Letters to the Editor
Brulette
Published Letters: 39 Editor's Choice: 7
-
I second the need for PASTRY IMPROVEMENT!!
[Read the article: Java panic: Starbucks closing all stores Tuesday evening]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Starbucks patries you to be pretty good. They were fresh. Now everything tastes like it's been frozen and thawed out. Mmmm, nothing like a barely room temp, previously frozen croissant for $2.50. I'd rather go to Peet's where the cinammon twists don't taste like cardboard.
The goodies are important. Keep it simple. Keep it fresh.
-
A Simple Solution Requires a Change of Heart
[Read the article: I somehow became the "Charlie" girl at the local bar!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You don't have to stop going to the bar if you can be a little more forthright and firm with the folks there. For example, Ms. Why-haven't-you-talked-to-me-yet could get the following response from you: "Hi there [insert name here], I haven't had a chance to say hello- how are you? I hope we can speak soon, but you'll have to excuse me for a few moments here." Diffuse the situation and brush off other people's demanding, childish pettiness just as you would that of an overly friendly pet. Set the tone and calmly assert your power, your unwillingness to be bamboozled. You will offend some people with this behavior. But remain smooth, serene, calm, and most importantly, remain sincere in your like for the pals you've cultivated. Behaving in such a way will earn you more respect. Right now you're everybody's dose of feel good and we all know we can't be all things to all people without being nothing to ourselves.
If the tide turns and all of these 'friends' can't handle you setting some mild and friendly boundaries, then I would suggest you opt out of frequenting that bar and move on with your life.
-
Woman as Gullible Dim Wit Victim of Male Corporate Power
[Read the article: Say "nyet" to Russia's vodka for ladies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nearly all of the comments here acknowledge what a hollow, elitist and lame post this is. So let me kind of sum up what others have mentioned here and assign ranking to the top four problems with this post.
1. Woman as Gullible Dim Wit. Why do you worry that Russian women are going to run out in hordes to guzzle sugared, pastel vodka? What a perversely comical scene! Imagine formerly sensible Russian women suddenly abandoning life's responsibilities to loll around enjoying the quickly disappearing contents of a fashionably slim bottle. I don't think so. Some women will buy it and drink it, yes. Some may even become Damaskaya obsessed, but to portend a "catastrophic rise in female alcoholism" due to a new lady's vodka is ridiculous! Hello hyperbole.
2. Woman as Helpless Victim. Why is a woman who drinks vodka a victim of an ad campaign whereas a man who demands his Bud is merely manly? Do they have a chip implantation program in Russian wherein women are programmed to give economic stimulus in the vice sector that I didn't know about? It is Russia, after all . . .
3. Waste of Time. This is a feminist blog? Why not write about something that matters to and for women, rather than offering condescending and persnickety proselytizing about women who drink and smoke who you obviously consider to be below you and your ivory tower of clear-headed femaleness.
4. The Blame Game. It's corporate America, its evil marketing genius, its men and the power and control they exercise over us. Screw it! Self-sufficiency now! As long as we continue to bitch and moan about our plight while avoiding the real and sometimes difficult task of actually doing something about it the more we weaken the cause to seek better lives and better opportunities for women and girls worldwide. There is so much to be done- so why are you taking up space on a popular internet destination with this drivel when you could be saying something important? Something inspiring. Something for men and women who hold the same values you purportedly hold.
-
I agree, however . . .
[Read the article: Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I take issue with Wright's comment about the "chickens coming home to roost" regarding 9/11 not because I don't think that our foreign policy brought it upon us but because it's insensitive to fellow Americans who lost loved ones that day. For children who lost mothers and fathers 9/11 was not an abstract repercussion, it was a serious blow.
-
Please don’t compare Ramsay to Oliver. And he's not British. He's a Scott.
[Read the article: In memory of Gordon Ramsay]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Real life top chefs are usually not warm cuddly people, especially in the kitchen. The stress of maintaining, one star, not to mention three stars, is the stuff of tirades at the least and suicides in the worst case scenario. People unacquainted to the realities of high octane professional kitchens merely see Ramsay as a blowhard rather than one of many hot tempered kitchen gurus.
Fox doesn't even really have to try to incite conflict because professional kitchens are a breeding ground for discord by their very nature.
Jamie Oliver is gifted in his own right, but he doesn't have the breadth of knowledge, skills or accolades that Gordon Ramsay earned all on his own. Someone saw early on how marketable Jamie Oliver could be while at that age Ramsay was still putting in hard times with the famously furious Marco Pierre White.