Letters to the Editor
stefan nonsense
Published Letters: 75 Editor's Choice: 1
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Dear Mr. bebop-o, sir or madam as the case may be:
[Read the article: Being a rebel is so 19th century]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was going to tell you that the last batch of WEEDWEEDWEED or METHMETHMETH you got is BADBADBAD, bro', but then I got into your head/rhythm/message/all three and LOVEDLOVEDLOVED your comments! (For the first time, I might add.) You made me laugh today instead of cringe.
Keep it up, but strive for clarity. Some weeks you're the best thing on Salon.
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P.S.
[Read the article: Being a rebel is so 19th century]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...except for the parts that made me want to weep.
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Sorry, three's my limit...
[Read the article: Being a rebel is so 19th century]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A few random thoughts:
When all the world is advocating A, I usually consider the merits of B.
Before you jump on the train, you should find out where it's going.
After a hard day of BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM, a couple of boinks in the night can really relieve the stress.
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memo to amerigo: open a history book occasionally
[Read the article: God save the queen!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, Jamestown was indeed named for James I of England (called James VI in Scotland) of the House of Stuart. And Virginia was named for Elizabeth I of the House of Tudor, which was an amalgamation of the Houses of York and Lancaster. The current Queen Elizabeth II hails from the house of Hanover/Saxe-Coburg-Gotha/Windsor/Windsor-Mountbatten that started with George I almost three hundred years ago. He came from Germany and couldn't even speak English; he was imported following the demise of "William and Mary"'s childless daughter, Queen Anne of the House of something-or-other.
My point is: The current monarch ain't related to any of them others. They are her predecessors, not her ancestors.
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a note to susan wood (and a heads up to amerigo)...
[Read the article: God save the queen!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I went and looked it up on Wikipedia (not my favorite reference manual but handy to use). You were partly right and partly wrong, and so was I. Mary and Anne were indeed sisters. Mary married William of Orange (House of Orange, same as the current Dutch monarchy?) who not only was a nephew of James II or Charles II, I forget which, but also his son-in-law. William and Mary died childless and sister Anne took over. She was officially the last of the Stuarts and died in 1714. But she was NOT the wife of George I. His wife, Sophia, had already been imprisoned for adultery in Germany by the time George arrived in England in 1714 with his two mistresses to succeed Anne. Seems he was distantly related to the Stuarts (by dynastic marriage, whatever that is), who go all the way back to James I (remember Jamestown?). But even though there were fifty relatives closer in the blood line, Parliament chose him. So Elizabeth II IS related to the Stuarts as an umpteenth cousin, 23 times removed or something (that wasn't in Wikipedia, I made it up). I stand corrected.
This may be boring to some, but it's more fun and more edifying than some of the other comments in this thread.
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People are funny (funny peculiar, not funny ha ha)...
[Read the article: My husband has Chinese ancestry but his son wants to keep it secret]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The LW should probably mind her own business and not stick her nose where it doesn't belong. But if she has a burr under her saddle for whatever reason, she's not likely to listen to Cary or anybody else.
I found out accidentally when I was around twelve, by overhearing a whispered argument between my parents, that my "father" was not my biological father even though his name was on my birth certificate. That bit of knowledge, added to the shabby way he treated my mother and me, caused a certain amount of inner conflict that is still with me to this day. My mother died when I was sixteen without ever having told me, but left a small snapshot of my bio father in her jewelry box. She had written his name on the back of the photo and it is one of the few examples of her handwriting that I possess. My father began to try to tell me soon after her funeral (way too soon after) and was pretty shocked himself that I had known for four years. When I was in college my mother's older sister in another state verified my bio father's name to me after I wrote asking her to fill in some of the missing info. Mama died at age 47 of cancer. My non-bio father married again within a few months and died of cancer nine years later at the age of 60, when I was 25. For nearly 40 years, until her death, my stepmother continued to introduce me as her adopted son for almost 40 years, managing to convey more misinformation to one and all. For years I wondered if I would live past 47.
Years go by. I live past 47. The Internet is invented by Al Gore. I do a search of the Social Security Death Index and discover that my bio father died in 1977 at the age of 67 in a small town in New Jersey. This causes another inner alarm as I am now 66.
A couple of years ago I did another kind of search and discovered that a woman with the same last name as my bio father still lives in that very town. I have never contacted her, although she may be my half-sister or my half-brother's widow or maybe even another aged stepmother. Medical knowledge would be nice to have, but I have decided to let sleeping dogs lie. I don't want to upset that person's life in any manner. Although my wife has known my story from before we were married, I never told our children (aged 37, 39, and 41) until about a year ago.
My point: There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them. There are too many voyeuristic readers and too many people who think they have all the answers. Take the log out of your own eye before you point out the speck of sawdust in the other guy's eye.
Thank you, and good night.