Letters to the Editor
scrynne
Published Letters: 33 Editor's Choice: 2
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move to Boston!
[Read the article: I'm a small-town girl dreaming of the big-city lights]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Boston is a great combination of small town/big city, and admin jobs are plentiful. LW may wish to peruse the Boston craigslist or contact one of the many placement agencies (the temp agencies also do direct hiring), and explain that she is interested in working for a university. Generally, Harvard pays the best and has the best work environment, and BU is the worst on both counts. Universities in the area offer free tuition to employees (you'll still have to pay taxes)-- I think it's 2 classes per semester. So move to Boston, join a wiffleball league, and start making friends. The rest of it will come in time.
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I don't think that means what you think it means
[Read the article: Embarrassment of riches]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't understand what had_enough is getting at. On the one hand, he purports to embrace Darwin's theory that species thrive when they learn to adapt to their surroundings, and on the other hand he states that "human beings [should]... try to buck their own evolutionary imperatives." These statements are clearly in contradiction. His premise that "poor people, fucked-up people, exploited people, are just part of the natural order of things" sounds much more like the Calvinist's "sovereign grace."
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a side note
[Read the article: Embarrassment of riches]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It probably goes without saying, but if anyone is looking for a good book on why groups of people -- rather than individuals (to whom I think Vollmann's book pertains -- this review kind of jumps around and never really gets into the point of the book), Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel is a great and informative read.
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what's the big deal?
[Read the article: Do I have to be a mommy to "opt out"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't see what the big deal is with someone moving to be closer to her family. Lots of people do that -- two of my coworkers in the past six months, as a matter of fact. I never made it farther than two hours away from mine, and part of the reason was my sister's kids. Of course, now they're in double digits and don't have as much use for old Auntie, but I still want to be near by to watch them turn into bratty, back-talking teens. They're my people. It's good to have people. As for the physical move, if LW feels she can be happy in the area in which her family lives, I say why the hell not? Pretty much every area has a nonprofit organization eager to underpay and abuse its employees for the benefit of the masses, so the career change won't be too traumatic. If it sucks, LW can always head for the mountains or some bubonic plague-riddled hellhole or whatever. It's not like she'll have to hitch a ride on a wagon or book passage on some leaky wooden boat if things don't work out. There are cars now, as well as planes.
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yuck
[Read the article: An international affair]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cian, you disagree with Christopher's assertion that it's better to go to the bathroom than soil oneself? Again, yuck.
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eugenics?
[Read the article: "Eugenics" or freedom of choice?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The term "eugenics" gets thrown around whenever there's a discussion of abortion or genetic manipulation. But eugenics is creepy and frightening because it's a breeding standard imposed by a ruling body on the populace. Choosing to terminate a pregnancy because you know you'll be unable to care for a severely handicapped child, or using (in the future) genetic manipulation to weed out inherited mental or physical diseases is a choice made by the parents of the child, and not a decision imposed on them by law. So I really don't see what the big deal is.
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idiot
[Read the article: "Eugenics" or freedom of choice?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Profoundly handicapped children
are an excellent reason for abortion. Darwin had it right. Survival of the fittest.
-- Ben Dover "
And you are an excellent reason for post-birth abortion. Trust me, dude, you've contributed far less to the continuance of the species than Stephen Hawking.
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(4)
[Read the article: "Eugenics" or freedom of choice?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Anonymous 7:26 and Ben Dover
Either you are (1) moles intending to hurt the pro-choice movement by playing the part of the worst caricatures the so-called pro-life movement could create or (2) asses trying to get a rise out of people for kicks like a couple of kids acting out for attention or (3) heartless creeps.
--Anonymous"
or (4) Josef Mengele, Jrs.?
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RealName
[Read the article: This is my brain on chemo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why are you so mean?
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RealName
[Read the article: This is my brain on chemo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I haven't noticed any snivelling in these letters, nor in the original article. I've just read those who struggled with -- or are currently struggling with -- cancer trying to understand its effects, and the aftermath of treatment. The common thread seems to be that cancer changes a person. Did it change you?
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crabs
[Read the article: For Harry Potter fans about to rock, we salute you]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think this sentence really summarizes the point of the article:
"Harry and the Potters have had such a galvanizing effect on their audiences that a huge proportion of the kids who've seen the DeGeorges rock a library have, in turn, started their very own bands. In time, its likely that hundreds of bands and musicians will rise in the Potters' wake."
At a time when the music industry is in meltdown, and just five or six years ago "rock" was supposed to be dead (again), you have a nationwide movement of kids who are not only picking up guitars and scribbling lyrics in notebooks, but mixing, producing, marketing, and selling their original music, as well as booking their own tours and helping other bands do the same. That is truly remarkable, and something we should all be very happy about this. Even all the crabs and cranks on here who poo-poo anything anyone does, because nobody should ever do anything ever.