Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
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Dowd Obama cat fight
[Read the article: Michelle Obama gets real]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Well, of course Dowd is jealous that Obama has a husband who is running for president and kids who may some day be in line for this quasi hereditary office, while Dowd is rapidly turning into a childless crone whose next job will probably be on the faculty at Hogwarts.
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Dowdy old woman
[Read the article: Michelle Obama gets real]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can't believe the person who made a remark about Maureen Dowd being jealous of Michelle with her life and children, what is so wonderful about having children??????
I believe I am that person. Perhaps the writer is not aware of Dowd's personal history.
Here is a paragraph liften from Slate Magazine online's review of Dowd's magnum opus, a book called Are Men Necessary?
In it she bemoans a perceived return of 1950s values and courtship rituals and portrays a younger generation of women as grasping, shallow housewife wannabes and "yummy mommies." In the most inflammatory and intriguing passages, she claims that men are put off by women in power, that they prefer the women who serve them—maids, masseuses, and secretaries—to their equals. She attributes the fact that she is unmarried to her powerful position as an op-ed columnist at the New York Times. Then she notes her own family history of domestic service and concludes that "being a maid would have enhanced my chances with men."
Never mind that Dowd is a well-known starfucker whose exes include actor Michael Douglas. (Incidentally I have met Douglas and in person he is a very unprepossessing individual, who I have read once underwent treatment in Arizona for "sex addiction". No doubt there is a sexual drought in Arizona, a state known for dryness.)
An article in the Observer of London quotes Dowd as follows: "Dowd, 53, has never married, although, as she told The Observer, 'I'd like to be'."
As to the question about what is the point of having children. The author might want to consider that the whole purpose of life is either to reproduce or become an evolutionary dead-end alley. Now if you have no kids all is not lost, as Dawkins explains in his chapters on altruism. By being of service to near relatives, or others, or one's fellow man one is performing a kind of displaced child-raising role.
How pathetic is Dowd? Consider that her large Washington house is adorned with a pink jukebox among other artifacts. Just the kind of showy toy that someone who has no one to give toys to buys for themself as a way of impressing visitors who probably can't afford such items. Of course she might be a music fanatic, but somehow I doubt it. It is all about wanting people to tell her how cute she is.
Well, Mrs Obama has an excellent chance of bringing up her own family in the White House and helping to make life better for mothers all over the world, whereas Dowd, as I said before is probably headed for a faculty position at Hogwarts where she will probably sport a pink retro broomstick and pointy hat for her pointy head.
Mrs. Obama should welcome the ridicule of people like Dowd. It is not hard to run against pink jukeboxes and starfuckers.
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Problems of affluence
[Read the article: It's gift-giving time, and I'm cranky about gift cards and pushy kids]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't really have any answers to the dilemma, but I think I have an explanation.
I grew up in harder times when gift giving at Christmas was actually part of the family economy when goods were distributed between the cash-rich (older) members of the family and the cash-poor (children). As a training experience the children were given small budgets to buy gifts for adults.
So for example, if I and my three siblings each received a hand-knitted sweater made by my mother's sister, this (in midwinter, you remember) was a significant saving on the family budget for winter clothing. Or if I received a hand-me-down bicycle from my older male cousin, which happened three times, this was an overall saving to the family as my mother would contribute to HIS brand new bike as joint giver with my aunt and uncle.
Parents and aunties and uncles would typically receive things like ties, socks, and handkerchiefs from children,as these would also be needed.
These days we all have everything we need, so it is difficult to give people what they need, and when it comes to common gifts like CDs or books or clothes, it is practically impossible to select for someone what they would select for themself. In fact you run the risk of giving them something they already have.
You would think that the young 'uns these days might have things like textbooks from Amazon on their lists.
Since my family and I live in various different countries we have a kind of non-proliferation treaty going on due to the high cost of shipping goods overseas and just tend to send things of no special value like paper calendars.
I think it is very refreshing that the LW wants to individualize gifts. I wish I was as thoughtful and giving when it comes to presents, but I am lazy and tend to go with the obvious.
You can't go wrong with poinsettias and they come at different price points.