I rarely write letters. But this letter and the response both struck a chord in me. I've been through a similar experience with two other women on two different occasions when my daughter went through surgery. Neither friend showed up at the hospital to support me. Because I am single and both women were close friends this was especially hard and angering. Neither friendship in fact survived. Neither of these women have children and I suppose neither could quite grasp the level of pain and terror one feels when one's child is sick and in danger. In fact the terror is so great you hardly dare speak of it for fear it will make the situation more real. I did confront one woman, but by then the list of my grievances was long and frankly I did not want to spend to much time discussing my daughter with her. I did not, metaphorically speaking, trust her with such a tender subject. I tried even more briefly to discuss the matter with the other woman too. Neither really grasped it. The inability I have come to see lay with the narcissism evident in them both. I think airing the grievance is a very good advice. But don't expect any satisfaction. The same qualities that made this woman unable to come through will also make her clueless. What can you do? Pick better friends. Learn to read the signs of narciscism and stay away.

I rarely write letters. But this letter and the response both struck a chord in me. I've been through a similar experience with two other women on two different occasions when my daughter went through surgery. Neither friend showed up at the hospital to support me. Because I am single and both women were close friends this was especially hard and angering. Neither friendship in fact survived. Neither of these women have children and I suppose neither could quite grasp the level of pain and terror one feels when one's child is sick and in danger. In fact the terror is so great you hardly dare speak of it for fear it will make the situation more real. I did confront one woman, but by then the list of my grievances was long and frankly I did not want to spend too much time discussing my daughter with her. I did not, metaphorically speaking, trust her with such a tender subject. I tried even more briefly to discuss the matter with the other woman too. Neither really grasped it. The inability I have come to see lay with the narcissism evident in them both. I think airing the grievance is a very good advice. But don't expect any satisfaction. The same qualities that made this woman unable to come through will also make her clueless. What can you do? Pick better friends. Learn to read the signs of narciscism and stay away.

When I heard Woodward weeks ago on CNN, predicting that there may well be no indictments and that Fitzgerald's case was flimsy, I was already furious. It seemed obvious to me then that he had become compromised. He lied outright when he said that he had no bombshell. It's astonishing to me that he lied in that way over network television to millions of viewers and can still believe that he has any credibility or career left.

I saw the shift from reporter with integrity to well paid flunkey begin a while ago and really blossom in his last book. It's a classic trajectory among successful journalists who have as much to do with the current decline of American democracy as any corrupt poltician.

Thank you for holding him accountable. It is what we must all keep doing. If the three branches of government are supposed to exert checks and balances on each other, so are newspapers, journalists and readers. Right here I want to begin a campaign to ask the Washington Post to fire Mr. Woodward.

In the meantime, the LA Times has fired one of its best columnists, Robert Scheer. Despite promises to retain a balanced paper, the publisher is making all the moves necessary to turn the LA Times into a right wing rag. I suggest a consumer boycott is called for now.

At this sad moment, one would have wished that the author could have reworked this over long homage to Chris Penn without the gratuitous attack on his brother. Sean Penn's great and moving abilities as an actor do not have to be diminished to celebrate Chris Penn. And publishing a piece that pits brother against brother, in the wake of a death that must cause great pain to his family, seems to me to unkind if not cruel.