Letters to the Editor
Leeandra Nolting
Published Letters: 177 Editor's Choice: 10
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I'm trying to get how you get that she's "no doubt" histronic...
[Read the article: Do I have a drinking problem?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...Does the LW sound like someone you know personally?
She gave a backstory and the info about her drinking habits. She seemed to me to be able to articulate well what was going on in her life, but that's just what I got from the letter. I don't know her.
She doesn't give reasons for why she wanted to pursue a Ph.D. or even what her field is. Maybe she's cut out for the academic life, maybe not. She doesn't give enough information about that to be able to tell. She doesn't complain about the coursework, which leads me to give her the benefit of the doubt. But just because she gets a graduate degree (if she finishes) doesn't necessarily mean she'll go into academia. There are plenty of people with Ph.D.s who opt out of being professors or who never intended on becoming professors in the first place.
Perhaps she simply wanted to go to graduate school in England--maybe it's a foolish whim, but that's a matter for her and her analyst. Her question was about her drinking and whether it has reached problematic levels, and yeah, it has.
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Stephen Colbert already handled this one...
[Read the article: Got skirt?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...He uses the term "Thatchers" (after Margaret Thatcher) to refer to "lady balls."
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lies, damn lies, and statistics...
[Read the article: Britain in "moral collapse" over rape?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And going after "kids and their damn music" is not the whole answer...but can we at least give the guy some credit for having a real villian and not using the usual scapegoats (gays, working mothers, etc.) for why British society is going to hell in a handbasket? The problem is not just that women are objectified and that this leads to rape; it's that it's now socially acceptable (if not outright expected) to objectify other human beings.
England is the birthplace of Maxim magazine. Laddie magazines have existed for some time, but you can't argue that it's just this generation's Esquire or G.Q. Those magazines featured some of the top-notch writing of the 50s and 60s. I perused the boyfriend's roommate's copy of Maxim once--it was nothing but T&A, beer ads, and (I am not making this up) graphic snapshots of an Indian mahout being ripped in two by a disgruntled elephant. This was for entertainment value.
So, according to this very popular and societally-tolerated magazine, the first reaction young men are supposed to have on seeing pictures of a real, live man being torn in half is not horror but rather "Wow, cool, look at all the blood." The first reaction on seeing an attractive woman is supposed to be to try to have sex with her by any means neccessary. (Granted, these may have always been teenage boys' first thoughts in both situations--but there was almost always a correction from the elders of the group.)
It's rather un-P.C. to say this, but there is a fundamental morality that's missing from a society that tolerates this.
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music really does sell things...
[Read the article: The divine sound of silence]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I work in a small photography gallery in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Believe me, there is NOTHING I would like more than to turn off the stereo, which I keep tuned to New Orleans' jazz and heritage station.
Now, I love the music as much as anybody else, but listening to Louis Armstrong, Fats Dominio, Aaron Neville, Kermit Ruffins, etc. for forty hours a week gets very, very old. Problem is--and I have tested this--people buy twice as many pictures of New Orleans when there is New Orleans music playing in the background. I'm working on commission, so I need the background music to pay my rent.
Who I REALLY feel sorry for are the poor folks working at our airport. Judging by the times I've flown in or out of there (which has been far too frequent recently), the loudspeakers play nothing but "The Big Easy" soundtrack on endless repeat. I think if I had to hear "Iko Iko" and "Jolie Blonde" thirteen times a day, every day, I'd blow up a plane just for spite...
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veils/berets...
[Read the article: To serve Allah and my country ...]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was in the Brownies twenty years ago, and there were a bunch of different uniform combinations. I think all you HAD to buy was the sash or vest to sew your badges on, but you could also buy the blouse/jumper/socks/garters/beret. I don't think anyone in our troop wore the complete uniform--some had the blouse, some had the jumper, some had the socks with the tasseled garters, some had the berets. What we didn't have in the uniform we wore in street clothes. It wasn't like the military or anything.
I think that Muslim girls don't generally wear the veil till puberty, but in some cultures maybe they do so earlier. (Perhaps some young girls from these cultures WANT to wear the veil earlier than they have to, much the way a little Westernized girl wants to wear pantyhose and heels in order to look grown up.) Heck, the Amish are Christians, and their girls wear religious headgear from infancy on. So I really don't see the problem with Muslim Daisy/ Brownie/ Junior/ Cadette/ Senior Scouts adding a headscarf to their uniforms. It's just a piece of fabric.