Letters to the Editor
my3sons
Published Letters: 41 Editor's Choice: 4
-
There's close, and then there's smothering
[Read the article: My girlfriend's family is suffocating our relationship]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This letter sounds like my brother's story, a dozen years further along. He married a woman who will never live anywhere other than the small town where her parents are. It has always been clear she views "daughter" as her defining title, despite being a wife (twice) and mother of 5. A few years ago, my brother and her father had a dispute, and she made it explicit that if she ever had to choose, she was going with "Daddy." I don't know how today's LW will turn out, but I wouldn't wish on anyone the soul-crushing situation my brother finds himself in.
-
My yum-o dinner
[Read the article: Rachael Ray, my dinner hooker]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My almost 10-year-old son made dinner for the family tonight, from Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals for Kids (or words to that effect.) I don't really know anything about RR, but my niece is a big fan, and she gave him the cookbook last year. He made meatloaf, smashed potatoes with cream cheese, and green beans with bacon. It was truly delicious. He positively glowed with pride. He and my other two kids had seconds. And every time he does this, I think he understands a little better what is involved in putting together the dinners I make every night. Win win win.
Why anyone would use up precious hate energy on Rachael Ray is absolutely beyond me. Personally, I save my hate for Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. There's only so much to go around.
-
Seek out the other "misfits"
[Read the article: I have found hell on earth -- an "MBA program"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This all sounds pretty familiar, except I know the happy ending. I, too, attended a fancy-pants East Coast b-school. I had never been anything but a violinist, and felt quiet contempt for what I perceived to be the sea of interchangeable arrogant money-grubbers surrounding me, and doing better than me on exams that first miserable semester. Then I actually started to look around me, and took note of the actress, and the musicologist, and the Peace Corps types, and the dancer, and the small pretty woman who had a fancy job at a huge brewery in South Africa, and the handsome lefty who came to my concerts. And once I was done with core OB and ops and stats and macro and moved on to more advanced electives, I found to my own astonishment that I had somehow become a different and better thinker. I never really warmed to the majority of my fellow students, but how many friends do you really need? I married the handsome lefty, and we live in Vermont and have jobs we like that aren't the centers of our lives.
LW, just hold on a little longer. It's going to get better. First semester is designed to be a hideous hazing ritual. There are others there who feel as you do.
-
Blankets as barriers to prying eyes
[Read the article: Flying the boob-hating skies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Using a blanket to cover up while breastfeeding means covering up THE BABY. It eliminates eye contact between the child and mother. Eye contact is a great source of comfort to a baby, especially in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar environment like a plane. Many babies simply won't tolerate such a barrier between themselves and their mothers, and will yank a blanket off. Also, nursing during take-off can relieve pressure on babies' ears. Babies don't cry only because they're hungry.
This woman, as I understand it, was near the back of the plane, in a window seat, at night, next to her husband. Think about the mechanics involved in seeing enough to get offended. In such a sitution, no passenger would have glimpsed her nipple -- heaven forfend! -- without a lot of effort and a little luck.
-
Veto power
[Read the article: The sexiest man living!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love all these posts vetoing others' nominations for sex idols. Like you can talk people out of their tastes. It reminds me of Jack Black in School of Rock telling the kids their taste in music is incorrect.
Speaking of which: Jack Black. Just sayin'.
OK, cue the curmudgeons telling me I can't actually find someone that fat and white attractive.
-
Clinton's approval rating
[Read the article: Bush roars into the 20s]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"despite the fact that he'd already been impeached by the House of Representatives."
Or maybe BECAUSE he'd been impeached by the House of Representatives, to the disgust of the American populace.
-
Babies are notoriously unwitty
[Read the article: Wanted: One male, dry-witted, for baby making]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Once you've found Mr. Right and have had a kid, guess who you're going to be spending all your time with? I hope this isn't news to you, but kids don't even talk for quite a while. When they start making jokes, which they actually do before they can speak, they tend to be of the broad and earthy variety, and you'd better be prepared to experience the successful ones over and over. My oldest is, at 10, just starting to show glimmers of true wittiness, although he's been cracking me up since the day he was born. However close to the top of your list "dry wit" may be, it's going to take a back seat for a decade or two, and you'd better hope your hubby is kind and patient and helpful. Besides, when you haven't showered or slept in days, you may find your capacity to participate in Parker-esque badinage somewhat diminished.
-
The Deleter
[Read the article: Karl Rove, again]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]OK, so Rove's a tad quick on the delete key, to the tune, apparently of 5 million emails. But every one of those was to or from someone, right? Rove's deletions are completely beside the point if his pen pals were obeying the law to preserve them on their end. What am I missing?
-
FYI for DianeKovacs
[Read the article: Healthy, my ass]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know why people keep repeating the nonsense about Marilyn Monroe's wearing a dress size 16. At her heaviest (when pregnant and filming "Some Like it Hot") she weighed 140 pounds. She mostly hovered around 120 (she was 117 when she died) so her BMI was in fact, for the most part, around 20. Dress sizes have changed a great deal over the years. From what I've read, she'd wear an 8 in today's sizes.
She probably wouldn't get very far as a super model these days, but the notion that she'd be considered tubby by anyone not in the fashion industry is ludicrous