Letters to the Editor
hermesloin
Published Letters: 49 Editor's Choice: 17
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Veronica is from Mars, Buffy is from Venus
[Read the article: Big shows on campus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]An article about my two favorite TV shows (Buffy and Veronica, NOT the OC) written by my favorite film critic.. this is why I love salon! As someone who watched the first three seasons of Buffy in real time (not DVD marathons after the fact), I was in the unique position of being the same age as Buffy. She was a sophomore when I was a sophomore. We both got the same score on our SAT's (1430 out of 1600) and we both got into Northwestern. I literally grew up with Buffy and it will forever hold a very special place in my heart. Regrettably I stopped watching the show after season 3 when the characters graduated from high school. I, unlike Buffy, actually went on to attend Northwestern and got crappy reception for the WB in my dorm room, and I basically stopped watching TV altogether as my new college life began. (I also feared that the show would follow 90210 off the cliff when the "college years" began.) I stopped following Buffy and never really knew what happened to her. Then a year ago I started a new job with an amazing boss who was a total Buffy fan. She owned all 7 seasons of Buffy on DVD and loaned them to me. I quickly became an insomniac as I watched all seven seasons in the course of 2 months. I was delighted to find that season 4 (Buffy's freshman year at college) was just as solid as the preceding 3 seasons. Seasons 5, 6 and 7 only got better. Season 7 was a tour de force that completely rocked my world. So when I heard there was a new show on the air about a high school girl who solved mysteries, I knew that the next generation of Buffy had arrived. The similarities between Buffy and Veronica are strong. Heck, Veronica Mars had Willow (Allyson Hannigan), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) and Joss Whedon as guest stars! Hannigan and Carpenter even had a scene together in season 2 - which was completely surreal to watch as a Buffy fan. I'm greatful that Buffy lasted for 7 seasons and I only hope that Veronica Mars will get the same chance. If not for 7 years, then at least long enough for Veronica to catch the proverbial pigskin Buffy got to catch in the final episode of season 7.
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Courtney Love as Kevin Federline?
[Read the article: The people vs. Courtney Love]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Courtney is way better than Kevin Federline, light years. But was "live through this" that amazing? Doll parts as metaphor for body image insecurity? That's cutting edge? I took a course in college about women in pop music, and about 1/3 of it was devoted to Love. What I learned about her childhood was extremely disturbing. It's amazing this woman is still breathing, much less that she became a rich and famous singer/actress, model/waitress, oh just go nameless (sorry! couldn't resist). Anyway, to the LW who called Madonna a "yogafatty," i might remind you that Courtney also did yoga and got colonics and went to the Ashram (after it was cool) and the only one who got fat was Courtney. She's lost the weight and looks great now, but let's not pretend that it's Madonna who's lost her edge. It's one thing to be self destructive, it's another to show up on stage to a paying audience and throw a microphone stand at some innocent guy in the front row b/c you can't remember the lyrics to your own songs.
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Why can't we eat meat raw?
[Read the article: Diary of a turkey killer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This article is timely for me because I've embarked on a six-week self-imposed strict vegan diet to get me through the holidays without gainging weight from all those saturated animal fats and creamy desserts. I'm normally an omnivore, but for the time being, I'm eating a vegan diet (which is not the same thing as being a vegan, I know). I've read a lot about vegan diets and how eating animals and their byproducts negatively impacts the environment, economy and your health. What I do know is that since I began eating vegan earlier this month, I've slept better and felt better than I normally do. I'm also spending less money on food so it's also a nice little financial diet as well.
The one question about meat-eating that neither I, nor anyone else I've encountered, has been able to answer is this: If humans are supposed to eat meat (and if it's so natural) why do we have to cook meat to eat it? Why can't we eat it raw? This question has nothing to do with morality, it has to do with mechanics. And I eat cooked meat, so I'm not denouncing it. Why don't we have the claws, talons and jaws that allow us to rip raw meat off of a carcus and swallow it whole? We're not designed like carnivores. So while it's "natural" for animals to eat other animals, it's not natural for ALL animals to eat other animals. Some animals were designed to be vegetarians. Our closest related animal to humans is the chimpanzee (99% of our DNA matches theirs). And chimps are vegetarians (with a few rare exceptions... i.e. eating bugs).
If you put a rabbit in front of a young lion, the lion would instinctively attack it and eat it. If you put a rabbit in front of a young human, the human would most likely pet it or ignore it. And if the human did attack it and eat it, the human would suffer some serious digestive consequences if it didn't properly prepare and cook the rabbit first. We eat meat because we have the technology to do so, but it's not necesarrily in our nature.