Letters to the Editor
Yet another David
Published Letters: 89 Editor's Choice: 6
-
Chi chi
[Read the article: "Silver Palate," you seasoned my youth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Someone mentioned chi chi, and that sort of summed up my experience with these books. I grew up watching Julia Child and cooking from The Joy of Cooking, and on graduating from college I became a compulsive clipper of recipes from the New York Times. When I bought my first Silver Palate cookbook, what impressed me was not the insistence on "fresh fresh fresh" but that virtually every recipe seemed to call for one "stopper" ingredient -- perhaps an exotic marmelade you would never have lying around even in an imaginatively stocked kitchen and of which you needed only a teaspoon or two. (Maybe these ingredients were readily available in Rosso and Lukins's store, but that wasn't something I was going to give them extra points for.) Furthermore, I found that the dishes, for all their labor intensiveness, didn't wear very well. They were catered-reception food: a couple of bites might grab your attention, but you wouldn't want a main-course-sized serving. The drawings certainly were evocative, though.
-
Participate
[Read the article: Compromise or compromised?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have just called my Congressman and asked him vote against any watered-down position that gives Bush a blank check. I urge other readers to take similar action.
-
"McCain's Aide Knows Drug Paraphernelia. Does McCain?"
[Read the article: A three-way presidential candidate catfight]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What's a McCain aide doing talking about bongs? Where's the headline?
-
The apple and the tree
[Read the article: Will the real Hillary please stand up?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We got to see a fair amount of Bill and Hill -- albeit at arm's length -- during their time in the White House. We also got to see a lot of Chelsea, who by all appearances was (and is) a great kid. I always wonder why the Clintons don't get more credit for having turned out an upstanding, no-embarrassments, more-than-just-bright daughter. To me, Chelsea's life says they must have been pretty good parents, which is at odds with their popular depiction as the new Macbeths.
-
Gyms and quiet
[Read the article: Why do gyms play such crappy music?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I understand the music in most of the gym, but I truly don't get it in the area with the cardio machines. People doing aerobics on these machines are either watching and listening to whatever is on the individual video at each machine, or they're listening to their iPod/CD player, or, like me, THEY'RE TRYING TO READ!!!! The last thing any of these people needs is extraneous music. Why doesn't anybody in gym management seem to get that?
-
Speaking of theme songs
[Read the article: Other priorities]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Looks like Rudy's should be "Material Girl."
-
Define "singing career"
[Read the article: Midlife crisis: I could have been a singer!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A number of writers have addressed very well the issue that this letter is probably not really about singing. Cary's advice is usually right on the mark, but the specificity of the recommendations he gives this time implies all kinds of assumptions about what the writer means about a singing career.
The writer has given us nothing to indicate either (1) what kind of singing career she had in mind -- opera singer? paid choralist? cabaret singer? pop diva? folk singer? -- or (2) how far along the path to any of these careers she was before the marriage and the motherhood. It does make a difference. Some performing careers demand not only talent and commitment but also training and, unfair as it may seem, a young start (think ballet dancers and gymnasts).
As many have pointed out, there are lots of oppportunities to sing in an amateur capacity. But I don't think it's unreasonable to say that, at age 38 and starting from scratch, dreaming of a singing career is sort of like dreaming of a career in pro basketball.
-
And good for Elizabeth Edwards
[Read the article: Edwards vs. Coulter, Clinton vs. Edwards]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hooray for Elizabeth Edwards. As for the fundraising, what are you fishing for, rueful shakes of the head from all of us? That kind of no-brainer prediction just keeps it about the horse race, doesn't it?
-
Food block?
[Read the article: My big, nasty Panamanian bride's cake]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What is it about first-person food articles and Salon? So often, the authors seem to be chosen for either their admitted incompetence or the emotional baggage that prevents them from enjoying food. On the most basic level, how hard would it have been for the author to acquire a food processor and a large enough bowl to hold all the ingredients? (It's not that it would have been all that large a bowl, either, judging from the size of the three baking pans she says she used.)
Much as I love Alton Brown, his fruitcake is a highly idiosyncratic one, and its ingredients -- sundried blueberries and cranberries -- couldn't be more alien to the author's Panamanian heirloom recipe. Several previous letter writers have already given terrific advice on what would have been better choices.
-
Backups
[Read the article: Subpoenas and special prosecutors, oh my]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Has there been absolute confirmation that there is no backup server and that no copies of these emails existing ANYWHERE? Wiping them out takes a lot of work.
-
A surprising part of the problem
[Read the article: The burden of being John Edwards]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Edwards has the most fleshed-out program of health care, and he has signature issues like spectacularly increasing divide between the richest and the poorest. Salon is starting to look just like the MSM here -- as if the selection of a Democratic nominee were already a two-person race, with all the other potential candidates just a sideshow diversion. Disappointing and maddening.
-
Perino in over her head?
[Read the article: Is the White House supporting Hillary Clinton?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One thing you're undoubtedly right about, Joan, is Perino. She'd be out of her depth in teaspoon.
-
Dana not in over her head
[Read the article: P.S., Mr. President: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I tend to be hard on Dana Perino, but this kind of call actually does fit her skill level.
-
Unseemly
[Read the article: Clinton, Edwards and Rove's "fatal flaw"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Apparently, Edwards thinks he needs to raise money to stay alive and competitive in a primary process that the election-as-horse-race set is eager to narrow down to two "front runners" -- there's that horse racing terminology again. Possibly even more unseemly than answering his own questions about unseemliness: why are we paying Salon to read Tim Grieve playing into the destructive racing mindset?