I can't say I read Broder very often, but my interest was piqued by this discussion and I took a look at some of his recent columns.

Now, when he says "I had never heard Imus's broadcast, because I am a longtime fan of NPR's "Morning Edition," which is on at the same time, this does not strike me as a guy who has a great deal of natural curiosity about what ordinary people are thinking. He could not turn off Morning Edition even one time to find out what Imus was about?

In a column about a visit to a University in Memphis he writes: Not only were these students, like those in Blacksburg, Va., attending a large public university with a big commuter population, but they still recall the scars of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was gunned down in this city 39 years ago this month.

This is a very strange statement. Clearly the students are too young to remember the assassination of MLK Jr., but what does he mean when he says they recall the scars.

This, you see, is what I don't like about Broder's columns. They are not concrete enough for me--they are full of vague statements. Maybe a phrase like the 'scars of the MLK assassination' will mean something to the residents of Memphis. Maybe businesses deserted the city, or something, but without explanation a phrase like this means nothing to a dumbo like me.

Having worked for several decades with severely mentally ill people, I would just like to say that I agree with everything said in the letter above by Dona Quixote.

Dealing with a family member with a severe mental illness is a terribly difficult thing for most families to come to terms with, and prescription medications are by no means a panacea, though in the absence of anything better they do help many people to improve their quality of life.

Let's hope that the new diagnosis is right. Time alone will tell.

The LW is in a difficult situation. If any family discussion revolves around the question of "does x have a boyfriend, prospective husband etc./" the LW is forced to dissemble and pretend she does not know anything.

If the sister had really wanted to keep this relationship so secret, she would not have told the LW, so maybe the very telling is a cry for help.

I think if I was the LW, I would tell my sis that this relationship stinks and that if she does not end it, then I will probably tell the rest of the family about it. With a bit of luck this boot to the ass will be the prompting she is looking for to end the affair.

As an experienced psychiatric nurse, I find very touching the faith that so many Americans have in psychiatric diagnoses.

The fact is that most treatment is empirical and that, in a very real sense, the patient diagnoses him/herself by saying what they think is wrong. The psychiatrist just sticks on a label that will justify insurance reimbursals and fit the medication prescribed.

Thus the much-used "schizo-affective disorder" is simply a convenient tag that allows the psychiatrist to prescribe antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antianxiolytics, and antipsychotics--and no questions asked!

This diagnosis tells you nothing about what you have, and is in fact frequently used as a convenient euphemism for a disordered personality.

To the Ph. D. candidate who could not get his antidepressant prescription renewed in London, I sympathize a bit, but he should understand that socialized medicine is not in the business of wanton prescribing. Through the health service of his academic institution, or through the US embassy, he should easily have been able to contact a private psychiatrist in London to follow up his mental condition. This should probably have been arranged, along with a transfer of medical records, before he left the US.

It's a bit of a cliche these days to say that Ella Fitzgerald would never have made it big these days, but who is to say that she would not have adapted to the times.

Good looks is largely about money and there is not much that good dentistry, fancy hair weaves, high heels, stylish clothes, make up, and a bit of time spent at the gym will not fix, at least enough to look good in the occasional video.

Jennifer Lopez, for example, is a pretty average-looking dumpy, big-ass Latina, yet she has made movies and seems to be widely photographed (or should that be Photoshopped?).

So I suspect that someone who is a real musical talent will probably still manage to shine through, because the fact is that even models don't look like models when they are at home.