NAMES IN THE NEWS : ‘It’s the David Letterman Show, and H-e-e-ere’s . . . Bolan, Iowa?’

BOLAN, Iowa — March 1 will be a late night for this town. Its residents--all 16 of them--will appear that evening as guests on the NBC-TV show “Late Night With David Letterman.”

“If he’s looking for American Gothic, I think he’s going to be disappointed,” said Daryl McCready. “We don’t exactly have hats and pitchforks. We know what’s going on in the world.”

None of the residents of this northern Iowa town, which isn’t even on some state maps, has ever been to New York.

Loren Nydegger, a senior basketball player who attends high school at nearby St. Ansgar, said: “A lot of people are pretty excited about this. They joke about things like when they introduce the team at games, they’ll say, ‘And now, going to New York and being on the David Letterman show and also playing guard, Loren Nydegger!’ ”