MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
On Thursday we read from your e-mail. And today we begin with a correction. Earlier this week, we remembered Army Corporal Carl Johnson of Philadelphia who died while fighting in Iraq. Listener Sharon Murphy of Okeechobee, Florida, wrote in to say that Corporal Johnson was not - as we reported - in a tank at the time of his death, but in a Stryker armored vehicle. Ms. Murphy's son Jason Murphy served alongside Corporal Johnson and says he will be missed.
ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
We've been awash in letters about my interview with White House strategist Karl Rove. I spoke with him at Radio Day, an event hosted by the White House. Susan Lighter of Woodstock, Vermont wrote that once again NPR let an administration person disseminate propaganda on NPR. "Rove made it sound like he had the election sewn up. As if he were seeing polls that others weren't privy to that showed the Repubs had no problems. It's propaganda. If NPR can't hold his feet to the fire, then why bother to interview him?"
BLOCK: But David Beard of Phoenix, Arizona said, "listening to Karl Rove being interviewed by Robert Siegel was pure adventure. I was amazed at the level of Robert Siegel's composure as Mr. Rove interrupted, contradicted and spun his way through a lecture on winning at any cost. Mr. Siegel, I commend your professionalism."
SIEGEL: Well, Walter Funk of Charleston, West Virginia, apparently heard the professionalism coming from the other microphone - not mine. "Not certain," he writes, "who the smug gentleman was who interviewed Mr. Rove, but Mr. Rove was much more pleasant to him than he deserved. He tried to tweak Mr. Rove by opining that you and I read the same numbers. Mr. Rove quickly said no we do not read the same numbers and proceeded to say that his numbers were better. The interviewer was left sputtering. It was laughable."
BLOCK: Staying with politics for a moment, our report yesterday on campaign ads brought in some criticism. Dan Hoarch(ph) of Portland, Oregon, wrote that "reporting or commenting on political ads certainly is useful. But reporter Robert Smith did a poor job of mixing Michael J. Fox's political ad supporting a candidate who favors stem cell research with Republican ads that employ racial fears, fears of terrorist caused devastation, and the over the top effort to tie Democrats and taxes. No doubt Democrats are producing some dubious ads, but the Fox piece is not one of them."
SIEGEL: Melissa's discussion with writer Paul Dickson about his compendium of American slang prompted some of you to write.
BLOCK: Timothy Hodgeton of Durham, North Carolina, wrote to counter Paul Dickson's claim that words from the counterculture are no longer slang.
SIEGEL: "If by standard he means in wide usage then he's correct," Timothy Hodgeton writes. "However, all of the terms he cited still qualify as slang even if they're widely used. I'm a historian of the counterculture, but I have also taught academic writing and I will not accept terms like cool, bummer or snarf as argumentative language in formal essays, even when the subject is the counterculture of the 1960s."
BLOCK: There were also some complaints about our inclusion of the term wife- beater to describe a sleeveless men's undershirt. Joan Singer of Ann Arbor, Michigan wondered, "how can you in all good conscience use such a degrading term when hundreds of women are beaten and abused every day."
On another note -
SIEGEL: "What a disgusting and excellent story."
BLOCK: That was listener Don Merrill's response to Laura Mirsch's essay about Lady, her cocker spaniel, and the dog's habit of sucking on toads. This apparently had a hallucinogenic effect. And while Lady's addiction horrified a handful of listener's - who wondered why the Mirsch's didn't muzzle their dog - the story had many of you in stitches.
SIEGEL: Rob Evans in Centerville, Ohio, wrote, "I was all prepared for a sad dog bone marrow transfusion story until I heard the opening chords of Purple Haze. I laughed from that moment on for the entire remaining 10 miles home from work. My face still hurts."
BLOCK: We want to know what entertains or enrages you. Go to the Web site NPR.org and click on Contact Us at the top of the page. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.