Letters to the Editor
The Tonic
Published Letters: 38 Editor's Choice: 3
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Longevity
[Read the article: No more periods, period.]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Some studies have suggested that a woman's monthly cycle takes a physiological toll, and that by eliminating the constant hormonal flux one could add months or even years to one's life. Just a little something to consider.
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Gay families ....
[Read the article: Modern-day wet nursing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gay families often come with two sets of breasts, or none at all. For the families with two dads and no moms, wetnursing is the only alternative to formula.
It may not be ideal, but it's certainly as good an alternative as any adoptive family, gay or straight, can hope to offer.
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Geresque
[Read the article: Fondling Stephen Colbert]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've seen that smile before ... it reminds me of Richard Gere's recent debacle, and Shilpa Shetty's awkward but polite reaction. That was pretty uncomfortable too.
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So I'm not crazy ....
[Read the article: Google will keep your search for 18 months]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]When I read that bit about Google being the worst privacy offender last week, I immediately thought of their stand against the pro-COPA people who subpoenaed them for search queries - and how they were alone among search engines in this. "Am I missing something?" I wondered.
I guess I wasn't. Thanks for clearing that up.
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Tommy Douglas
[Read the article: "Sicko"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Here's another piece of Tommy Douglas trivia: several months ago, a TV special took votes from all over the country to determine the greatest Canadian who ever lived, and Tommy Douglas was the winner. He's our George Washington, our Abraham Lincoln - and this for bringing healthcare to Canadians. Free healthcare is the most highly prized and most jealously guarded public system we have. Perhaps in 40 years Michael Moore will be named the great American ever for bringing socialised medicine to the USA?
Yeah, I won't be holding my breath either.
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It's the future!
[Read the article: Waiting for iPhone]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why would I want to wear a watch on my arm ALL DAY when I have plenty of clocks at home?
As someone on Salon wrote not so very long ago, all the pipe dreams of futurists decades ago (the flying cars, the living in outer space, etc.) have more or less crumbled or been put on hold - except for the advances in microeletronics. So how can you not be excited about something that holds more music than the average person had in their entire LP collection a generation ago, or lets you talk to someone on another continent while standing in the middle of an open field?
These are things that people can dismiss as unnecessary, but my iPod has literally changed my life. I used to hate walking - resent it, in fact - but now I can be seen walking all over town with a smile on my face. And anyone who scoffs at cellphone users will be scoffing out the other side of their face when they show up at the wrong theatre and spend 2 hours waiting for their friends to show up, wondering if they're dead. Or miss the last train out of Paris and are stuck in town in the dead of winter with nowhere to go, no coat and no way of reaching anyone who could put them up for the night. It could happen to you!
But it's the elegance of combining it all into one tidy package that makes the iPod revolutionary. As I was explaining to a friend last night, it doesn't deserve credit for thinking the idea up - people have been dreaming of a phone / music player / TV / portal to all the information on the web that you could carry in your pockets for years. Apple deserves the credit for actually pulling it off. Or at least having the guts to try.
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Oops
[Read the article: Waiting for iPhone]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Obviously, I meant to say "iPhone" instead of "iPod" in the last paragraph.
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This could be me ....
[Read the article: "The Trap"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This could be me ... I long ago reached the point where I was willing to sell out. I could, I figured while eating ramen for the third straight day, soothe my conscience with a nice donation to Amnesty or something.
The hitch is, just because you're willing to sell out doesn't mean anyone's buying. I'm still working a crappy job, making a pittance, and dreaming of being a writer, or a professor - even dreaming of being able to afford a dog. Which at the moment might as well be a half-million dollar mortgage.
Selling out is a great alternative to sainthood, at least on paper, but for now, the far side of the income gap is still a little too far to leap.
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Hairstyles and Attitudes
[Read the article: How can I comfort my boyfriend about losing his hair?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The barb in the arrow of premature balding (as one who has meditated long on the subject) is the denial of a form of self-expression. Virility aside, hair is one of the most obvious ways we telegraph our personalities to people. Punk, prep, emo, military, hobo - right or wrong, whatever your style, your hair goes a long way to define you when people are forming their first impression of you.
I myself am guilty of forming first impressions of people based almost entirely on their hair and shoes. These are the two indicators which can reveal the most about a person with a single glance. I try to fight it, to get to know people as they are, but the fact is, we're a species accustomed to forming snap judgments based on the most superficial of things.
And as a balding man, virtually all my options have been taken from me. I can shave my head, or wear it very short. But that's not "me" - I'm supposed to have long, curly brown hair like an alt-rocker. How are people supposed to see me for what I am when I can't express myself the way I want? How would you feel if while everyone else got to prance around in their favourite fashions, you alone were forced to wear nothing but ill-fitting pleated khakis, plaid shirts and rubber boots until the day you die?
I'm overstating, I guess, for dramatic effect, but not much. I don't think anyone can know what it feels like to have this option taken away until it happens. It could be worse - I could have 3 eyes. I could have cancer. But I don't have those things to obsess about - I have this.
And it sucks.