Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 42 Editor's Choice: 10
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Think of it as camping
[Read the article: What will you do while Table Talk is down?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Look what we can do now! Okay, it's not TT, but it's a little home away from home for a few hours.
My is paltry and out of date. But for fun, I will upload later a pic or two from my eighties era. Suffice to say: I think Tammy Faye would have told me to tone down the makeup.
If you can't have TT, at least mock my Human League phase.
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Meant to say
[Read the article: What will you do while Table Talk is down?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My FLICKR PAGE etc etc. Note to self: use that preview feature.
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I don't know Bob
[Read the article: You don't know Jack?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you, Bob Perry, for giving clarification regarding the genesis of Jack. And forgive my geographic faux pas (I should have guessed Jack was originally a New Yorker. It explains the personality.).
Even though I'll never understand what's up with all the Hootie on the playlist, I remain hopelessly devoted.
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More on the subject in Table Talk
[Read the article: Was the 2004 election stolen? No.]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For those of you who've been reading the stories and following the letters, you may also be interested in the discussion we've been having over in Salon's reader community Table Talk (http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx?13@@.773bc04f) about the Kennedy/Manjoo articles, and our own experiences in the 2004 election.
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Snakes in TT too
[Read the article: "Snakes on a Plane"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Because "Snakes" would not be nearly as much fun without the Net, I want to chime in and post a pointer to the discussion of said slithery opus in Salon's Table Talk:
http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx?13@@.773bb0b7
The movie looks ridiculous. I have to go.
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What would E.L. Konigsburg say?
[Read the article: Really bad trip ... to a museum]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The punishment of a teacher for showing children art would be head shakingly laughable if it weren't so completely sad.
My older daughter is currently deep in the throes of reading "From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler," one of the greatest children's books ever written. It features a boy and girl of roughly the age of Ms. McGee's students, who run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and encounter all manner of (and one very special) works of great art, some of which are patently in "the altogether."
I hope wherever Ms McGee lands next, she continues to bring her kids to the beauty and adventure of art. And I'm sure Claudia and Jamie would approve.
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A few more words thoughts on the Ray story
[Read the article: Who are you calling "dinner hooker"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I just want to throw in that I've read all the letters, both here and with the article, and I'm so glad we have this feature now and so gratified when people care enough about a subject to take the time to express their opinions about it.
Whether anyone thinks the metaphor is apt or not, I'll testify that I never simply set out to say something controversial and then built a story around it. My instincts don't work that way, and I've always bristled at other publications when editors have tried to move my stories in a more deliberately button-pushing direction. This was always just about the way I see Ray, about the peculiar way she seems to combine the soulless with the satisfying, and about the larger Food TV "food porn" juggernaut. Which, perhaps unsurprisingly, reminded me of other kinds of transactions.
Incidentally, if you're a glutton (note the food metaphor, now in reverse!) for more of my incidental thoughts on sex for sale, you can read the essay I wrote for Salon a few years back Manet's Olympia:
http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/masterpiece/2002/05/13/olympia/index.html
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Dinner gigilo?
[Read the article: Who are you calling "dinner hooker"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think the term I'd have used would be "dinner stud".
And I do think that where there's an intersection of commerce, hunger, and pleasure, you're getting into territory where, at least for me, certain comparisons are apt. We are a culture of gratification, and I freely admit that I struggle with my own place in it and relationship to it. But is owning up to it automatically misogynistic? Is an abstract metaphor tantamount to a literal experience? Jeez, I hope not.
We live in a country where a lot of people would rather watch someone cook on TV than do it themselves, and that is what strikes me as saddest of all here. Because I do believe food should be deeply satisfying, that cooking is sexy, that is infinitely more enjoyable to do than merely watch, and that sometimes, quick and dirty are justified.
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Sweet and sour
[Read the article: The cherry on top]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you for the compulsively readable story. I'm a raging omnivore who's happily sampled fried insects, pork blood, and canned cream of mushroom soup casseroles. There's only one thing I vehemently refuse to touch -- maraschino cherries.
Is it a taste thing? A wistful pity for the lovely dark fruit that's been gruesomely maimed? The unshakeable memory of too many tense childhood family gatherings punctuated with Shirley Temples? I have no idea. But ice cream sundaes and alcoholic beverages remain two of my favorite things in the world, and I die a little inside when I see one marred by one of those little red devils.
Maybe it's true what they say about knowing thy enemy, because as soon as I saw Sens' article, I had to read it. Wonderful. And I'll still send my drink back if it's been tainted by one of the buggers.