I've never once bought a dog or a cat. All my pets are either rescued from the shelter or the street. I have very close relationships with them. The woman who says she doesn't believe she could be close to a rescued dog is exposing the pathology in herself, not an inherent flaw in the dogs at the pound. Her attitude helps condemn millions of perfectly sound dogs every year and costs municipalities and volunteer groups millions of dollars controlling the pet population and tracking down unscrupulous breeders. Her fantasy of perfect dog-companion love, which is responsible for our pet overpopulation nightmare, is appallingly obtuse and selfish.

Yes. Yes you are a crumb if you buy a cat or dog. You're supporting a massively wasteful and cruel business. There are probably more rotten things to do in this life; you would find that I do some of them. Nevertheless: Yes. If you buy a cat or a dog from a breeder or a pet store, or if you breed your pet, you are part of the problem.

I agree with gbarton: somebody needs to put the guy in jail and out of business, or at least file with the BBB and the attorney general's office. You could consider it a church project. Forgive him; write off the $50; be an example to him of kindness; but save somebody else from him. Take the Sunday school class on a field trip to picket his shop.

I'm glad I didn't have kids.

reading the first paragraph, I thought she'd worn a bustier! What a ridiculous argument.

The nuclear button worked for Johnson.

I second you, Oedipus. We've got a few disparate groups who understand how screwed we are until we fix the elections problem. They're fighting the good fight, but they don't have the $$$ or the manpower to succeed. Not this time. And the longer we let it go, the more entrenched it becomes. All this blather about polls and who said what and who served and who didn't. Luxury gossip.

Diebold.

It would have been a much better movie if the garden had been the metaphor for Jackson's character's depression instead of the music. Can we have a break from movies where the main character is redeemed by performing? A lot of gardeners in the world could have related. I was mapping my route from the theater to the record store to buy the sound track until they shoved it down my throat.

Otherwise, a sweet love story. I can always go for one of those.

except the letter writer is going through a rough time and needs her friend. It's time her friend sucked it up some and made herself available for the hepatitis ordeal. The letter writer will resent her if she doesn't, and they'll never be as close as they were. And focussing on somebody else's problem would be good grief therapy.

Yes. I saw it.

I liked it. I think Adam Sandler is charming on screen, even in a dirty Bob Dylan wig and a designer man-purse (it hurts to say that about a republican). It wasn't a great movie, but I thought the end was interesting; you know, the unburdening of the soul is not everybody's way out of grief. Kind of refreshing in the Oprah era.

To all those who intend to boycott Tenet's $4 million rationalization of why he didn't do his job and how he can't be held responsible for the millions of lives and trillions of dollars wasted in our war, may I say that if you make the wait list at your library longer by reserving a copy, the library will order more.

you don't have to vote but you have to respond by mail or in person; make opting out take effort. We require ourselves to pay taxes and obey laws; we should require ourselves to vote. It would change everything.

with bringing your own bags is that they're not a standard size. The problem with buying standard-sized bags, those nice big green ones at Whole Foods, say, is that they're $16 a pop. The convenience of the plastic and the paper is that they fit the holders at the check out and they fit in your cart. When they make a bag like that for a couple of bucks, and it's useful for picnics and hauling stuff to work and storing your Christmas decorations, too, and then they charge you for a bag at the store when you forget your own, that's when the pernicious plastic will disappear.

Jemaine Clement in Flight of the Conchords. No "r".

--Mel

The current crop of Dems is only marginally less rabidly capitalist than the thugs. So as long as we consider candidates who are truly saying something different, like Kucinich, to be a bit goofy, we'll never pull ourselves out of this mess.

among us, gregrocker, the Bush administration, look fit to me, with an exception or two. I know of no study linking fatness and amorality, and I'm pretty sure those aren't towels Iraqis wear on their heads, either. If your distastefully made point is, however, that we're all culpable, you're right.

is a horrible housekeeper. Her kids were always dirty, the house was always dirty, she never worried about it. Her kids are now healthy adults; no asthma, no allergies. I know other families who scrubbed and bleached and laundered, and who visit the allergy doctor regularly.

I gotta tell one more: I was at a picnic fixing a brisket and this dimwit with a bottle of disinfectant kept spritzing the sink every where cow juice touched it--while I was cooking! The bacteria on the meat bothered her, but not the bleach. Brilliant.

that the letters the editor picks aren't anywhere near being the best ones?