Letters to the Editor
Bill Murphy NYC
Published Letters: 7
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Penn State - Florida State OT
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dear King -
Just a quick observation after reading your latest column on last night's Orange Bowl -- and may I apologize in advance if I'm already piling on to the legion of armchair QBs who are sure to have noticed this as well -- but about midway through your first page you write:
"Kelly actually only missed two field goals, from 29 and 38 yards, both of which would have been game winners. His opposite number, Gary Cismesia of Florida State, missed an extra point in the second quarter and game-winning field-goal attempts of 44 and 38 yards in overtime."
Now, to my recollection, Cismesia's FG tries in OT were potentially "game-winning" attempts, and thus at the time merely attempts to take the lead. Penn State still would have had an opportunity to answer any score on their next possession.
Back in the day, no less an illustrious arbiter of opinion than Marvel Comics (I'm trumpeting my geek history here) would have awarded me a "no-prize" for catching this. Am I right?
Thanks for your time & please keep up the insightful reportage...
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Isn't it obvious?
[Read the article: What the Libby testimony proves (and doesn't prove)]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Farhad, all you need to do is ask yourself one reasonable question: if the president and vice president had nothing to do with the outing of Valerie Plame, then what other possible reason could they have had to keep the leak of previously classified NIE information a secret? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect the dots.
William Murphy
NYC
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Derbyshire the fighting keyboardist
[Read the article: Compassionate conservatism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Derbyshire says, "I know it's easy to say these things: but didn't the heroes of Flight 93 teach us anything?"
They might have been able to teach us something more than just being a footstool for conservative hero fantasies -- but then, no one survived Flight 93, did they.
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Blow harder, Wynton
[Read the article: Francis Davis takes on Wynton Marsalis]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've often wondered whether Mr. Marsalis -- along with his self-appointed mouthpiece, Stanley Crouch -- hasn't been engaged all these years in an elaborate subterfuge aimed at exorcising his own deep-seated sense of self-loathing for having resided at the master's house for too long (i.e., Sony/Columbia and, more recently, Lincoln Center). By constantly singling out hip-hop for his piddling criticisms, methinks he doth protest too much. After all, this is the same person who excoriated Miles Davis for going "electric" -- an insult that Miles never forgave him for, even long after Bitches Brew had racked up gold-record sales. Wynton Marsalis is a great trumpeter, but he's a preservationist -- not an innovator. The next time he fires up yet another in a seemingly endless string of tributes to "the Dixieland tradition," maybe he should ask himself who the real minstrel is.
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Giuliani's litany of lies
[Read the article: A new low for Giuliani]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It used to be the mainstream media's (and by extension, the GOP's) mantra of contempt for Al Gore: "He'll say anything to get elected." Meanwhile, Giuliani has demonstrated that he'll bend and twist the events of 9/11 into any fantasy he chooses, and he skates away unscathed. Here's what he said at the Republican National Convention in 2004:
"...as we stood on the pavement watching a cloud come through the cavernous streets of lower Manhattan... I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and I said to him, 'Bernie, thank God George Bush is our President.'”
And here's what he told Frank Lalli at Reader's Digest in an interview published in July 2002:
RD: Did you ever think you were facing something you couldn't beat?
Giuliani: Yes, on September 11. What ignited that feeling was seeing a man jump from Tower One. An aide said people were jumping, but my mind rejected it. Then, as I walked closer to the towers, a police officer told me to look up, keep looking up, so nothing would hit us. Suddenly, I see a man hurl himself from above the 100th floor and come flying down. I followed that from beginning to end. And I grabbed Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik's arm and said, "We're in uncharted territory. We're going to have to invent a way to get through this."
When will this twisted husk of a man be exposed for the sociopath he truly is?
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Is it me...
[Read the article: "Shine a Light"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...or is the only thing that distinguishes a Rolling Stones concert film the fact that someone has to die during the making of one? For Gimme Shelter it was Meredith Hunter, and for Shine A Light, it was Ahmet Ertegun (who slipped and hit his head backstage at the Beacon and died later of his injury). In the first instance, it marked the end of the long love-in promised by the psychedelic '60s; in the second, it marked the loss of one of the last great record executives who still gave a shit about music. Either way, the Stones always seem to be overseeing the death of someone or something; when will they do us all a favor and finally make it their own career?
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Does she even know who we're fighting in Iraq?
[Read the article: How Sarah Palin blew it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Was I hearing things or did Palin refer to the "Shia insurgents," when in fact the Sunni insurgents are the ones we've been preoccupied with for the last five years?