I'm all for people, especially teens and children, dressing in dignified and modest ways. Nothing wrong with that, but as Ms. Price pointed out, the list of suggestions for Pure Fashion girls devolved from dignity to chastity to the usual obeisance to God's will.

In line with all patriarchal religions, Pure Fashion's theology says nothing about boys fashion, just the girls, and yep, as the article says, it's all about keeping women safe for men, i.e., cover up the women, because you us know men, we just can't control it if we see a patch of skin. Pure Fashion is only a few steps away from the extremist Muslims who foist burqas on women.

Speaking of which, I was at the beach recently with my wife. She went to the boardwalk to get some water, but came back steaming. Why? She pointed it out to me: on that very hot day, there was a woman covered head to toe in a black burqa. Beside her were her husband and son, both wearing shorts and t-shirts. Call me a wacko feminist if you want, but something was definitely wrong with that picture, and with the philosophy behind it.

This article might have been worth a short blurb, at most. Please give us a solid article on who the best reporter in D.C. is.

Besides, everyone knows that WJLA's Pamela Brown is the hottest reporter in D.C.

Yours is about the only sports column I read, since I have mininal interest in team sports. Tennis and MMA are more to my liking.

I used to be a huge fan of the Boston Celtics back in the early 1980's, but I really can't understand how anyone these days can be loyal to a team, especially based on hometown pride. Am I wrong, or do players come and go on teams all the time? Isn't their loyalty as fleeting as Casanova's at an orgy? How can a city or town root for "their" team when so many members of that team were playing for a rival town not long ago? ("Shelbyville, our arch enemy!").

Besides, it's one thing to go watch a team at a place called "Yankee Stadium" or "Shea Stadium," names which reflect the heritage of a team or town. But who the hell wants to go watch a ballgame at "Ex-Lax Field" or "Amalgamated Sheet Metal Benders, Inc., Stadium?" Bugh!

Also, there have always been bullies and thugs in sports (Ty Cobb, for example), but are things worse today? Is it the gazilions of dollars athletes are paid which accounts for their arrogant and anti-social behavior? Are the owners worse people, or just the kind of people who would be as happy selling toasters as running a team, so long as it makes a profit, and thus indifferent to the game or team's image?

What's the story, King? Are things really worse today, or is it just a matter of remembrance for a time that never was?

P.S. If MMA goes the way of boxing's corrupt demise, I shall be reduced to watching amateur fistfights on YouTube.

Your letter made me laugh (in a good way). Back in college our running coach was this big fat hairy guy. He could have been one of the background goombas in The Sopranos. Guess what? He was a vegetarian.

Being a vegan who hangs out with other vegans and vegetarians far more often than the average person, I can report that there do seem to be fewer obese vegans and vegetarians than in the general population. On the other hand, I tend to hang out with people in my own socio-economic group -- well-educated, middle class professionals -- and that group as a rule is less obese/fat than the general population.

Still, as you point out, just because one is a vegan or vegetarian does not mean that presto, one cannot become fat or obese. After all, a steady diet of peanuts, potato chips, and soda is 100% vegan, but if you eat that, you'll end up looking like my old college's running coach.

Anyway, this virus this is kind of interesting, but I still have to think that for most people, if you eat sensibly and exercise, you can maintain a healthy weight, weird virus or not.

Chances are high that if you delve into that terrible story, you'll find that the pit bull in question was tormented and neglected from a young age by a local scumbag, and that is why the dog became vicious.

You can torment any animal, human or nonhuman, and produce a vicious beast. I'm willing to bet that the scumbag who tormented that pit bull was himself a victim of a nasty and brutish childhood. Makes we wonder about Vick's upbringing.

Anyway, you can press a button and make pit bulls disappear. The scumbags will just find another dog to turn into vicious killers.

When I went to help out in a post-Katrina animal shelter, I encountered the biggest damn pit bull I'd ever seen. That dog had a mouth that looked large enough to swallow you whole. That dog had also gone through hell before being rescued.

You know what? She was the nicest dog you'd hope to meet. The other pit bulls were nice, too, despite having gone through similar hard times. They mingled with the other dogs and we had no incidents.

I know that pit bulls have the capacity to inflict serious damage, but I'm convinced that it's nurture, and not nature, that turns them mean.

People become obese for various reasons, and I can't imagine that any of them are happy about it.

You, on the other hand, seem to enjoy being cruel to people who have done you no harm. Can't you control that, or is it a personal weakness?