Letters: E-Mail; SUVs; Lima, Like the Bean

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Time now for your comments.

First email about email. This week's reports on email led Jerome Kowalski to send us an email from New York. He writes that at least people are writing. Wasn't it just yesterday that we were bemoaning the fact that the telephone brought on the demise of the written word?

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

We heard this email horror story by telephone...

Ms. MANDY RIVERS (Caller): My name is Mandy Rivers. I'm from Columbia, South Carolina. And a girlfriend of mine and her fiance have been having lots of pre-wedding functions. And she had sent out an email inviting all of the ladies to yet another pre-wedding function. And I clicked on reply to all, so the email that I sent went to her as well as all of my friends. And the email said that I would rather stab myself in the eye than to attend.

You know, the plans were that I would be in the wedding and I was asked not to be and I've not heard from her since.

MONTAGNE: And not terribly surprising, huh, Steve?

INSKEEP: Well, you know, I'd rather stab myself in the eye than have that happen to me, but, you know...

MONTAGNE: Well, we also heard from some of you on another subject. Derrick Hunter, he's the Ohio man who needs two SUVs to accommodate his kids and is struggling to pay the gas bills.

Rick Hawkins wrote from Durham, North Carolina to say it was so ironic to hear Derrick Hunter say that he needed an SUV to take his family to see the Amish Country. Apparently that visit did not remind him that for many millennia families of all sizes managed just fine without SUVs.

INSKEEP: Although there was that six-wheel, 14-passenger Conestoga wagon that people liked at that time.

We had a correction this morning. I said earlier this week that SUV owner Derrick Hunter lived in Lima, Ohio. That was during some early feeds of this program. Turns out I was wrong about the pronunciation, and we got the right pronunciation from this man.

Mayor DAVID BERGER (Lima, Ohio): Well, my name is David Berger. I serve as the mayor of the city of Lima, Ohio. Our name was chosen actually in 1831 when this part of the state was a large, swampy area that had a severe problem with malaria. And folks in this area have imported quinine from Lima, Peru and they chose the name. However, they also made a very deliberate choice to pronounce the name with a long I. So it's certainly an acknowledgment of the heritage that we were given from South America, but it's also a uniquely Ohio pronunciation.

(Soundbite of song, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off")

Ms. BILLIE HOLIDAY (Singer): (Singing) You like vanilla and I like vanilla, you sarsaparilla and I sarsaparilla, vanilla, vanilla...

MONTAGNE: And if you'd like to send your comments on something you hear on this program, that would just feen(ph) with us. You can do it by going to NPR.org and click on Contact Us.

(Soundbite of song, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off")

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