Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 31 Editor's Choice: 2
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ouch
[Read the article: "Stay"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Jesus Christ, Andrew. Did your dog die this week or something? These movies can't possibly both be this bad.
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The Caterpillar Is So Great!
[Read the article: Condi's trail of lies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I hereby nominate Caterpillar Condi is the greatest Salon graphic of all time. Somebody make T-Shirts!
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Odd
[Read the article: Decoding Christmas dinner]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Funny that the subject of Christmas should get Garrison Keillor all down and nostalgic, without a nice thing to say about Christmas Present. Where's the salvation? Where's the beauty? What's the difference between talking cars and electronic gadgets? It's the same fiddle-with instinct that draws people to both things -- it's just that cars today are mostly diagnosed by computer so we don't fiddle with them so much anymore. Talk about fuddy duddy, man.
I usually love Garrison Keillor's writing, but today I'm with Matt Edwards (below).
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Frey is still way in the black
[Read the article: Oprah's revenge]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We can all agree that memoirs not only often do, but really necessarily must change some facts around to either protect people's identities or just keep some continuity. Frey's crime was repeatedly, publicly claiming that every iota of it was true. Asked about individual scenes/episodes, he consistently stood by his story -- that they actually really happened that way, not that they "essentially" (though not really) happened that way.
Oprah, like everybody else, was duped into thinking that this amount of assurance most likely meant that his memoir was true to life. And then Oprah made James Frey really rich. And, really, the least he could do is take it on the chin from the woman who bankrolled the rest of his life.
How on earth can anybody feel sorry for this weasel? I have to give some respect to anyone who can get clean from a real addiction, but isn't this memoir another symptom of what probably got him deep into drugs in the first place? It's the idea of getting something from nothing. He wrote what mature fiction readers would consider a shit novel, pretended his real self was the protagonist, and all of a sudden some pretty fantastic shit was real!!! And, it made him millions by duping real people with real problems into thinking that this guy actually shared something in common with them. The inspiration is fiction, not fact. The popularity of the book is based on selling inspiration, a real-life story of how to beat something awful. Not a comic book charicature of real events.
I don't begrudge Frey anything. I don't think he should have to give his money back. But for god's sake, what kind of a chump are you if you feel sorry for this guy?
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The Rainmaker
[Read the article: The Fix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Tom Cruise was AWESOME in the rainmaker. He was practically channeling Danny DeVito.
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Landis' mom
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think being a practicing mennonite, his mom may react to the media about his son's participation in a huge international sporting event in ways we can't exactly interpret from a more modern perspective. The story goes that Floyd sort of defied his family to participate in cycling, too. I think we need to just let Mrs. Landis' comments stand on their own and let the process do what it's going to do. I, for one, am hoping for a happy ending.
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McShane
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In that "conversations" piece with Ian McShane that you folks ran in your podcast, Ian McShane talks about Deadwood getting some 2-hour movies to help stich up the loose ends. Going forward more than a day at a time, enabling Milch to work some real magic. Quitcher cryin'.
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Everybody should move to Illinois
[Read the article: Labor support for young mothers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Like you needed another reason, after Obama and Durbin. Chicago / Illinois politics is thorny stuff, but Blagojevich and Daley generally do right by their constituents. Illinois is a progressive wonderland. Chicago's got it's problems like everywhere else, but good people are here trying to fix them. Seriously, move here. You won't regret it.
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unrequited love?
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why so bitter, sweet 16? Thou dost protest a tad too much, me thinks. Do you have a gambling problem, and you've hitched your wagon to King Kaufman? Go have some cookies and milk or something. Watch some cable TV. Maybe you need some smash mouth football of your own, get all that agression out.
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Doped out on Pot? Are you 80?
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just got finished reading that "Big Mike" article in the NYTimes magazine. Got a little teary eyed with it, only to be deluged with ratios.
Did Jayson Williams have a show on MTV? Does he even have a tatoo? We can't let Kaufman win this without a fight! I want a new statistic that correlates a player's screen time with neilsen ratings. Then maybe we'll have something.
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just an ass
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If bob knight slapped me in the face, we'd go at it until one of us was unconscious. That's not because I'm a lunatic, but because slapping someone in the face is at the very least a clear sign of disrespect and at most a challenge to violence. It's very simply unacceptable. Putting balls through hoops shouldn't go hand in hand with endurance of physical violence from anyone sitting on the sidelines.
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clarification
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I meant if Knight slapped/punched me now, at age 30. I remember fearing my coaches, most notably my high school football coach. Even though I was bigger, stronger and faster than he was.