ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
Now, your e-mails in response to yesterday's program. My co-host, Melissa Block, spoke with Kip Holden, the mayor of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about how that city is recovering from Hurricane Gustav. Gustav largely spared New Orleans, but it caused major damage to transmission lines serving Baton Rouge. Power may not be entirely restored for another week, at least.
Well, we heard from several Baton Rouge residents who thanked us for the attention. This is from Julie Maldonado(ph). As grateful as we are that the levees in New Orleans held, it has felt like the residents of Baton Rouge and surrounding areas had been relegated to the media backburner despite the widespread damage caused by Gustav.
Without the media attention, we're not likely to get the assistance needed. Sometimes, just knowing that the larger community out there is sending goodwill goes a long way. We may not be standing on rooftops awaiting helicopter rescues, but we are still a community hurting. Thanks for remembering us.
SIEGEL: And our feature about the growing phenomenon of ball-jointed dolls, or BJDs, generated lots of mail. We heard about a convention of enthusiasts, adult women, not kids. They were showing off their hand-painted, lifelike dolls. And we said that one reason for BJDs' popularity is that they allow owners to create an idealized version of themselves.
Well, Kay Lowell(ph) of Greeley, Colorado, wrote in to say that that is not always the case. She writes, I can't in my wildest imaginings picture myself an elf, a vampire or male, for that matter, and those are the three largest categories in my 50-plus doll collection.
I would say it's more accurate to depict BJD owners as storytellers who use their resin friends as one type of instrument with which to tell their tales. Because they're so varied, so customizable, so poseable and so lovely, almost any kind of story you can imagine can be told with them.
Susan Dresser(ph) in Bridgeport, Connecticut, tells a different tale. Are you nuts, she asks. And she actually wrote the letters R and U. She goes on, grown women convening to play dress-up with dolls? I know this is deemed an age of infantile self-absorption, but this seems to push the envelope even further. I'd like to remind these women that our nation's animal shelters are full of deserving animals who would be happy to be dressed in silly outfits.
Well, your comments are not silly, at least most of them aren't, and you can send them to us by going to npr.org. Click on Contact Us at the top of the page. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
