Letters to the Editor
Axordil
Published Letters: 200 Editor's Choice: 17
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Depends on what the meaning of "bar" is...
[Read the article: Apple juice, straight up?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Got a menu beyond burgers and fried appetizers? Do more of your volume at tables than the bar? Then you're not a bar, you're a restaurant that serves drinks, and since you're not a fancy one, fair game for families with kids. Deal with it.
Real bars, on the other hand, of the neighborhood variety, should be inviting only in way a cave mouth is. If a stroller won't fit through the door, it's a sign.
Of course, parents who take kids anyplace without regard for fellow patrons deserve censure. Going out has to include being willing to take kids outside if they start crying or otherwise disruptive. That's just common sense, or it was once upon a time.
As an aside, taking kids to eateries where "they can be kids" confuses the activity of eating with the activity of playing, which is already a hard distinction to make for a three-year old. Better to go to a restaurant and THEN the playground. And cheaper, usually.
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Duh
[Read the article: "Goodnight Moon" -- now safer than ever]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The first thing that crossed my mind when I heard this (well, the second, after making the mental note not to hold a freebasing pipe in any future publicity pictures) was, don't they have another picture of the guy somewhere they can use?
Actually, it was the first thing that my wife said, too.
And my best friend.
The hypersensitivity doesn't bother me so much as the perceived need to apply a high-tech solution to a low-tech problem, sort of like the guy in the next cube who IMs instead of talking to you. But some things are actually still easier to do without the help of computers, so long as the one in one's head is still operating.
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What father wouldn't love his daughter to be on the honor roll, while his son is the star of the field?
[Read the article: A (really) few good men]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Me. I would be happy if either were either. But then, I read Salon, so I'm not exactly typical, I suppose. One suspects our demographics are not statistically neutral.
It seems to me, by the way, that the most meaningful statistic would be the number of both young men and young women who go to college as a percentage of those who (in theory) could. How have those numbers changed in the past generation? Are women just catching up to their proportion of the high-school graduate population, or is something else going on?
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Double standards and the WalMart effect
[Read the article: China's newest sweatshops]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What I find interesting is that in the context of MMPORGs, people routinely engage in behaviors they wouldn't in real life. No, I'm not talking about the slaying of ogres and dragons, but about the degree to which players are willing to carry their principles.
In World of Warcraft, the game with which I am most familiar, the gold farming system (as opposed to the character farming system) requires that large, fungible amounts of in-game gold be amassed before it can be sold (illegally) to lazy-ass players. Note the perjorative: virtually EVERYONE in an MMPORG disdains those who buy gold (not to mention characters). BUT! those large, fungible amounts of gold can really only be generated by acquiring items valuable within the game context and exchanging them for in-game gold (legally) to other players. The online Auction House mentioned in the NYT article is the main avenue for this...and people who would never associate with a player who bought gold from a Chinese/Korean/Eastern European gold farming sweatshop WILL generally buy goods from people they KNOW are engaging in the production end of things without a second thought (the behaviors of such folks are well-known and well-documented).
Because they are, in game currency, cheaper. Thus what I call the WalMart effect: people who would never support child labor or slave labor will avoid checking the label to see where something comes from if the price is right.
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What did they do before TVs were invented?
[Read the article: Educational baby videos: Smart or a scam?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It may not have been as common for an adult to have to deal with a child or children alone while needing to do something else in the age of extended families, but it happened. One suspects that younger kids were indeed plopped in the playpens or cribs to play if Mom really needed them out from underfoot, and slightly older kids were taught how to help with the chore at hand.
That's pretty much what we've done, at any rate, as our DVD-only TV is reserved for special occasions.
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Actually, o anonymous Caddy owner...
[Read the article: The war against Prius "smugmobiles"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A vintage 1968 car will emit more tailpipe emissions in the first two minutes of operation than a Prius will in an hour, especially if the Prius is in traffic and thus using its electric motor most of the time. They had nada for emissions control back then, not even recirculation of exhaust gasses, and a cold engine emits way, way more pollutants than a warm one.
If you want to be smug, I'm afraid you're going to have to walk or bicycle those three miles. Probably help your blood pressure, too. ;)
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The steam Caddy...I would pay to see that!
[Read the article: The war against Prius "smugmobiles"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I must admit I almost converted an old Mercedes convertible I owned to run on propane. Still fossil fuel, I know, but much cleaner and half the CO2 of gasoline...
Concerning large trucks and other burners of diesel fuel: as a friend of mine who has a diesel pickup notes, gas came back down, but diesel didn't, and not for the first time. Simple economics is going to force the change to an economy built around just-in-time supplies of things brought in via over-the-road trucking, not to mention oceanic shipping.
When shipping costs obliterate profits, that model falls apart.
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just so we're clear on life imitating art imitating life
[Read the article: Gynecologist from hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Dead Ringers" was loosely based on a true story of twin gynecologists from the Upper East Side, Steven and Cyril Marcus.
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Either way...
[Read the article: My wife-to-be attacks me with her fists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My personal experience suggests that any hope the couple may have of eventual success together depends on them first getting the open flame away from the gasoline, that is, not being in physical proximity to each other. Coincidentally, that's also their best chance for dealing with their individual issues. It will probably lead to a break-up, sure, but the current conditions make not only a break-up but worse complications inevitable.
So yeah, even if the LW really, really wants to salvage things, he still needs to get out.