Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 36 Editor's Choice: 7
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So, that what it is!
[Read the article: What's in a hat?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you, Mr. Hirsch, for explaining the meaning of the Borsalino. I was going to begin referring to Jack Abramoff as "Jackie the Hat" on my blog. Maybe I won't do that now. Regardless of my contempt for Mr. Abramoff, I will respect the religious symbolism of his hat.
It is a shame, though, that whatever respectability the man retains rests entirely with his headgear. All this personal and political destruction over something as fleeting as money - what a waste.
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13 Bucks a Month
[Read the article: Howard's world]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have been hearing a lot about the fact that listeners have to pay $13 a month now to hear Howard Stern. Bill O'Reilly wanted to know if he thought he was worth $13 a month. Larry King wanted to know. He insisted that he was, but he also made the point that it is not just Howard Stern to which the Sirius subscriber is subscribing. There are many, many other channels of content available from music to talk.
Sirius and XM have been building their customer bases slowly but surely for several years. On Sirius, Howard Stern could be seen as just a value-added product on a media outlet that has been gaining in popularity due to the sad state of terrestrial radio. Certainly, Howard is a huge draw. This is why Sirius was willing to pay him $100 million a year. But, if Howard Stern is all you care about, and you can't find anything else that interests you on satellite radio, then I think you need to expand your horizons.
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Alito's Faulty Memory
[Read the article: The gang that couldn't question straight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Judging by his exchanges with senate Democrats, Judge Alito has a memory like a sieve. That, or he expects us to accept the conventional wisdom that these hearings are nothing more than "theater" and that we should expect nothing more than rhetorical games from the nominee.
I don't know which of Alito's claims was more pathetic: that he has no memory of his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton, which he touted on a job application a mere 21 years ago; or that he cannot remember any specific feedback he received during his murder boards roughly 21 days ago.
The spectacle was an insult to the intelligence of of anyone who witnessed it. Only a fool would believe such nonsense. Only a Republican would pretend to believe it.
There are only two possibilities. The first is that Alito is suffering from a cognitive disorder so severe that he cannot be trusted to discharge the duties of a Supreme Court justice. The other is that the man is a liar and therefore cannot be trusted to discharge the duties of a Supreme Court justice.
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Not bad, just not particularly good
[Read the article: "Fidelity is a personality trait"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I disagree with the LWs who say this is horrible. It isn't horrible. It just does not merit such promotion on Salon.
It does not seem like a particularly original or insightful piece of writing. Even the premise does not quite work. The older man/younger woman scenario works if he is, say, 50 and she is in her twenties. But, this is no May/December romance, Ayelet. Her "older" lover is forty and she is thirty! Is that even considered an age difference nowadays? And, as a forty-year old man, I can tell you that the mid-life crisis scenario does not apply. A thirty-year old woman is not a forty-year old man's red Porche. His 5-series BMW, perhaps, but not a red Porche.
I don't know what the rest of the novel is like, but as far as plots go, adulterous affairs are pretty played out. This exerpt does not say anything that has not already been said, seen and done.
All that having been said, Ayelet, congratulations on finishing and publishing your novel. The stuff about her dad is good.
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Wink, Wink
[Read the article: Same old song]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Who did Bush keep winking at during the speech? I caught him doing it two or three times after the big applause lines when he must have figured the camera had panned over to his slobbering sycophants on the Republican side of the aisle.
He looked off to his right and winked with that little sneer of his. "Yeah, that was a good 'un."
I looked for Karl the Impaler but I didn't see him. The president was glancing toward where the Supreme Court justices were seated. Maybe he was winking at Alito. "You and me, bud. Got 'em where we want 'em."
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Neil Young still rocks!
[Read the article: "Neil Young: Heart of Gold"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I mean that literally and figuratively.
Neil has managed to avoid the fate of settling into the comfortable posture of an oldies act. Meanwhile, his sometime bandmates C, S and N haven't sung anything new in 30 years. Some of his new stuff has trouble finding traction with audiences, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. It is admirable that he continues to look for new ways to express himself musically.
Neil Young is one of rock's true innovators. I'm glad he is still out there doing his stuff. I cannot wait to see this film.
Thanks for the review, Steph!
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In other words...
[Read the article: I can't afford to attend my friends' destination wedding]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dang, Cary! That was one roundabout trip to logic.
The bottom line is that the LW can't afford a four-day weekend in Hawaii, so he/she cannot go. What percentage of the population can afford a weekend jaunt from (I presume) the mainland to The Islands? Five percent? Less? I can't figure out what the writer is agonizing about.
Only the most self-indulgent species of ass would put emotional pressure on people to go into debt to attend a wedding. You want to combine your wedding with your honeymoon? Knock yourselves out, but you have to understand that by doing so you are restricting the pool of potential guests.
I have a good friend who got married in the Bahamas. I live in Louisiana. I didn't even feel the need to try to explain why I couldn't be there. If she couldn't understand, then she didn't really love me in the first place.
You can't afford a trip to Hawaii, you don't take a trip to Hawaii. 'Nuff said.