Letters to the Editor
Quiet Type
Published Letters: 646 Editor's Choice: 32
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Out, out damn spot
[Read the article: Men on eHarmony seem obsessed with women who are "clean"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]LW wrote: "I asked the question because it puzzles me, and continues to puzzle me. When faced with a list of hugely distasteful human traits, why would someone put a check mark next to something alterable?--ie, a dirty person can take a shower. Yet a trait that reflects the content of someone's character--ie, racism, is rarely checked."
Hmm... I'm thinking a lot of people see this in concrete/personal terms, vs. abstract/impersonal terms. That is, "someone who doesn't take showers now probably never will (actually poor hygiene is pretty ingrained stuff), and I don't want to have to live with that," vs. "someone who's racist doesn't like this group or that group, but that's okay because it probably won't make any real difference in our daily lives together anyway."
I think I'm beginning to understand these guys now... uh-oh, bad sign!
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What I missed.
[Read the article: What you missed while watching the new "Bionic Woman"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hey, somebody start writing a synopsis of Michael Scherer's synopses. I'm officially tired of them.
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Peace
[Read the article: The war president "at peace" with himself]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is there anyone who believes that George Bush has ever spent even a moment reflecting on whether he has reason to be at peace with himself?
I'm not sure the man knows what the word "peace" means, but I'm absolutely sure he is incapable of grasping the depths of a pronouncement like "I am at peace with myself."
There are millions across the earth who have deliberately or inadvertently caused tiny pockets of minor havoc within their confined little planetary roles, who desperately wish they could take their actions back, who chastise themselves their whole lives and who toss and turn at night and are not at all at peace with themselves.
I'm guessing that George Bush sleeps like a baby.
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EYE CONTACT
[Read the article: I'm sexy and available! Chat me up!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]EYE CONTACT, baby, EYE CONTACT. If you see a guy you are even remotely interested in talking to, you must make EYE CONTACT. You must allow the fizzy electricity of EYE CONTACT to do 90 percent of the work for you (and him). Have your friends from that bar give you feedback on whether you made any EYE CONTACT, and let them help you practice making future EYE CONTACT. Whoever said the eyes were the window to the soul was not making that up, because two unknown souls connect when they make EYE CONTACT.
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Call her and relax about this.
[Read the article: How can I ditch my bitchy friend now that she has cancer?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't think you need to go see her, seeing as you don't really want to anyway. But it would be nice to call her every few days; that's pretty painless and shows you're still thinking of her. Heck, I'm not sure people that ill even really want in-person visitors; I would think it would often be tiring and stressful.
I also don't think you need to make heavy psychological Mom/boyfriend/this friend connections here. There are so many women afraid to assert themselves in relationships, including walking away from them when they want to, that entire shelves in the self-help section are filled with advice to them. You're like millions of other women who feel like they have to play angelic roles when they don't feel like angels at all.
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Forgivable factor
[Read the article: How can I ditch my bitchy friend now that she has cancer?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]IF by any chance at all you suspect her personality change and snottiness to you were in fact symptoms of her illness or a side effect of her medications (perhaps she'd been ill for a very long time before you ever found out), you might want to give her a break and still go visit her, just not so frequently.
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Our Expressive Presidents
[Read the article: Clinton laughs off laugh attack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hmmm... four years of phony-ass horse laugh, versus 8 years of contemptuous sneer. The phony-ass horse laugh seems pretty refreshing, comparatively speaking.
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That funny feeling
[Read the article: Larry King interviews Jenna Bush]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The last time I heard that expression "feel funny," I believe it was directed at an 8-year-old.
But for the record, I think anyone remotely related to this war (even by "blood," so to speak), should "feel funny" about it.
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The The-ah-tar
[Read the article: The Decider has decided]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Good God. Someone should string together these statements that come out of BushWorld and mount it as a show. I'm thinking Edward Albee.
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I've decided I've figured it out:
[Read the article: The Decider has decided]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Bush utters more tautological statements (A = A) as pseudo-explanations for his actions than any person in power in memory. When our decider decides, does our explainer-in-chief really believe his explanations explain his decisions?"
So THAT'S the problem! He got left behind in algebra class!
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Sunday, bonding Sunday
[Read the article: My Christian daughter says I'm going to hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In theory, shopping her around to lots of religious rituals to expand her mind sounds great, but I think Dad is going to get into some unnecessary hot water with Mom over it. Worse, I think it could cause the daughter to be troubled and anxious at this age. Remember being 13? That's the age when being sure of all kinds of miscellaneous things is the only defense against how very unsure of ourselves we feel.
And hellOOO, hell isn't the only separation the poor kid is freaked out by here. The here and now divorce stuff looms pretty big for her, too. So LW,just be a loving dad and take her to the local branch of the church she belongs to, as an expression of daddy love and concern and bonding, and leave it at that. It "wouldn't kill you," as my tribe would say.
(If it were soccer on Sundays she was into, Dad would probably just play along and do that with her, wouldn't he?)