It is 2007, right? I know that the media usually shy away from religious matters, afraid to offend anyone, but this is getting out of hand. Are two of the leading contenders for a major party's nomination for president of the United States actually — seriously, honestly — arguing about Jesus and Lucifer? This seems like some massive joke to me — it cannot really be happening, can it? The more we talk about this, the more it becomes the accepted wisdom that a candidate must believe in Jesus, the devil, Leviticus (oy!), and the rest. When are the media going to put the breaks on this? After almost thirty years of the moral majority becoming values voters (and they say they don’t believe in evolution!), when are people going to shut up about these 800 pound gorillas? Their own leaders do not take them seriously enough to enact the legislation so near and dear to their hearts, and yet everyone is forced to engage in this circus.

Brought up a Catholic, I learned (well, was taught) that all these groups that claim dominion over Jesus were heretics, schismatics, and unworthy to receive Christ in the form of the Eucharist. When are we going to have that battle? Why does someone not ask Rudy what he thinks of Southern Baptists? Then we will really see the fur fly!

My favorite bit of forgotten news is when then-President Clinton instituted the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell policy. Shortly afterwards, he was headed to North Carolina (home of many service bases) and that state's senator, Jesse Helms, said on national television, "I don't know if it's such a good idea for him to come down there." Essentially, in code, Helms was talking about the president's assassination. I rue the day this little nugget got lost in the right-wing news vacuum.

I think you will find that the charges of elitism arise when it is expected that many people have the time and money to shop in such a fashion. The better bread, wine, coffee, meats, and fish you write of come at a very hefty price; that cannot be denied. Like you, I own a lot of cookbooks — maybe about fifty. We should recognize that owning about $1,000 worth of recipes might just justify such charges.

Isn’t it great when your profession allows you to do what you love? Waters is so enamored with every aspect of food production that no part of the process is dreary, laborious, or bothersome. Nice for her. I, too, love every aspect of cooking (amateurishly) — the shopping, the chopping, the cooking, the eating, and even the cleaning up. Where others come home from work and read the paper or have a scotch, I relax by getting dinner ready. I appreciate her exhortations to eat seasonally, but she will not condemn me to five months of turnips, parsnips, and cabbage. Her advocacy of local produce is admirable, but at 6:00 a.m. I'm doing laundry and walking the dog before work; there is not much time to ascertain the relative merits of this chicken's eggs versus another's.

I am a librarian and it would be elitist of me to plead with people to sit in the library all day soaking up Plato and Toni Morrison, Shakespeare and “A Thousand Splendid Suns.” I know and respect that the nasty habit of earning a living precludes visiting a library (no matter how many others do make time for it). I thank Salon for providing a platform from which Ms Waters can spread her Gospel; I just wish her message was not so provincial. And her book costs $35!

The LW asks, “After all, aren't friendships really all about sharing the story of your life?” Not really; friendship is about respecting the decisions others make. Notice, too, the one-sided aspect here: has the LW always shared aspects of her life with everyone? “Being there for someone” and “sharing” are things I’ve sometimes thought had rather selfish motives. I don’t think CT is being helpful by suggesting that the LW stress how hurt her feelings are because the friend chose to secrete this episode of her life from her friends. Though you may be intrigued, being infuriated by her clamming up makes the LW look more nosy than anything else.

By being sports marketers (whatever the hell it is that they do), real estate execs (not the down and dirty realtors who deal with people mind you, but executives), and advertising? Sounds suspiciously like his sons gravitated towards fields in which a lot of white guys go on business trips and — or to — play golf. If the loathsome Romney seriously believes his sons are serving their country by driving up and down Iowa, how in God's name can we expect him to be at the head of the Armed Services?

Austen will go out of favor as surely as Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray have among their most fervent acolytes. Then the author will be vilified for leading women to believe that there really is a Darcy out there for every woman (damn that Colin Firth!). I look forward to www.janeaustenliedtome.com and "The Official I Hate Jane Cookbook." The trouble with manias is that they are as shallow as they are wide. I mean, we cannot expect these women who daydream of gallant swains to actually continue reading, can we?