Letters to the Editor
sfrefugee
Published Letters: 14 Editor's Choice: 3
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Mics on players
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've been saying it for years-- they should put microphones on all the players. It's a crime that nobody ever got to hear Jordan talking shit (which he did masterfully)except for his opponents. Or what about the discourse between offensive and defensive lines before the snap, or as the players are helping each other up after the tackle? The only big-league sport that it wouldn't do much for is baseball, just because everyone's 30 feet apart-- although I imagine there's an interesting convo between batter and catcher (like in Bull Durham) here and there.
Of course, as you point out King, since these guys are probably dropping F-bombs left right and center, this may not play on ABC on Sunday afternoon but-- why not have alternate, pay-per-view broadcasts of the games, with the players mic'd? That would pretty much eliminate the kiddies from the audience. And it would open additional revenue streams for the networks without much additional effort.
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Vegans...
[Read the article: Bite me!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...are vegetarians, with all the good letters taken out.
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I don't like Bush either, but...
[Read the article: Mel on the cross]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...this is one thing you can't blame him for. It's really a stretch. Pretty crappy article. But this is where we're discussing this, so, a couple thoughts:
I understand they have audio tape of his little rant, but they don't want to release it, or the mugshot, or the video they shot when he arrived at the Tank. Don't all police cruisers have video cameras running at all times nowadays? I've watched enough "Cops" to wonder where THAT video is. I'd love to see it, purely as a social scientist, of course. The only thing more amusing than drunks on "Cops" is drunk celebrities on "Cops."
Does it even matter if "Hollywood" stops returning Gibson's calls? He financed "The Passion of the Christ" all by himself, which means he collected all its massive profits himself-- the dude has F-you money. It will be years before we see any meaningful effect on his career, if there is any, because with "The Passion" he turned himself into an island. He's answerable only to ticket buyers now, and although it seems like he went so far out there that he can never make it back, there have been too many recent "career-killing scandals" (Bill O'Reilly, Pat O'Brien, Kate Moss, etc.) that turned out to be literally meaningless for me to believe this guy will really be held accountable in the long run.
That is, unless they show the video on "Cops."
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Two stories
[Read the article: Getting beyond our airport security obsession]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Both of these incidents happened to me last year:
I flew from New York to Las Vegas last summer. I went through security at JFK, was flagged and searched (bag included) and was about to get on the plane. The airline ticket-taker asked if I had my sticker from my search. I didn't know what he was talking about so he held the plane while he walked me back to security, where I was searched again (bag included), given my sticker, and walked back to the plane with the attendant.
A few days later, I was at the Vegas airport for my return flight. I went through security, was once again flagged and searched (bag included) when to my surprise they found two razor sharp pocketknives 4" blades. They were my knives, I'd taken them camping in my bag a year before and had totally forgotten they were in there.
Second incident: My wife and I were flying from New York to Cincinnati and we were in the jetway when my wife pointed out that no one had IDed us at any point-- not at the X-ray machine, not at the ticket counter (we used the self-serve machines)-- nowhere. We made it from the jetway to our seats with the streak unbroken-- we were never asked for any ID.
These are not old stories, they happened last year, 4 years after 9/11. If this is all the airport security we can manage at the busiest airport in the US (in the most populous part of the US), it's not a question of 'if' but 'when.'
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A Mighty Wind
[Read the article: Toronto Film Festival]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is the Guest troupe's masterpiece? Isn't that the one with like 3 laughs in the whole movie? I don't see how anyone could rank that one above BEST IN SHOW or, the real masterpiece, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN. I guess we don't count THIS IS SPINAL TAP, as it was directed by Rob Reiner (but it seems to be the genesis of Guest's improvisational directing technique), but that one is better than any of them. Maybe A MIGHTY WIND had more "heart" or whatever but in my book a comedy that makes me laugh 85 times with no "heart" beats a comedy that makes me laugh twice and has "heart" every time. I was excited about FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION until I got to this detail in the review. Now I don't know what to think.
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I've never understood...
[Read the article: How Libby became Cheney's pawn]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...why, even if Mrs. Plame was directly responsible for sending Mr. Wilson to Africa, that it refutes Mr. Wilson's findings. If she worked for the CIA in nuclear nonproliferation, and he was a longtime ambassador to Africa, and the CIA is looking for someone to investigate this intelligence, isn't it natural that she recommend him to go on this little junket?
This has confused me from the beginning of this whole affair, and if anyone has any insight I would love to hear it. Apparently Cheney's office decided to impeach Wilson's findings by saying that the vice president's office didn't send Wilson to Africa, his wife sent him. What does it matter if Cheney sent him, Mrs. Plame sent him, or he went as part of the Amazing Race? As a longtime ambassador to Niger he was qualified to investigate the intelligence, and he did. Why does this whole thing turn on who sent him to Africa?
I don't get it.