Letters: Anthrax Suspect, Club Passim

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

Now, to your feedback. First, though, one correction. In Friday's report about the FBI investigation of the 2001 anthrax case, we said the attacks shut down the U.S. postal system. In fact, some post offices were closed but mail continued to be delivered.

We also got a lot of e-mail from you about our story yesterday on the anthrax case. Most of it concerned one detail we included about the life of FBI suspect Bruce Ivins. Ivins is the Army anthrax researcher who committed suicide last week. We told you that Ivins played a murderer in his high school play, and a lot of you wrote in to tell us that we shouldn't have.

Gail Radford(ph) of Buffalo, New York wrote, maybe Ivins is guilty, but the character he played in a high school production is not a valid piece of evidence. Reporting this was an insult to the intelligence of your audience, as well as being unfair to the accused.

And we got this from Jessie Mendelssohn(ph) of Newark, New Jersey. I found your segment regarding the anthrax investigation and the suicide of Bruce Ivins very informative - that is until Ari Shapiro mentioned he had dug up Ivins' yearbook photo and went so far as to contact the director of a high school play he was in 34 years ago in which it was dramatically revealed that he played a murderer. Mr. Mendelssohn goes on, this type of worthless investigation into the past of a newsworthy individual is more suited to a smutty evening Hollywood entertainment show. I'm shocked and surprised that NPR would actually stoop to this type of investigative journalism and put it on the air. I once played Sweeney Todd. Heaven forbid I let Ari Shapiro extrapolate on what I may become in several decades.

Sweeney Todd, of course, is the title character in Stephen Sondheim's musical about a murderous barber.

Well, not everything in our inbox was criticisms. Some of you enjoyed our feature about Club Passim, a legendary folk music club in Cambridge, Massachusetts formerly known as Club 47.

Hearing the story brought back memories for David Monk(ph) of Honolulu, who writes, before Club Passim's predecessor, Club 47 opened in its basement on Palmer Street in Cambridge. The space was occupied by McNamee(ph) Bookbinding, which my grandfather, Sam Fish(ph), operated. I remember as a kid the smell of the stacks of paper and playing with confetti from the hole-punching machine. Later, I loved Club 47, where I saw the little-known Joni Mitchell performing in a miniskirt, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Phil Ochs and others. Thanks for bringing back some great memories.

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