Letters: Soul Train, 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'

Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

It's time now for your letters, but first, we have several corrections to make. On Monday, we aired a story about the retirement of East Haven, Connecticut police chief, Leonard Gallo. We incorrectly reported that he had been named a co-conspirator in an indictment against four police officers. Gallo was not named in the indictment.

AUDIE CORNISH. HOST: We also said that Gallo was accused of creating a hostile environment for witnesses. We should have made clear that accusation is in a civil complaint and that Gallo has not been accused of any crime.

BLOCK: Yesterday, we remembered "Soul Train" creator and host, Don Cornelius. He died of an apparent suicide at his home in Los Angeles. In our story, we got a number of dates wrong. We said "Soul Train" began in 1971. In fact, it was 1970.

HOST: We said Cornelius was born in 1937 and should have said '36.

BLOCK: And the final year of "Soul Train" was not 2003, but 2006.

HOST: Our apologies. Here's one date we are sure of. It's 2012.

BLOCK: Last time we checked and that means it has been a half century since the publication of Ken Kesey's debut novel "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." We aired a story yesterday marking the book's 50th anniversary. After its publication, Kesey continued to write for the rest of his life, but he said it was always about the same basic premise.

KEN KESEY: It's the only story I got. That's why I have to keep changing locales and times and characters because you have to keep disguising the story. And it's essentially that the small can overcome the large with treachery and creativity and humor.

HOST: Well, Joel Gekmoler(ph) of Lomita, California, thinks it's a story worth revisiting. He writes, the day Ken Kesey died in November 2001, I dragged my eight-year-old son down to our little country store and rented a worn VHS copy of "Cuckoo's Nest." I had my son watch and we talked about Mr. Kesey and McMurphy and Billy and Chief and how, as Kesey puts it, the small can overcome the large. Thank you, Mr. Kesey.

BLOCK: And thank you for your letters. You can write to us at npr.org. Just click on Contact Us at the bottom of the page.

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