Letters to the Editor
srutherford
Published Letters: 38 Editor's Choice: 4
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Absurdity
[Read the article: Big breasts for dummies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This increasing obsession with massively artificial breasts baffles. They are definitely not sexy, except to perhaps shallow men with mother complexes. Aesthetically the large artificial breast is misguided. And they signpost a misguided enhancement of one's self-esteem. Finally, smaller (and natural) breasts are more responsive to the caress, and who does not appreciate this? Is there anything less sexy than knowing you are caressing a plastic bag of artificial fluid?
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Cary makes a booboo. Shame.
[Read the article: Should I give my boyfriend the key to my apartment?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]'Or is there a neighbor you could call who could let him into your apartment on certain occasions?'
This is the WORST suggestion. Add insult to perceived injury by letting the boyfriend know a neighbour can have a key, someone with little or no emotional attachment to the letter writer, whilst he cannot. And imagine if the neighbour were... A guy. Food for paranoia indeed.
The rest of the advice was perfect, and for this Cary gets 7 out of 10 from me.
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Are bloggers even relevant?
[Read the article: Fighting words]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Perhaps it is because I live in Rumsfield's Old Cynical Europe that I wonder if this is just a lot of intense navel-gazing of zero relevance.
From over here in Paris (god, it's a beautiful city and I pat myself on the back nearly daily for being here), not only does the Beltway Culture seem irrelevant and generally incestuous, but too the Blogger Culture, or Blog Fest, or Bloggosphere, or whatever it's being called this week.
Are bloggers even relevant? Of course there is some exceptional analysis and commentary in the blogs. But whilst sunning myself in a Left Bank café connected to wifi, it seems to me that, more often than not, political bloggers create copy by feeding off of each other. My French friend, a filmmaker, calls the blog culture an intellectual circle jerk of narcissistic import. I'm inclined to agree, but maybe we're wrong.
So I am curious: Do bloggers really have influence in American politics beyond their own online culture and the Beltway? From over here political blogging really seems at times another breathlessly American phenomenon that is ephemeral and focused only on the moment, but not really providing substantive arguments or solid food for thought.
If these political bloggers were truly grassroots individuals making a difference, there would be no argument that they are a welcome extension of the political process. But most political bloggers seem in the pay, actually or metaphorically, of the usual group of suspects.
(Concludes with a Gallic shrug)
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Lowest-common denomination of Salon?
[Read the article: Camille's back!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It occurs to me that I don't want a website of bloggers turned 'journalists' or 'commentators'. I want a Salon that is authorative and challenging.
This Camille is embarrassing and belongs elsewhere, but not here.
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(sorry)
[Read the article: Camille's back!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here](Sorry Joan! I adore the rest of Salon.)
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I've heard clapping only two times:
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]New York --> Port-au-Prince: Exiles returning home after years and decades abroad, following the ouster of Baby Doc Duvalier in the mid 1980s. Passengers (economy AND first) started clapping the second the first wheels touched.
Nairobi --> Kampala: Children who had been sent abroad (mostly to London) during the Idi Amin years returning home to their parents, whom they'd not seen in about a decade. When we landed, the clapping was sweet and soft. A young woman sitting next to me had been nervous the entire flight; I assumed fear of flying. We deplaned and walked across the tarmac towards the bullet-riddled terminal. This young woman walked strongly forward, but then sagged to the ground when she saw her father walking towards her, missing a leg. She had been sent out of Uganda when she was 8, was now 18 -- and had only found her family (just the father remained) a month previously. For a decade both she and her father did not know if the other were still alive.
I remember both landings as if they were yesterday only because of the clapping that summoned the end of difficult journeys. Or the start of brighter and happier ones.
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Helen Mirren
[Read the article: Hollywood gets humble]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That Ms Mirren is an exceptional actor needs no extra punctuation from me. But to note that a woman in her 50s or 60s is desirable and fuckable (to quote), said without any qualifier, is an exceptional statement, and really quite true here. She deeply defines an intelligent sensuality that transcends any age qualifier. She's always been luscious and will continue to be so.
(And, oddly, this discussion really doesn't seem un-PC or rude at all. But not sure why, exactly.)
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What I want from an airline...
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...is legroom and fresh air. Then I will feel I am being treated as a customer and not a piece of freight. Forget the 100-channel entertainment systems and food.
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Patrick, don't let tossers...
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...get to you with their letters here. I've been in a similar situation as management in an online social network filled with rich silver-spooners and spoilt brats with double-barreled names.
People are much more aggressive and arrogant when posting thoughts online, especially when hiding behind an alias or as 'Anonymous'. I used to take it rather personally and stay awake nights mentally composing decisive retorts. It's difficult not to.
For any letter in this forum that tosses darts, Greek fire, heat-seekers, or manure at you, reduce the perceived anger or vitriole by 50 to 80 percent. Writers are overly emboldened by the comfort of their sofa and the insulation of their broadband connection.
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Earth calling Cary...
[Read the article: I fooled around while I was away and my boyfriend can't get over it]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What are you smoking, Cary?
Yes, as others have posted, the woman is exceedingly self-centred and narcissistic (not exactly redundant), and the relationship seems to be all about her needs. His needs, like feeling he can trust her, are secondary if not irrelevant in her mind. It's all about her her her.
She has a cascade of sex on holiday, then doesn't understand why he's concerned about her going to Turkey on holiday with some guy he doesn't know? (And is this guy paying for her expenses? Probably. Duh.)
This relationship is not bent, it is warped if not broken.
I give Cary 1 out of 10 on this one.