Letters to the Editor
Woodwose
Published Letters: 31 Editor's Choice: 2
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Some ideas
[Read the article: I'm a jazz pianist, nearly 50, and I need to make some real money!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]OK, you've got degrees in music and in fine arts. If you're willing to teach, call every private school in your area--you often don't need a teaching degree or certification to teach in private schools and they would probably be happy to have someone with your experience direct jazz classes/bands/ensembles. From what I've seen, private schools like to advertise experiences and classes that public schools can't match. Offer classes in jazz improv, the history of jazz, art history, or whatever you know. Working part-time or as a contractor, you probably won't get insurance, but you may make enough to pay for it on your own. As for that, is there a musician's union that offers insurance?
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Nature Nurture or Narcissism?
[Read the article: My vegan friend insists I justify myself]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I will be very happy when genetic research finally can spell out for us the foods our genes require for maximum nourishment and health. We all come from different genetic stock: My Lebanese-heritage friend thrives best on a diet with minimal meat and lots of chickpeas and olive oil. I do best on high animal protein, can't digest soy, and get sick on cheese. Trying to make me a vegetarian would be like trying to make a wolf a vegan.
If someone feels they thrive best as a vegan or vegetarian, then God bless them. We all have individual paths to health. But it is food, not religious doctrine and to impose one's (probably) genetically wired food preferences on others seems arrogant and thoughtless.
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IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU
[Read the article: My girlfriend's stepfather is a real a-hole ... and a dying man]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Since when does having zero interest in you, expressing no interest in you or your family and not responding to your conversational overtures make a man a complete and total asshole and an unmitigated prick? If he was abusive to his stepdaughter or other family members, you might have a case, but the only thing you cite as proof that he is an asshole is that he ignores you.
I know from personal experience that people with heart disease are often deeply depressed. This may manifest itself in irritability or in withdrawal. In addition, congestive heart failure, if that is what is wrong with him, often makes the patient breathless. I can well imagine that he might be too fatigued to make sparkling chit chat with your brilliant self, let alone even answer a simple question. And if he is indeed dying, he may be so focused on conserving his energies that you might as well not exist for him. Deal with it.
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Corsets, Anybody?
[Read the article: I dream of Darcy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Spoxwyfe wrote: The Empire Strikes Back
I believe that corsets were not worn with the "empire" style clothing. Women's fashion at that time was reflecting a "Romanized" look which did not include incasing oneself within a corset. I'm not a costume expert but that's what I remember.
Also I think this is an important distinction worth mentioning because clothing affects attitudes and that's what sets Jane Austen apart from most other writers of her time period.
Actually corsets were worn at this time, but they were not the heavily-boned, narrow-waisted corsets we know from Victorian fashions. They supported the bust and extended well down the hips, giving a long, smooth line to the back and waist. A few styles were like short jackets. They appear less uncomfortable than Victorian corsetry, but the backs of the corsets and many of the gowns are cut very narrow so as to hold the shoulders in a rather restrictive manner. One had to stand up very straight with the shoulders well back to create the fashionable Empire silhouette. Certainly ladies were not nearly as encumbered as in later years with hoops and bustles, but each era has its own fashionable restrictions. The diaphanous fabrics were not warm; the delicate flat slippers exposed the wearer to mud and damp; and the classical goddess effect was difficult to pull off if you were over a certain weight or age.
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ONE PROBLEM IS THE SCHOOLS
[Read the article: Junk food education]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As an author I frequently spoke at elementary and middle schools. On one visit I was appalled to see posters on the bulletin boards advertising (to the best of my recollection) M&Ms, Coke, and Burger King. The adverts were small, but very visible. There was some rah-rah education content in the bulk of the posters on the order of "Brush Your Teeth!" "Obey Your Overlords!" "Be Kind to the Ugly Kids!" At this school there was also a TV channel called, I believe, Channel One, which also had averts for junk food as well as products like sneakers. When I told the principal that I was quite surprised by the advertising, he said that Channel One showed educational programming that they could not otherwise afford and that they considered the adverts a necessary evil. I have since spoken to other teachers who rolled their eyes at my indignation, saying that kids were exposed to adverts on normal TV so there was no reason not to have them on educational TV at school and since school funding had been slashed, they needed the programming. When junk food is advertised on school-sanctioned TV, how successful do you think nutritional education will be?