Listeners comment on what Memorial Day means to them, why they never seem to get enough sleep and what makes a good commencement speaker.
NEAL CONAN, host: It's Tuesday, the day we read from your emails. A week ago on Memorial Day, we asked veterans to let us know how they observe the holiday and what Memorial Day means to them.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: One of Vietnam vet called to remember William Timothy Dorsey, a combat medic who saved his life in July 1970. It turns out our caller wasn't the only one who remembers Tim Dorsey.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: Nancy Grosselfinger(ph) emailed from Suffern, New York to tell us: Before Timmy went into the military, we worked together as probation officers. Timmy himself drowned trying to save others. I attended Timmy's funeral in Peekskill, New York. The mass was an unforgettable moment. Your caller should know that there are many of us of remember Timmy who died as he had lived serving and sacrificing for his fellow humans.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: We also spent some time on Memorial Day to mark the unofficial start of summer, and talk a little barbeque. One idea that came up, use your car engine to grill while you're driving.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: Charlie sent us this story on our blog. While I was stationed in Germany, I and two buddies took a wild ride around Bavaria in my Fiat 124 convertible. We bought pizzas and spent the night at the officers club in (unintelligible). The next morning we wrapped the leftover pizza in foil and put it on the top of the car's twin cam covers perfectly engineered by those wily Italians for slow heating. We hit the Audubon at Roseburg and roared toward the Austrian border with the top down. At lunchtime, we pulled in to a rest up, popped the hood and chowed down. It seems to create a bit of a stir among the tourists.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: Another listener, Anna Olferd(ph) added: There's a great book on this subject called "Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine". It's by Chris Maynard and Bill Scheller.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: During our segment on sleep and why we never seemed to get enough of it, our guests cited a problem during NASA's mission to Mars where, as he put it, someone forgetting to convert inches to centimeters led to a 6-billion-dollar mistake. He suspected a lack of sleep was responsible.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: One of our listeners took issue with that.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: I worked on the Mars '98 Orbiter Mission, emailed Christopher Grazo(ph). The unit error was due a mismatch between vendor-provided source code and the corresponding use of those measurements and a failure to properly test the interface. Sleep depravation was not listed as a factor by the accident board and the project was only about one-fortieth of the price that the guest indicates.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: Thanks for the correction.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: Finally, many of you wrote in after our conversation about what and who makes a good commencement speaker.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: Vennie Aguirre(ph) emailed, Conan O'Brien's speech to Harvard in 2000 was irreverent and self-adulating, but at the core there was a valuable message that can be hard to absorb especially for overachievers. It boiled down to the fact that we fear failure more than anything because we are so accustomed to success and because we fear the judgment of our peers and the greater world. But without taking that big leap, there's no way of ever growing.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: Mr. CONAN O'BRIEN (Host, "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"): I've dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed, your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of bell curve. A success is a lot like a bright white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you're desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling in any way. So that's what I wish for all of you: the bad as well as the good. Fall down, make a mess, break something occasionally, and remember that the story is never over.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: Conan O'Brien speaking at Harvard University in 2000.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: We posted a link to the full transcript of that speech at our blog, that's at npr.org/blogofthenation. If you have comments, questions or corrections for us, the best way to reach us is by email. The address is talk@npr.org. Please let us know where you're writing from and give us some help on how to pronounce your name.</s>NEAL CONAN, host: I'm Neal Conan, NPR News in Washington.