clinton was hard. I'll tell you why. The reality is he's probably the most famous liar of all time. He and his administration did some very good things, of course, but I could never get this Monica thing completely out of my mind and it is subtly incorporated in the painting.

If you look at the left-hand side of it there's a mantle in the Oval Office and I put a shadow coming into the painting and it does two things. It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there. It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him.

And so the Clintons hate the portrait. They want it removed from the National Portrait Gallery. They're putting a lot of pressure on them. [Reached by phone Thursday, a spokeswoman from the National Portrait Gallery denied that.]

The portrait, which was unveiled in 2006, is also notable for not depicting Clinton's wedding ring.

blue dress

nelson shanks

Monica Lewinsky

President Clinton

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington, D.C., where he'll deliver a speech to Congress Tuesday — an event that's causing debate both in the U.S. and Israel. The leader's plans were made without consulting the White House; he will not meet with President Obama during the visit.

Netanyahu will appear Monday morning at the annual conference of AIPAC, a powerful pro-Israeli lobby, where he's expected to urge the U.S. to impose sanctions on Iran instead of making a deal over the country's nuclear ambitions.

"Normally the AIPAC conference is an opportunity for the White House to publicly support Israel and its leaders," NPR's Jackie Northam reports for Morning Edition. "But this year, it wasn't clear it was going to send anyone. It was only at the last minute, that it was announced two administration officials would attend."

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Those officials include National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who said last week that Netanyahu's speech is "destructive to the fabric of U.S.-Israeli ties."

The Israeli leader's U.S. visit comes as two important dates approach:

March 17 — Israel will hold parliament elections, in a tight campaign year.

March 31 — A deadline arrives in the U.S.-led negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

Netanyahu was invited to address Congress by House Speaker John Boehner, in a move that didn't include Democrats. The plan has also rankled the Obama administration because it breaks with a U.S. policy of not hosting foreign leaders who are about to face an election.

"The move has created bad blood between Netanyahu and Obama, and relations between the two countries have suffered," Jackie reports.

Here are some quotes that show where things stand:

— "According to the signs, in most of the U.S., there is support for Israel. So I can have differences with the U.S. president, that is legitimate, so what is not legitimate about us speaking our minds? Especially when the majority supports us," Netanyahu said Friday, according to Jerusalem Post.

— "We don't want to see this turned into some great political football," Secretary of State John Kerry said on ABC's Sunday program This Week.

— In Israel, a group called the Commanders for Israel's Security "warned that Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress is a clear and present danger to the strategic alliance between the U.S. and Israel, and actually helps Iran," reports Israel's Ynet News.

— "The more the White House criticizes Netanyahu, the more votes he gets from the right, and to a certain extent, from the center." Israeli professor Eytan Gilboa, quoted by Politico.

"More than two dozen Democratic members of Congress, in addition to GOP Rep. Walter Jones (N.C.), have publicly pledged to skip the speech," The Hill reports.

"Don't lose focus. The bad guy is Iran," Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told an AIPAC audience Sunday. "We can never allow Israel to become a political wedge issue."

Benjamin Netanyahu

House Speaker John Boehner

Congress

On-air challenge: Rearrange the letters in a four-letter word and a five-letter word to get a pair of synonyms. For example, given "time" and "night," you would say "item" and "thing."

Last week's challenge: The challenge came from listener Smatt Read of Somerville, Mass. Actor Tom Arnold goes by two first names — Tom and Arnold, both male, of course. And actress Grace Kelly went by two first names — Grace and Kelly, both female. Name a famous living actress who goes by three first names, all of them considered male. The lengths of the names are 5, 3 and 6 letters long, respectively.

Answer: Jamie Lee Curtis

Winner: Alan Winson of Oakland, Calif.

Next week's challenge: Name a city whose name ends in a long-A sound in which that sound is not spelled with an "A." Change the sound to a long-O and phonetically you'll name a famous person whose name does not contain the letter "O." What city and famous person are these?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Would you kindly bear with me a little while I have a good old moan, please? I'm feeling rather wretched. No, not because I've finally kicked a lingering lurgy that turned out to be bronchitis, but because one of the reasons I blame for the illness is back: the Harmattan.

The Two-Way

Video: Haboob, A Huge Dust Storm, Hits Phoenix Area

You know that saying about an ill wind? Well, that ill wind is the Harmattan. Seasonal sandy, dust-filled, hot, trade winds blow in from the Sahara Desert and sweep across West Africa, including the coastal curve — and directly down my throat and into my lungs and increasingly constricted chest.

OK, ok. That may not be a scientific assessment, but that's how it feels, so please indulge me!

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The view from the author's home in Accra, Ghana. The buildings in the background are typically bright green and red, but a blanket of Harmattan haze has dulled their colors. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Ofeibea Quist-Arcton/NPR

The view from the author's home in Accra, Ghana. The buildings in the background are typically bright green and red, but a blanket of Harmattan haze has dulled their colors.

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton/NPR

The Harmattan, a land wind, blows from the northeast, often starts in January (the cool season) and sometimes continues through to March — though winds come and go, without much notice.

There's a Harmattan haze hovering over downtown Dakar that looks all too familiar. The malevolent mantle of dust and sand, that's threatening to settle, comes after gusty, dusty weather, with winds whistling through the streets of the city center.

It usually carries large amounts of dust, which it transports hundreds of miles out over the Atlantic Ocean. The dust often interferes with aircraft operations and settles on the decks of ships.

The same dust-laden winds that blanketed Accra when I was back home in Ghana last month — and where I fell ill — seem to have followed me across West Africa to Senegal, where majestic and mighty baobab trees and palm trees are sprinkled with a layer of dust.

Pedestrians are covering their mouths and noses with scarves and shawls for protection. And fast food motorbike delivery riders are wearing mouth masks.

Some days, visibility was limited to about 150 yards in Accra, and then the haze would lift and, psychologically, you would feel a little better.

When I was a child, I remember being told "children get sick during the Harmattan season," so take care and don't be ill.

This year it's not only children. On plane journeys, on the street, just about everywhere, I seem to hear adults and kids coughing, like the relentless cough I just couldn't shake. I'm so sure this lingering seasonal Harmattan, which descends on us, then disappears, is one of the causes of these lurgies.

A Dakar-based pulmonologist told me asthma sufferers get worse during the Harmattan, wheezing, whistling and rattling even more than usual. Keep that pump handy.

And surely it can't be a coincidence that chest and throat infections seem to be on the increase? Must be all that germ-filled dust we're gobbling up.

But the Harmattan winds are not only a risk to humans and health. Agriculture is also feeling the effect; regional cocoa trees are suffering. (Yes, the cocoa that produces the chocolate you crave.).

The cocoa crop in Africa's two top exporters, Ivory Coast and Ghana, has been hit by the Harmattan, we're told.

Farmers and analysts warn that the worst Harmattan winds in several years may lower output and cut production. As the seasonal gusts blow down from the Sahara, they blanket the cocoa-growing regions in dust, which lowers temperatures and blocks out sunlight.

In Ivory Coast, blossoms and small pods that were visible this time last year are apparently missing from the cocoa trees this season.

And here in Dakar, usually bright blue skies have turned horrid and hazy, with an almost yellowy tinge.

So that's why I'm feeling rather miffed — because I was hoping we were finished with the Harmattan this year. But the ill-wind looks as if it wants to pester us a little longer.

I read somewhere that the rather lyrical name "Harmattan" originates from the Akan-Twi word haramata, which could possibly come from the Arabic haram, meaning "evil thing." Evil works for me. Begone!

West Africa

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