ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
Thursday is the day we read from your e-mail. And we heard from many people about my interview with Cathy Wilkerson.
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
Wilkerson was a member of Weatherman. In 1970, Wilkerson and four others were using her parent's townhouse in New York's Greenwich Village as a bomb factory. That's when sticks of dynamite they were using to make bombs exploded.
CATHY WILKERSON: A blast reverberated through the house, and in places the ironing board, a mountain of splintered wood and brick rose up all around me. Plaster dust and little bits of debris blew out from everywhere, instantly filling the air.
SIEGEL: Ray Reagan(ph) of Phoenix, Arizona was one of many who were dismayed by this story. He writes, being removed from the era by a generation, I did not listen to this story through the prism of nostalgia, rather, every time Robert Siegel called her a radical and her movement radicalism, I heard terror and terrorist.
BLOCK: Don Wrightmeier(ph) of Danville, Kentucky shared the sentiment. Their freedom to protest for civil rights and against the Vietnam War are protected rights. Their decision to use explosives embedded with nails and use those devices on Fort Dix against fellow Americans would have been nothing short of murder.
SIEGEL: How tragic, he writes, that some of her friends were killed in the explosion. How much more tragic it would have been if they had been successful in their plans.
BLOCK: Unidentified Man: And look how India's a lot more advanced than the U.K. At least our kings and princes marry beautiful women. Well, if an Indian king married Camilla, we would worship her, because in our country, cows are considered sacred.
SIEGEL: Well, Ed Harris(ph) of Kansas City, Missouri doesn't think the striking writers have anything to worry about. Futilely trying to understand each successive joke, he writes, I suddenly realized that I wasn't meant to understand the jokes. Has NPR outsourced writing for such pieces?
BLOCK: We got some nice remembrances from you about yesterday's story on Arthur Godfrey. He was the host of several shows in the early days of TV, including "Talent Scouts." You could consider it a precursor to "American Idol."
SIEGEL: At the end of this story, Andy Rooney said this about Godfrey's legacy.
ANDY ROONEY: And it's gone. It's up in thin air, and I can't get over the fact that he's forgotten.
SIEGEL: Larry Miller(ph) of Pineville, North Carolina asked us to tell Rooney Godfrey is not forgotten.
BLOCK: Mr. Miller says he met Godfrey once, and it was unforgettable. In 1969, for CBS, he writes, I did an ad for Godfrey coming back on radio. What a raconteur. I spent an hour with Godfrey's chauffeur, driving cross town in New York in his Rolls or Bentley. After that, I could not imagine him going on air without powerful cuss words.
SIEGEL: Well, now for some corrections. Earlier this week in our reporting on the aftermath of the elections in Kenya, we misidentified a church that had been burnt down as Catholic, rather it was a Kenyan Assemblies of God Church.
BLOCK: In our story yesterday about a piece of music called "Rumba Sinfonica," we made a mistake describing the composer's employment. Ricardo Lorenz does not teach at the University of Michigan. In fact, he is on the faculty of Michigan State. Sorry, Spartan.
SIEGEL: And now, reporting on the Iowa caucuses, we also misidentified the singer of this song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THIS IS OUR COUNTRY")
JOHN MELLENCAMP: Sing out through this land. This is our country.
BLOCK: That is John Mellencamp singing "This is Our Country," who we somehow confused with Bruce Springsteen. Ouch. Our mistake.
SIEGEL: Well, whether you think we're a bust(ph) or not, let us know. Go to our Web site, NPR.org, and click on contact us at the top of the page.