Letters to the Editor

• do the PEOPLE get sick?

  [Read the article: Chicken farmers in the sky]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Has anyone asked whether Chinese people are getting sick as a result of eating these chickens? Is it a real health issue, or is it like the people who will hunt and shoot a deer to eat but leave one they hit with the car to rot because "roadkill is icky"?

  The skyfarm looks nifty! I invented such a farm for a story once, it's amazing that people think it might really be possible.

  Permalink Thursday, June 14, 2007 07:36 PM

• Nancy Drew movies

  [Read the article: "Nancy Drew"]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I picked up one of the 1930's Nancy Drew movies at the pharmacy for a dollar. Fun stuff, but not Nancy Drew - this movie was a vehicle for a child singing star. If you can find it, try it, you'll only be out a dollar.

  I'm pleased that they went with the retro look, because that was my experience of Nancy Drew too: flip hairstyle, petticoats, pumps - all the wonder and magic of that old-fashioned world. I liked Nancy for some of the same reasons I liked browsing in my grandmother's 1945 Emily Post. And Nancy's ethics were of a different time, too, when the heroine of a novel was expected to be not just physically brave but ethically brave. If the movie can capture that, all the better.

  I'm saddened that the movie made no move to include Bess and George, replacing them, apparently, with male characters. just glancing at the picture before reading the article, I assumed the young boy in the back seat of the car was actually a girl - George. Now THAT would have been something, if a movie made for young people had the courage to have a butch character and not apologize for it. Several of the teen girls I know dress just like the kid in the picture, and one even calls herself by a boy's name - but I guess real life is still too controversial for Hollywood.

  Permalink Thursday, June 14, 2007 09:03 PM

• make sure the mice can't get to your pet's food

  [Read the article: How do I get rid of mice? Plus: Testimonials needed!]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Lot of good tips here, someone has pretty much covered most of what I could say. I prefer a combination of cats and spring traps for indoor mice, and a combo of warfarin and large black snakes for the mice in the feed room of the barn. (Make sure you use warfarin where pets and children can't get to it.)

  It's a good idea to figure out what your mice are eating and where they live. In my case, they were eating the cat's food. What worked was putting the food dishes in the middle of a large tray of water (this works for ants too). The cat could easily reach across the water to eat, but the mice drowned. Of course, then you have to dispose of drowned mice, but that's not difficult.

  Our mice came from under the neighbor's deck. They moved out when a large snake moved in. On another occasion we had mice during construction of a new shopping mall nearby - the poor little buggers were trying to find a new habitat. If you know where the mice are coming from, it's easier to keep them out.

  I sympathize with those who think mice are cute. The mice that lived under the neighbor's deck were beautiful little creatures - I think probably some wild variety and not a typical house mouse, since they had plush, peach-colored coats. But mice carry disease and you don't need them in your food supply.

  Mouse story: this past Christmas, on Christmas morning, my mom went out to feed the horses and found, in an empty stall, no fewer than THIRTEEN dead mice, carefully lined up in a row, left by the feral cats. Apparently the cats had hit the mouse jackpot. These cats are totally unsocialized and don't normally leave presents for the humans, so it was oddly coincidental that they appeared to be getting into the Christmas spirit.

  Permalink Monday, June 18, 2007 05:25 PM

• just ick

  [Read the article: Bad news dad]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I didn't find the story funny. I spent the weekend with my 11-year-old nephew, and Daniel Asa Rose is right, kids' stories are boring. No, you don't get a pass for telling the kid to shut up because you don't care. Yuck.

  If your enthusiasm level is markedly different between your first set of kids and your second, you shouldn't have had the second.

  I didn't realize until someone pointed it out that this was supposed to be Salon's father's day story. Double-yuck.

  Permalink Monday, June 18, 2007 05:31 PM