"Letters: Planes, Butlers, Cold"

MICHELE NORRIS, Host:

Much of the email we received yesterday concerned the possible cause of the splashdown of US Airways flight 1549 and our coverage of it. Fred Stoll(ph) of West Chester, Ohio, was one of a few of you, who took note of the term "bird strike."

MELISSA BLOCK, Host:

As we've been reporting, the plane's pilot said he experienced a double bird strike just after takeoff. Mr. Stoll wrote: Let's be clear about who is doing the striking. The bird is doing what birds do, flying at two or three dozen miles per hour. The aircraft is traveling at 200 or 300 miles per hour. I'd say it's the aircraft that is striking the bird.

NORRIS: On to other topics. We received a number of comments about my interview yesterday with a former White House butler.

BLOCK: Until recently, the White House Butler Corps was compromised mostly of African-Americans. It was a proud tradition that emerged out of the shameful past of slavery. Lynwood Westray worked for eight presidents.

(SOUNDBITE OF NPR'S ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, JANUARY 15, 2009)

LYNWOOD WESTRAY: It became so people didn't understand why they were all black. It was a prestige job, and they didn't realize it. The butler was an honorable job. It was a good job. And the benefits, they were there.

NORRIS: Douglas Cridesmore(ph) of Redding, Connecticut, had this to say about Mr. Westray: A more joyous and respectful humility and humanity I have not heard in my lifetime. This interview trumps all those with the famous - the stars, the public figures - and brought to my ear the real, the genuine. Let's do more interviews like the one with Lynwood. So rare.

BLOCK: And finally, listener Amy Picar(ph) heard my interview with Fargo Police Officer Mike Erbes yesterday about how temperatures far below zero are affecting his day-to-day duties.

NORRIS: Officer Erbes told us people who are cold are more likely to fail field sobriety tests. So, police who make traffic stops sometimes have to find an impromptu spot indoors to perform the test.

BLOCK: Amy Picar writes that the story made her chuckle. She says, my dad, who grew up in Dunseith, North Dakota, has a story of one Christmas when he was trying to get home. He took the train to Grand Forks and set out to hitchhike from there on a frigid night. At one point, a sheriff drove by. When the same sheriff drove by a few hours later and saw dad still at the same place on the road, he picked him up and put him in a cell at the local jail just so he wouldn't freeze to death.

NORRIS: Well, whether you're a little cool to our coverage or something we say warms your heart, send us your thoughts. Go to npr.org and click on Contact Us at the top of the page.