Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 9 Editor's Choice: 2
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Is O'Reilly running out of topics?
[Read the article: How the secular humanist grinch didn't steal Christmas]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can't a bunch of professional pranksters follow O'Reilly about for a while and make sure that everybody he runs into wishes him Happy Holidays? Or better yet daily Kwanzaa greetings? Then we could watch his head explode in public...
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It's for some sort of salaryman energy drink, I believe
[Read the article: They just don't click]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Could be wrong...
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Perpetuating another myth
[Read the article: "Flags of Our Fathers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In the middle of a perfectly fine review, Stephanie Zacharek writes this: "We all know about the ugly, unwelcoming America Vietnam vets returned to."
May I direct Ms. Zacharek to the excellent documentary by David Zeiger, "Sir! No Sir!" about the protests within the U.S. military about Vietnam while the war went on, even before civilians were protesting. It's an eye-opening film, especially when it explores the idea of the "spat-upon returning vet" and finds not one real-life example (but plenty of media-created ones). It's a subtle tactic worthy of Rove, as it was perpetuated by the Right and Left alike.
After watching the documentary I can no longer read this phrase and let it go. I feel that the Right's been controlling the message way before Reagan.
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Ghastly
[Read the article: "This Just In"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rink-a-dink CG that makes Unreal Tournament look like Oscar worthy material. Even if the jokes were good, you can't sell them with these moving corpses.
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Winslet's first show
[Read the article: "Before they were nominees"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A little imdb.com research would have told you Kate's appearance is from a TV serial called "Dark Season," a children's sci-fi adventure, written by Russell T. Davies (Queer as Folk, Doctor Who). Not too shabby and certainly a site better than Battlefield Earth.
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Is this all that's left of our culture?
[Read the article: Hit her, baby, one more time]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rebecca Traister in right in pointing out MTV's complicity in this spectacle. It was obvious Spears was not ready (and may never be) for that performance, and either fear or greed or sniggering desire let her carry on.
But her trajectory is not just the flipside of her youthful sexiness, it's a narrative of what we want to see or suspect happens to the young high school nymphette that was her first incarnation. Isn't that how it goes? The most popular, most sexually available girl in high school goes down in flames? Married, knocked up, divorced, and then discovered somewhere in a strip club at 25?
Madonna never set herself up in this way, which is maybe why she was able to avoid such a trajectory--her persona was "hot club girl from the village" already in touch with her sexuality, and it mutated from there. Other singers once considered her rivals (Christina Aguilera for one) avoided this trap by zigzagging through many personas.
So why Britney, and why is it all so pleasing? And, as Traister points out, why did she go along with it all? Maybe it's the role she always wanted to play.
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Double Standards
[Read the article: Ahmadinejad, big man on campus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I agree with Cahcap on this one. On the flipside, it wouldn't be right for President Bush to be invited to give a speech and then be derided by the host. That's just courtesy.
I wonder if the various students realized that they probably had more of a chance to ask Ahmedinejad a pointed question than if they had decided to ask our own dear leader one? They probably would have never made it through the screening process of Bush's bubble. And if they did, bodyguards would have thrown them out, perhaps. Were protestors allowed closer to the Iranian leader's speech location, or were they shunted off to a "free speech zone" like during the GOP convention?
So, when does Bush do his college tour of the Middle East?
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This also says a lot about how H'wood thinks of fans of the book
[Read the article: "Jumper"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can't say I was a big fan of "Jumper," but seeings I read it in my 30s, I may not be the target audience. However, the Steven Gould book took an intelligent look at a cool superpower that comes at a moment of crisis (the hero's abusive father about to beat on him yet again). The book becomes a meditation on father figures and though the hero does fund himself through the bank, he has to deal with the guilt.
The film sounds dreadful, with the hero a self-funded trustfund baby and your typical villain plot. Though Gould's hero is a bit more weepy and sensitive, he sounds much more down to earth than this concoction.
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I dunno, bring back watercolors?
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The only thing that bugs me about these new Opus cartoons is the computer coloring (I won't even mention the photoshoppery of the last panel). I'm sure it's easier, but I don't think it's on the level of the inkwork. (Does Breathed do the coloring?)
Sorry to moan, because I love that Opus is back.