Letters to the Editor
Herself
Published Letters: 241 Editor's Choice: 19
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Hey, Cary, Where's Your Compassion?
[Read the article: Hey, Mel, where's the passion?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh please, for the love of God, make these celebrity stories go awaaaaaay!
Even the police officer said this was a routine arrest and is tired of hearing about it.
Are our lives so dull and boring that we have to keep tapdancing in the Schadenfreude Fest to entertain ourselves?
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Food, glorious food
[Read the article: Jicama in the 'hood]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Its all well and good to tout organic, fresh la ti da, but what's wrong with advocating baby steps? You can't expect someone in the inner city to suddenly embrace organic slow cooking after years of tasty calorically dense fast food. Conventionally grown produce won't kill you.
Instead of the elitist notion that we all have to turn into Alice Waters' devoted followers, why not accept that while grocery tomatoes are not the tastiest, they do have some nutritive value?
I grew up on iceberg lettuce and hothouse tomato salads, mac n' cheese, tuna casserole and franks n' beans, and I managed to grow pretty tall and not too wide.
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Age Gap?
[Read the article: All the guys I'm dating want me to shave down there]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I asked my physical therapist about this. She sees 'em daily.
Her observation is that all of the under-30 women do it. None of the over-40 women do it and the folks in their thirties are a mixed bag.
Some folks like how it makes them feel. Some like how it makes them look.
As for me? I'll never tell.
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Motorcycles or something else?
[Read the article: Racing hearts]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I see a lot of commentary defending being a motorcyclist. I don't think Ann's article was about the dangers of cycling, so much as what happens when two people become a couple. Something has to give and it can't all be given by one person.
He can't keep living the bachelor life, flying off to each and every single meet that his buddies put together, once he has married. He also should not have to give it up entirely.
A marriage takes work and compromise. She has to tell him, "Okay, I really need you for this thing." He has to pick and choose which events will satisfy his interest in the sport, but remember that he does not have to go to every single one of them.
As for his buddies gossiping about them on the internet, that'd happen with any group. Given the choice between a happy marriage and the occasional poker game, tatting circle or drunken brawl with the lads, most people would gladly take a happy marriage.
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Read Between The Lines
[Read the article: A case for parental notification]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This has nothing to do with parental notification and everything to do with chipping away at Roe V. Wade.
First, they require parental notification. Then, ooh, maybe they'll boost the age up to 21. Hm. Okay, that went through. Let's try getting the husband's consent in the case of a married woman needing an abortion. Good! Now, let's go for the consent of the boyfriend in the case of an unmarried woman needing an abortion. Yippee! Break out the beers for "men's rights". Now, let's see if we can force the woman to get three doctor's notes and pass it through a committee to get permission to get an abortion. Hee hee. Pulled a fast one on them. Let's require them to do a blood screening, get a permit, pass the committee, count backwards from 1,000, get the sperm provider's permission, get their parents' permission, have the Governor notarize it....
You see where this is going, right?
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Yet Another Food Fad
[Read the article: Mothers should feast on fish?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Every five minutes, self-described experts announce that some food or another is going to give the people who eat it some kind of edge over the lumpenproletariat.
What did our parents eat? Chicken a la king, mac n' cheese, bourbon n' ginger ale, franks 'n beans. We turned out OK. The big differences in how kids do has to do with parental income, opportunities and how much time the parents spend enriching their kids' lives. It has nothing to do with one single component in their diets.
I think all the nice upper middle class people gnawing their fingernails about their prenatal diets have to realize that their kids are going to come out just fine (barring some outlying situation like chromosome damage, hypoxia, or a genetic predisposition to Asperger's). Its poor women, women who smoke, women who drink too much, and women who don't get prenatal care who we need to worry about.
Making pregnant women worry with the latest "scientific report" (usually funded by some lobby) makes me crazy.
The fish fad makes me crazy because it is just that, another fad. We are in the middle of a global crisis with overfishing, diseases spread by fish farming, and habitat loss destroying fish breeding grounds.
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Nice, but
[Read the article: The new girls club]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've been around long enough to have seen women struggle to be treated equally. The struggle continues.
A ladies-only floor is illegal. Period. It goes against gender equity. It assumes that all men are a problem, which is sexist. It assumes that women won't cause problems, which is also sexist.
The problem is not that "ladies" should be given the option of having their own space away from men. The problem is that hotel managers should provide a safe place for their guests.
Hotels need to make sure that only guests access the areas of the hotels where the guests expect privacy and security. Hotels should have mechanisms in place so that, if a guest feels under threat, that they should respond quickly to remove the threat. Doors and locks should be secure. Ground floor windows and sliding patio doors should have extra security, be it bars or special glass that is hard/impossible to break. Parking areas should be well-lit. Shrubbery under windows should not be a potential hiding place for problem people.
As for Curves, I object to the place, because it has ties to the fundies and offers a wimpy workout. But that, as they say, is another story.