Letters to the Editor
oxymoron
Published Letters: 320 Editor's Choice: 32
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Fetish or preference?
[Read the article: Big love]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yeesh, don't you people have jobs? And what's with all the vitriol? If you don't want to date a fat person, DON'T. Other people's preferences in this regard certainly don't hurt you.
On one level, I found the article quite charming, and enjoyed thinking about there being someone out there for everyone. On the other hand, I wonder what Josh would do if his wife suddenly (or not so suddenly) lost a lot of weight?
I lost about 60 pounds 6 years ago (over the course of a year) as a result of starting on an asthma medicine that torpedoed my appetite. I went from a size 16-18 down to a low of a size 6-8. I gained a little of the weight back--I needed to, I hadn't been getting enough nutrition--and have now stabilized at a size 10. Anyway, my point is that I was delighted with the weight loss. I combined it with exercise, and improved my eating habits, and hope never to weigh that much again (as an aside, my high blood pressure disappeared also). But the initial start of the weight loss was the medication--I wasn't really trying to lose weight. So, all you admirers of BBW out there--if you met and married the BBW of your dreams, if she suddenly CEASED to be a BBW, would you still want her or not?
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Wow
[Read the article: Baby Got Book]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know what to say...
Except does ANYONE except the hopelessly unhip do that valley girl thing anymore?
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GK has a baaaad case of nostalgie de la boue.
[Read the article: Hoe, hoe, hoe]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The paean to "hard work" reminds me of "Babbitt"--the scene in which Babbitt goes upstate on a fishing trip, and is awed by the "he-man" guides. He romanticizes the life of the guides, and finally asks the guide, "Joe" what he would do if he came in to some money--I'm paraphrasing, but he says something like "would you get a little claim off by yourself in the woods?" And Joe said--in the first flash of enthusiasm he had shown all weekend--that he would (paraphrasing again) "buy a swell little shoe store".
The only people nostalgic for hard physical labor are people who don't HAVE to do it.
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Stop equating tornados with hurricanes
[Read the article: Flooded and forgotten]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That's funny -- I don't remember anyone saying that sort of thing to Californians who want to continue living near all those fault lines. Or to Midwesterners who want to keep on living in Tornado Alley. Or, for that matter, to Floridians who want to keep on living in the path of the same hurricanes that plagued Loisiana. I wonder what the difference is...
One difference is that tornados do not tend to do the kind of damage that hurricanes do, and the damage tends to be very localized--a few ripped-up trees, perhaps some killed livestock. Yes, there have been (and no doubt will be more) whole towns destroyed by tornados--but as a general rule, they just do not do the kind of damage that a hurricane does. I lived in "tornado alley" for most of my life, and in 40 years never saw one, nor did a tornado affect anyone I know--I doubt that anyone my age who lived in Florida or Louisiana during the same timespan could say that about a hurricane, even before Katrina. OTOH, when the Mississippi river flooded a few years ago, there was much discussion in Illinois about whether people should be allowed to live in its flood plain, and whether those already there should be allowed to rebuild. And if they WERE allowed to rebuild, whether insurance companies should be required to insure them.
So there is an acknowledged difference between living in a flood plain, and living in the "path" (as if a tornado's path is predictable) of tornados.
1. Live in a flood plain? Flooding is guaranteed at some point. I's just a matter of how bad it's going to be.
2. Live on a fault line? An earthquake is guaranteed at some point. It's just a matter of how bad it's going to be.
3. Live in "tornado alley"? You're going to be dealing with tornado warnings a few times a year. But you may never even see a tornado, much less have it cause any damage to you, your loved ones, or your belongings.