Letters: Spike Lee, iBod, Hoosiers

Copyright © 2009 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

SCOTT SIMON, host:

Time now for your mail.

Tony Pellegrini(ph) of Minneapolis objects to the fact that we followed our interview with Spike Lee about his new film, Inside Man, with our entertainment critic Elvis Mitchell, who said that Mr. Lee had essentially taken the plot of an old Bill Murray film called Quick Change.

Simon had just talked with Lee and did not ask him about it directly. This reflected a total lack of integrity on Simon's part. A more honorable approach may involve taking on tough issues head on with the persons involve.

I agree. I was wrong. Both of those interviews were recorded before last Saturday's show, but I should have given Mr. Lee the opportunity to reply to Elvis's suggestion that he had lifted several important plot devices from the early film, which Elvis laughingly called an homage.

A number of listeners also wrote to instruct me that I could not have possibly reported on the story of the iBod from Wichita Falls, Kansas, because there is no such place. There's a Wichita, Kansas and a Wichita Falls, Texas. I know. The iBod was our April Fool's Day story. There is no personal device that allows you to manipulate body functions called the iBod. There is no Man of God Seminary. There is no Wichita Falls, Kansas. It was a joke.

We put a few notes of ridiculousness into these stories so that most listeners will ultimately understand it's a joke. But a number of our most perceptive listeners were too busy rushing to their keyboards to correct a joke that they didn't get to know it was a joke.

By the way, as some of you apparently discovered if you enter iBod into a search engine you might find a porn site. This site has no affiliation with NPR or its member stations, so you will not get one of our tote bags if you join.

Also, a number of people wrote to complain that I described residents of Indiana as Indianans, not Hoosiers. I'm from Illinois. I know that many Indianans like to be called Hoosiers. But I decided to say Indianans after consultations with our reference librarians because I think of Hoosier as a kind of nickname, like Windy City or the Badger State, that I try to avoid in news accounts because listeners in all 50 states may think that I'm referring to a national restaurant chain and not citizens of Indiana.

Indianans is considered the second form of acceptable address for someone from Indiana, which means it's acceptable if not widely used. Sometimes we choose the second reference for clarity. For example, we usually say that the seventh planet from the sun is Uranus and not some other pronunciation which I don't think I have to elaborate on here.

Whatever planet you are from, please email us. Come to our website, npr.org, and click on Contact Us. And be sure to tell us how to pronounce your name and where you live.

Copyright ©2009 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.