"Letters: Eating Meat, Mr. Obama, 'Kind Of Blue'"

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Time now for your comments.

(Soundbite of music)

MONTAGNE: Something that caught your attention recently was an interview with food columnist Mark Bittman. In his book "Food Matters," Bittman writes that Americans should eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat, for their health and for the environment.

(Soundbite of NPR's Morning Edition, January 22, 2009)

Mr. MARK BITTMAN (Author, "Food Matters"): If you eat a couple of meals less of meat each week, you're doing, yourself and the planet, you're doing all of us a favor.

MONTAGNE: Katie Hacker-Brown(ph) in Keystone, Indiana, says sometimes, eating meat does the planet a favor. She writes: If someone is choosing between a plate of corn grown many states away, or a steak from cows raised purely on grass in their own area, then the steak actually makes more sense.

And we'd like to make a little more sense for you on something that many of you write that you're confused about. That's our references to President Barack Obama as Mr. Obama. NPR's own ombudsman, Alicia C. Shepard, hopes to clarify.

ALICIA C. SHEPARD: NPR's policy is to call him President Obama on first reference, and Mr. Obama every time after that. This has been NPR's policy all the way back to the Ford administration.

MONTAGNE: That would be back in the 1970s, with former President Gerald Ford.

And one of our listeners pointed out an omission yesterday in our story about the 50th anniversary of the Miles Davis classic album, "Kind of Blue." Laurence Burke(ph) of Lakeland, Florida, noted that we didn't acknowledge the only living member of the group of musicians who played on that album. That person is drummer Jimmy Cobb. He turned 80 on Inauguration Day.

(Soundbite of song "Kind of Blue")

MONTAGNE: And here he is on "Kind of Blue." Jimmy Cobb's So What band is celebrating that album at 50 with a world tour. That tour kicks off at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on May 2nd. You can send us your notes any time by going to npr.org. Just click on Contact Us.