Letters

A couple of weeks ago I spoke with Roy MacGregor about his new book, a collection of his hockey writing titled Wayne Gretzky's Ghost. The conversation provoked this response from Dan Cashmore, a WBUR listener: "Every topic discussed was interesting, and it was really refreshing to hear someone who is clearly a long-time hockey lover speak out against fighting in the game. It's also worth mentioning that my wife bought a copy of Mr. MacGregor's book for her Canadian father."

Perhaps in response to Mr. MacGregor's contention that in Canada, "soccer may claim more numbers, but hockey leads, as it always has, in nightly dreams and daily conversations," Tom Regan, a Canadian who has been living in the U.S. for 20 years, e-mailed to report a recent conversation with his nine-year-old daughter. She and her two sisters are hockey players, and their dad had asked the nine-year-old what she liked about the game.

"You can't be Canadian and not like hockey," she told him, and Mr. Regan concluded that he'd "passed along the hockey gene."

Among the listeners responding to the commentary on last week's program about the riot in the soccer stadium in Port Said, Egypt, were Paul and Linda Colman, who wrote "It was journalism reminiscent of Charles Kuralt. Artistry with words. Thank you."

Bruce Clutcher of Palmyra, Pennsylvania, wrote to celebrate the achievement and character of Joe Paterno. He included a statement from a former prosecutor in Pennsylvania who felt Paterno had done precisely what the law requires people in his position to do, and Mr. Clutcher felt my comments on the January 28 edition of Only A Game constituted "hitting below the belt and needlessly laying blame on Coach Paterno, rather than others who were much more culpable in this disgraceful abuse story."

Last week we established a contest and called for one last round of haiku commemorating the result of the Super Bowl, those haiku to be posted on our face book page, and I urge you to examine them while counting syllables on your fingers. That's what I did. Anyway, I really liked the haiku submitted by Ted Peeplover, but he turns out to be a horse, who probably can't read. So the winner is Mike Krall, and this is his haiku.

Coughlin looks confused.
Belichick is grimacing.
Is this a rerun?

Mr. Krall will receive a signed copy of Only A Game, my book of radio commentaries and other stories. Congratulations, and happy reading.

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