Day to Day senior producer Steve Proffitt joins Alex Chadwick to make some corrections and read some listener comments, including one from a listener who thinks Chadwick sounds very much like the man who was the voice behind many Disney characters.
MADELEINE BRAND, host: This is DAY TO DAY. I'm Madeleine Brand.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: I'm Alex Chadwick. And joined now by our senior producer Steve Proffitt, who is here to help me share some of your letters.</s>STEVE PROFFITT reporting: And Alex, as is customary when you and I get together like this, let's start with some corrections.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: All right. What did I get wrong this time?</s>PROFFITT: Well, happily Alex, none of these mistakes can be directly attributed to you. First, the smart car.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: This is the little itty bitty Mercedes.</s>PROFFITT: Right. And it was featured in a piece we ran last week about the Consumer Report's auto test track.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Mike Pesca's piece. Our reporter Mike Pesca, he got it wrong.</s>PROFFITT: Right. He said the smart car was not available in the U.S., and technically he's correct. Mercedes doesn't sell it here. However, listeners across this great land of ours, from Gene Bass(ph) in New Hampshire to Rick Goe(ph) in Washington State sent us the names of places where one can actually purchase a smart car.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: This is the so-called gray market?</s>PROFFITT: Right again. But we'll leave it up to our enterprising listeners to locate those gray market dealers.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: All right. Here's a letter that takes issue with something a doctor from Harvard University said on our program.</s>PROFFITT: Yes. In the wake of tests showing cyclist Floyd Landis had elevated levels of the hormone testosterone, NPR's Jon Hamilton asked a Harvard physician, Harrison Pope, if Landis could have somehow unknowingly ingested testosterone.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: If somebody spiked his Gatorade drink.</s>PROFFITT: Yeah, yeah, something like that. Here's what the doctor, Dr. Pope, said.</s>Dr. HARRISON POPE (Harvard physician): If you take testosterone by mouth, it is destroyed on its way through the stomach and the liver to the bloodstream.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: All right Dr. Pope. But fellow physician Dr. Tim Hammond(ph) of Tuscaloosa, Alabama disagrees. He notes there are a variety of oral synthetic testosterone preparations that are available.</s>PROFFITT: While one dose would not enhance performance, he writes, it could produce a positive test if someone slipped him a Gatorade mickey.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Dr. Hammond, thank you for the second opinion.</s>PROFFITT: Another error came in one episode of our travel series, A Hundred Bucks of Gas. It was about a trip in a light plane to an airstrip diner called The Spitfire Grill, which was said to be named after the famed British Spitfire jets.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Hmm. Not actually a jet.</s>PROFFITT: No. And pretty much every pilot within earshot of the radio wrote in to correct that one. The brave fighter in the Battle of Britain was, of course, powered by a propeller.</s>PROFFITT: And finally, Alex, this.</s>Mr. CLIFF EDWARDS (Singer, Voiceover Artist): Stand aside, big mouth. We're passing you by.</s>PROFFITT: James LaFranic(ph), who listens to us in Washington D.C. writes, Alex Chadwick's voice sounds just like one of the most famous voices in history, Cliff Edwards.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: I've never heard of Cliff Edwards.</s>PROFFITT: Well, Cliff Edwards was a singer and he was the voice of many Disney characters.</s>Mr. CLIFF EDWARDS (Singer, Voiceover Artist): (As Jiminy Cricket) Hello. I'm Jiminy Cricket.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: This guy's the voice of Jiminy Cricket? I sound like Jiminy Cricket?</s>PROFFITT: Well, I don't think so, but Mr. LaFranic does.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: Well, I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Thank you, I guess.</s>PROFFITT: If you have comments, corrections, suggestions or if you think Alex sounds like somebody else, please write us.</s>ALEX CHADWICK, host: It's easy. Just go to our Web site, npr.org and click on the contact us link. Letters Editor Steve Proffitt thank you again.</s>PROFFITT: You're welcome, Jiminy.</s>Mr. CLIFF EDWARDS (Singer, Voiceover Artist): (Singing) When you wish upon a star, you're dreams come true.