Letters to the Editor
J T
Published Letters: 295 Editor's Choice: 26
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Big deal
[Read the article: Calculating the damage done by Crisp & Cole]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I noticed some letter writers were trying to calculate actual damages; one found not much to worry about.
As one who started figuring actual damages, I was just working through the one example that was provided, to get an idea of where the money was coming from. Hopefully I wasn't the one that gave the impression that there was not much to worry about. In cases like this, there is obviously someone doing something illegal/unethical which should be investigated and corrected.
Believe me, I know what having foreclosed properties sitting around the area does to values for everyone. And this is in a rapid growth area.
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Gibbs' double timeout
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've been waiting all season for the gambit of the coach calling a timeout right before the snap of a last second field goal to backfire on the coach that called the timeout, however Gibbs surprised me in how he made it backfire. I had figured it would've been the obvious way, where a coach calls the timeout but the kicker goes ahead and kicks but misses the field goal. The timeout then gives the kicker another chance, and he makes it. I've been waiting for that to happen ever since the first time this particular strategy came up this season. (The Ravens came close to meeting that criteria, though no kick was involved.) It takes some genius to come up with a novel way like that to loose a ballgame.
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@bradpitt
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Picks are straight up winners/losers, not with a spread.
The teams the 4-year-old and 2-year-old pick are straight up winners as well, but they will automatically pick the favorites if the spread is high enough. I think this was because the first year King did his coin flip picks for Buster, he really didn't do to well, so this was a way to make the kids more competitive vs the analysts picking the games. That, and it's less coin flips for his poor thumb.
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Snow in DC
[Read the article: "Come here, Barney. Yeah, you come here"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It was insipid, didn't even go into the Jr Ranger program, and didn't mention that the White House is the only National Park an ordinary citizen can't enter easily, and it barely showed the decorations that it's supposedly showing off.
However, since it did snow an inch or so in the Washington DC area last week (Wednesday, Dec 5th,I think), the shots out in the snow were probably filmed then.
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trends in food gadgets
[Read the article: Kitchen gadgets: The "Egg McMuffin" machine]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm sensing a trend in these food gadgets. Both this and the previously reviewed herb garden promise (maybe not explicitly) "food grown/prepared at home with little or no work on your part". We seem, as a society, to have a growing disconnect to learning how to and taking the time to prepare food ourselves.
I understand that not everyone has room for an herb garden, nor time to learn how to poach or steam an egg, but no one is even trying anymore. Instead we just run out to some store and buy some gadget and hope it works.
Take some time and try growing your own herbs, if you've got the option. Try learning how to poach an egg. If you don't know how, find someone in your family or neighborhood that does and ask them to teach you. Have some connection to your food and other people. If that fails, then by all means, go ahead and buy the gadget.
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agree on the price comments
[Read the article: Kitchen gadgets: You don't really need a brownie edge pan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You said that a $34 brownie pan wouldn't "break the bank" yet compared it to a $5 model that you found in a grocery store and found it produced very similar results. Heck, a quick search turns up name brand (Calphalon) standard pans for $15, less than half this gimmicky pan.
If they're selling out of these things, someone is making a bundle on some stamped metal and some forms. I think you need a different definition of breaking the bank.
Somewhere along the line, someone decided that we need gimmicks in our gadgets, forgetting that the best gadgets are those that are simple, versatile, and reliable. Find some of those to review.
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remote chances, but better than none
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm sure the odds of my successfully landing an airliner are exceedingly small, just like the odds of me successfully docking an ocean liner or yacht. Heck, I'm not sure I could back a semi-trailer up to a loading dock or navigate a forklift around a warehouse with much success (watch a good forklift driver sometime, it's pretty cool what they can do). To do any of those things well and reliably take training in a controlled environment, done by a competent instructor.
Heck, the few times I messed with a flight simulator I had trouble finding the airport. Sure, I could fly over the thing, but to get lined up with the runway while descending at the right rate and decelerating all at the same time were too much for me to figure out in a few goes. In the exceedingly unlikely event that I was thrust into the position of having to land a Boeing 737, I wonder if my best bet would be to find a large body of water and try to "land" in that.
All that said, would it be better to take those long odds of an untrained person trying to land the plane, or just wait for the thing to crash?
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unfunny jokes
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That's very commendable, not using the 3 "Big Tuna/Dolphins" jokes. A lesser columnist would've said, "Heck with it." and just gone and thrown them in. Thank you from sparing us from your unfunny jokes!