Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 17 Editor's Choice: 3
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yawn
[Read the article: Will whites vote for Barack Obama? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can we retire this talking point, already? As a white, female voter who caucused for Obama, I have never had a single conversation with anyone -- Obama supporter or otherwise -- that involved his race, nor is it a factor that has ever entered my own decision-making.
The "issue" of Obama's race is merely a lazy, simplistic angle for journalists who'd rather write about something superficial and obvious than do any hard reporting on issues or voting records (and I'm a journalist, so I know whereof I speak).
Memo to pundits: The era of upper-crusty white male politicians is over, and has been for some time. Every last word you devote to questions of race or gender is a word diverted from issues of real substance.
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unhealthy preoccupation with weight
[Read the article: "Why do these men want to coach little girls?" ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At a weigh-in when I was a high school gymnast, my (female) coach arbitrarily told me to lose five pounds. I was/am 5'6" and weighed about 123 at the time.
Until that day I had given little if any thought to my weight, but suddenly food and eating became fraught with danger and guilt. It was the beginning of an eating disorder that I've struggled with on and off for 30 years.
To this day, I still hover around 123 (thanks to a lot of yoga and strenuous sports) but I still cannot eat a full meal without feeling, on some level, panicky and disgusted with myself. Such a boring thing to be wasting mental and emotional energy on in one's 40s!
Gymnastics was a wonderful experience for me in many ways, but it can really mess with your head. Bad enough that our culture prizes unnatural female thinness and beauty over achievement to begin with. Gymnasts learn that you can't have one without the other.
These days, I like my body most of the time, but I really wish I could be less aware of it. Maybe when I'm 80...
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Reading WAY too much into this.
[Read the article: Publishers think women are stupid?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]More likely, the covers were simply designed by people who saw another's cool idea and kinda-sorta copied it.
I doubt there's much sociological import here. I've been a media designer (newspaper division) and we looked to other people's work for inspiration all the time. Our motto was "Well, you can't copyright an idea."
Especially on deadline.
And anyway, the market (meaning publishers and/or readers) doesn't reward visual originality to the extent one might assume. Attention-getting impact is the point; ideas more esoteric than that are pretty much lost.
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Noise abatement
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for clarifying the "cutting engines after takeoff" myth. My mother told me that one about 30 years ago, and although I took it with a grain of salt, her description was vivid enough that forever after, every time the engines backed off after take-off I would start to wonder if we'd soon be sailing through the skies in bone-chilling silence.
As an aside, though, I can't help but assume such urban myths contribute to robust in-flight cocktail sales...
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@ xufapemu, 23 pages ago: EXACTLY.
[Read the article: Betrayed by Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]See Gail Collins' op-ed in the New York Times. She nailed it better than I could ever hope to.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/opinion/10collins.html
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finally
[Read the article: This Modern World]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Indeed. It's well past time to call a stupid a stupid. John McCain = the second coming of Archie Bunker. Only less funny.