Toward the end of today’s Impromptus, I mention Louis Jourdan, the French matinée idol (and Bond villain) who died a few days ago. A reader writes,

Dear Jay,
When I saw “Louis Jourdan,” I mistook it for “Louis Jordan.” I thought you were going to write about the great bandleader, of Tympany Five fame. I’ve always felt that Louis — the musician, not the actor, although it may be true of him as well — is sorely underrated.
We spend a lot of time — and rightly so — on Billie, Bing, and Ella, to name but a few. But we forget how wildly popular Louis Jordan was. As a classical musician, I’ll be the first to point out that there is no necessary correlation between popularity and quality. But sometimes there is a correlation, and sometimes a person is so good, so popular, that he slips through the fingers of time — too obvious, maybe.
Musicians have an expression for playing that is simply perfect, natural, effortless: “in the pocket.” Louis Jordan was in the pocket. I will give you a link that demonstrates a bit of what I mean: here. The facility and sheer fun are vintage Jordan.

And here is a bonus letter, from another reader, relating to another item in Impromptus:

Jay,
If the word “ghetto” is banned at the University of Michigan, will professors, lecturing about World War II and the Holocaust, speak of the Warsaw Jewish Neighborhood?

Listen, we’ll be lucky if they lecture on topics of substance at all.