I have loved Stephen Sondheim's music since "West Side Story." Of course he only wrote the lyrics to that one and "Gypsy," but he proved he could write hummable tunes with "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," a toe-tapper if there ever was one. After "A Little Night Music," I lost track of Sondheim for a few years, until a friend of mine bought the cast recording of "Sweeney Todd." He liked to get drunk and play this thing over and over, presumably to accent his depression. I hated it. But then I saw a production of it with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou on television and fell in love with Lansbury's performance. Yes, I had heard her on record, but you really have to see her to appreciate what she does with the role of Mrs. Lovett. So I went back and listened to the soundtrack again, and I still hated it. The lesson being that this particular bit of staging requires a deft musical hand, and an incredible talent like Lansbury in the lead to work. Can Helena Bonham Carter pull it off? I'll suspend judgment until I've seen the film. Can Depp overcome the essentially wooden nature of Sweeney's character, at least as written by Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler? I doubt it. But Mrs. Lovett's the whole show anyway, and it all rests with her.

What is the secret to Huck's success? You've got to be kidding. It can be summed up in two words: Hill and Bill. In voting for Huck the Clinton-haters get to vote, one, against Hillary Clinton (who is bound to be the Democratic candidate, no matter what some people might think), and two, against Bill Clinton, whom they never tire of castigating. Huck is the anti-Clinton. He hails from Hope and was once governor of Arkansas, but he is no Rhodes Scholar. In fact, he is no kind of scholar at all. The we-hate-Bill brigade sees a vote for Huck as a repudiation of everything that Bill, and by extension Hillary, stands for. They don't know Huck, and they don't care (they should, but they don't). In this regard, they are myopic. A Clinton is running for office. The red flag has been raised. The haters charge--blindly. Oh, yes, it's really that simple.

All of what Joe Conasan says needs to be said, and often. But the fact that "angry Clinton haters in the press corps suffer from the same flat learning curve as Wile E. Coyote" doesn't mean they've always been ineffective. After all, they kept us from getting the leadership we voted for in 2000 and Swift-boated John Kerry into an early political grave in 2004. And hatred of the Clintons helps to explain the press's bizarre love affair with Mike Huckabee this election cycle. When the smoke clears, I still hope to find Hillary Clinton at the top of the Democratic ticket and then in the White House. I think Barack Obama would make a tremendous vice president (and president in 2016). The important thing is to keep the press from annointing another not-ready-for-primetime player like George Bush (remember when the press called him "Dubya" and stood in line to get their own degrading nicknames from him?) as POTUS. The country can't afford another clowning mistake like Dubya. We need competent, adult leadership that will help us regain our footing on the world stage, and, for me at least, that translates into Hillary Clinton.

Thank you, Mary Elizabeth, for such an eloquent, reasoned response to the little we know about Heath Ledger's death. Those who dismiss him as a "teenybopper" or who downplay his importance as an actor, especially in the epic romance "Brokeback Mountain," do so "for the obvious reasons." Yes, Heath Ledger was a giant on the screen, but he struck a cord with many of us off camera as well. We may never know what went wrong, what secret sorrows he harbored, but too many of us in this society are careless of other's accomplishments; it's easier to be flip than friendly, I guess. As for me, I start to well up just thinking about Heath as Ennis Del Mar, especially when the soundtrack starts up in my mind and I hear Willie Nelson singing, "He was a friend of mine." He will be sorely missed.

Laura's ode to Hillary: "How do I hate thee, let me count the ways." Take a deep breath, Ms. Miller, it's only poetry!

"There have been a lot of films made about the 1960s and the wave of readical activism they produced"--whatever are you talking about? "Getting Straight," "Medium Cool," "Alice's Restuarant," for christsake? These films were all made forty years ago! There has been no, repeat no, attempt to seriously deal with the 60's or the way society was forever changed by the generation of Baby Boomers who had the guts to stand up to America and demand Civil Rights, gender equality, an end to the war in Vietnam, an end to the draft, the vote for 18-year-olds, etc., etc., etc. Or are you privy to a body of films (perhaps from France) that I haven't seen? The blase attitude with which you dismiss these films--"yeah, TOO many"--leads me to assume that I haven't been missing anything, but now I'm curious. A few titles would be in order. You guys usually offer up some pretty thoughtful analysis. I guess like Bob Dylan said, "I didn't realize how YOUNG you were."

What in the world happened to my earlier post? I used no foul language. Can't you take a little constructive criticism. How will anyone learn when they won't be taught? Come on, Salon. I thought you were better than that.

But shouldn't all the letters you receive on this subject be combined? My letter is accessible only if you enter through the Video Dog link. So I wasn't "censored." Bummer, man. Now if you'll simply answer my earlier question: what films are you talking about? I want a list in English. Thanks.