Letters to the Editor
amspeck
Published Letters: 277 Editor's Choice: 45
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After 221 posts
[Read the article: Al-Qaida does it, too]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can't really imagine there's anything to say that hasn't been said, but after reading a couple dozen posts, I want to suggest something.
It is easy to put members of Al-Qaida down as subhuman and incapable of socialized behavior such as not committing torture. But doesn't that fundamentally borrow a page from the playbook that allows torture? After all, we argue, as I'm sure Al-Qaida does, that it's okay to treat "them" in X way because they're incapable of being "human" -- which really means, "thinking like member of my tribe do."
We need to not commit torture because we need the supporters of Al-Qaida to understand that we see them as human and belonging to the same tribe as us. That was ultimately what defeated the Soviet Union... but as we ratchet up the human rights abuses against "Islamo-fascists", the Communist Totalitarians are stirring in their graves...
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Plan for regular breaks too
[Read the article: I don't know how to take a vacation!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cary answered the vacation question, and I think fairly well, but when I was in my non-vacationing phase, I also really didn't take weekends. I found I was working pretty much all the time. There's a book -- "Money is my Friend" -- that suggests the self-employed person take off all days that end in a zero. No work. No phone calls. No catching up on e-mails. No reading unless it's really and truly recreational.
Another option is to find a relaxing hobby. I know people who go to all the day games of a local baseball team. I've been to those games sometimes. And that feeling you get when you're in a seat and the drone of the crowd and the game is going on around you, when you're interested in what's going on but not excited, when you feel like you're becoming one with the seat... that's relaxation. That's what you're supposed to get to on vacations.
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Lyrics
[Read the article: Healthy, my ass]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ms. Dickerson is reacting to lyrics she doesn't explicitly quote, and I thought they might be helpful to the conversation:
I'm tired of magazines
Sayin' flat butts are the thing
Take the average black man and ask him that
She gotta pack much back
So, fellas! (Yeah!) Fellas! (Yeah!)
Has your girlfriend got the butt? (Hell yeah!)
Tell 'em to shake it! (Shake it!) Shake it! (Shake it!)
Shake that healthy butt!
Baby got back!
"Baby Got Back" -- Sir Mix-A-Lot
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In speaking specifically of one example's "diet" to get said back "[Buffie] eats nothing but junk food and sugary drinks, and she doesn't work out." Dickerson is pointing out that eating like that isn't "healthy" as suggested by the song. I think we can agree on that point. How one's body happens to carry fat isn't really the issue. A subculture making fat -- or any kind of unhealthy relationship to food for that matter -- a fetish is.
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The Multitasking
[Read the article: iPhone doomsters: Cracked screen, broken keyboard?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't anticipate being overwhelmed by the interface (although I have no intention of switching to Cingular to try it), but counting the number of people I know who are overwhelmed by their iPods, iTunes, and who haven't watched a movie on their computer... well, I really think Apple's going to end up with a small share of the phone market, and a sizeable share of the PDA market, and that'll be sad. Apple is good at getting software and hardware to play together in a reliable and usable fashion, but I wish they'd gone for the iPhone Nano (it answers your calls, plays a disk or two, interfaces with PCs and Macs for uploads and downloads) first, and gone for the miniature Mac version later.
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My Yahoo wish list
[Read the article: What do you want from Yahoo?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are a few things that Yahoo! does so well you barely think about them any more: games, groups, web hosting.
There are things they once did well but are suffering. Google wouldn't have had an opening for Local if Yahoo had dedicated serious resources to keeping their directory system up-to-date and pruned.
I still use Yahoo as my reader. I think the last version made it clunkier and I'm now open to checking out alternatives.
I think their biggest opportunity is finding a way to "skin" groups. I'm involved in one group where the conversation is topical and would benefit from folders and sticky topics. In another, the conversation is a maddening babble of offers and follow ups. On those, there could be a master message with status indicators... so it would look like CraigsList with accompanying messages. A third group has a couple of "current schedule" posts a week and then a conversation about them. Some people want only the "current event" postings echoed to them and not the conversations. And finally there is the group that only makes announcements and sends documents. For that group, a partnership with Adobe to turn the docs into pdfs (with sponsorship ad, of course) makes a ton of sense.
Finally, I think Yahoo has gotten a bit too much into the game of "keeping up with the Jones". It has news and media like MSN, it has content channels like AOL, It has auctions like eBay, it has a sales search engine. What makes it Yahoo! these days?
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Wait...
[Read the article: My new assistant laughs at everything I say]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What if the LW is unintentionally funny? What if she's never encountered someone who is so expressive about it? What if she's hired someone who genuinely sees the world in a lighthearted way?
I get that some people have tics... I have a friend who meows ... but I also get that a lot of people -- and especially bosses -- who get so caught up in homogenizing the work place that they feel it's appropriate to censor harmless behavior that's new or different to them.
So, LW, take a chill pill and see if you can get to a more playful place with this. Maybe you are actually funny, but have always thought of yourself as serious. Maybe you can get all your work done and keep the client happy while laughing through the day.