Your Letters: Traffic Signs And Front-Runners

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Time now for your letters.

Last week, we spoke with artist John Morse. He creates traffic warning signs complete with haikus for the New York City Transportation Department.

JOHN MORSE: (Reading) Cyclist writes screenplay. Plot features bike lane drama. How pedestrian.

SIMON: Michael Haslam, in Bellows Falls, Vermont, asks: Is there a potential downside to the New York City haiku signs for pedestrians and bicyclists? Crossing street downtown, signs catch attention, enthrall; fatal distraction.

Bruce Niedt posted another traffic warning at NPR.org: Don't push the red light. Cross streets aren't the best places for chance encounters.

From New York street verse to Shakespeare's soliloquies in Kabul. We interviewed Tyrus Lemerande, a U.S. naval reservist, who's performed "Shakespeare on Demand" for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. His wife Amy, also an actor, runs their theater company while Tyrus is deployed overseas.

AMY LEMERANDE: Juliet says: So tedious is this day as is the night before some festival to an impatient child that has new robes and may not wear them. And that's how I feel.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

LEMERANDE: He just can't get home fast enough.

SIMON: Ismael Ramirez in Brooklyn writes: Tyrus Lemerande's one-man show struck me, particularly when Amy Lemerande recited her exasperation through the Juliet soliloquy. I laughed and laughed and in retrospect, was so very happy for Mr. Lemerande, whose wife wants him home so. Gallop apace, indeed.

We also heard from many listeners about my conversation with NPR's Don Gonyea about Republican presidential hopefuls. In response to the changing fortunes of the perceived front-runners, Don asked...

DON GONYEA, BYLINE: What would Gilbert and Sullivan do with such material?

SIMON: Jason Bostick, in Carson, California, ventures an answer to the tune of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General," from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance." Who is the perfect model of a GOP candidate? With offices in battle states and lots of campaign money yet? Charismatic, evangelical, and hawkish on the deficit. We'd rally right around his flag; it's just we haven't seen him yet.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I AM THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN MAJOR GENERAL")

SIMON: Well, we want to hear from you - haiku, song, blank verse, grocery list. To send us a message, go to NPR.org and click on the Contact Us link. Look for us on Facebook and Twitter, and at nprweekend. I'm nprscottsimon on Twitter.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I AM THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN MAJOR GENERAL")

SIMON: This is NPR News.

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