Letters to the Editor
Elisa
Published Letters: 11 Editor's Choice: 2
-
The Funniest Part About the Letter
[Read the article: Do I have the right to control how Christmas money is used?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The funniest part about the letter to me was that LW was trying to control Cary's response much in the same way that he/she wanted to control the way in which the money was spent on the children. When you ask for advice, you open yourself up to whatever the respondent has to say; for LW to ask for Cary's help and then attempt to dictate the terms is just as controlling and absurd as sending money to his/her brother and wanting to restrict the way in which it is spent.
-
Cliff Wasn't the Only One to Blame
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As others have noted, it seems unfair that Cliff was kicked off the show while Sam, Ilan, and Elia were allowed to egg Cliff on without any repercussions. Apparently Tom Colicchio had the same reaction -- his blog on Bravo's website notes that he wanted all four contestants ousted from the show, leaving Marcel as the default winner. However, he writes that the producers stepped in and refused to permit this kind of total derailment of the show. Thus, to Tom's disappointment, only Cliff was asked to leave, since he was the only one who actually violated Bravo's rules about physical contact. I found Colicchio's perspective on this comforting -- apparently the viewers weren't the only ones completely nauseated by the whole situation.
-
"The Academy"
[Read the article: Deconstructing Oscar: Safe, sunshiny choices]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In the past few years it seems as though critics' bemoaning the choices for the Academy Awards has become almost as tiresome as the awards themselves. In this cranky and nonsensical article, Stephanie Zacharek repeatedly assigns motives to "the Academy," talking about an enormous group of people as though it were a singular voice with a specific, articulated agenda to push every year.
But isn't "the Academy" actually made up of many people, who may have a range of tastes? If Little Miss Sunshine gets nominated for alongside The Queen, does that necessarily mean that "the Academy" has consciously decided to be "annoyingly self-congratulatory ... as if its members were enormously pleased with themselves for daring to recognize an indie picture?" What if some people just liked Little Miss Sunshine? I certainly did. Furthermore, how can the mere fact of the picture's nomination be self-congratulatory? Has Ms. Zacharek heard actual members of the Academy congratulating themselves for this move? How might a nomination announcement express sincere enjoyment of a film instead of this perceived smugness? What would that look like?
It seems premature to me to be lamenting, as per usual, all of the lousy reasons Academy members have for picking films to award. Can't we at least wait 24 hours before deciding that not a single member of the Academy has any taste; recognizes a good film when he/she sees it; refrains from nominating a film because of its lack of quality rather than as a comment on its over-popularity; or decides to nominate a movie because it is good rather than because it assuages liberal guilt or feeds a desire to fake enjoyment of independent filmmaking? Come on.
-
Marcel is the bad guy??
[Read the article: Pack your long knives and go!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm horrified and bewildered by Heather's take on the Marcel vs. Ilan face-off. Marcel may be irritating and smug, but Ilan has shown himself to be a bully of the worst kind. His attempt to sabotage Marcel by convincing the other contestants not to help Marcel serve his dish, his mulitple whiny comments about Marcel in front of the judges, and his role as the ringleader of the head-shaving debacle reveal Ilan to be straight out of the middle school playground of my nightmares. Sure, Marcel is plenty annoying, but throughout the competition he has kept his cool in the face of an onslaught of immature and increasingly vitriolic behavior. Ilan's slam on Marcel's ability to deliver a comeback is a perfect example of this dynamic: Ilan acts the 12-year-old bully by insulting Marcel's sexuality, and Marcel refuses to engage. The idea that anyone could have been rooting for Ilan flabbergasts me.
-
Flaws in tennis study
[Read the article: Do women crack under pressure?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A critical factor that must be taken into account when studying tennis Grand Slam finals is Roger Federer, one of the most dominant players that men's tennis has ever seen. Federer has been in almost every Grand Slam final of the past three years, and he is remarkable in many ways, in particular in his ability to raise his level of play as the pressure increases. His unique skill in this area cannot help but skew the results of any study that looks at professional tennis, thus increasing the inappropriateness of correlating athletes' behavior in major tennis finals to the qualities of men and women in general.
-
???
[Read the article: Portrait of a princess, interrupted]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Diana?? Really? Are we still interested in this? Were we ever? I can't imagine why Tina Brown would write a book about Diana at this time, why Salon would publish this article, and why in the world we would want to read a blog about it.
I'd rather read about Paris Hilton.
-
She wrote for adults too
[Read the article: L'Engle's last wrinkle ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While Madeleine L'Engle's books for children and young adults are clearly some of the best in the genre, her adult books are quite amazing as well. I highly recommend The Small Rain and A Severed Wasp in particular -- absolutely stunning. It's a loss to all of us that she's gone.
-
copyeditor, please
[Read the article: Hey, skinny bitch!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Less than 1,000 calories per day" should be "fewer than 1,000 calories per day."
-
Did anyone else think this finale was incredibly dull?
[Read the article: "Project Runway": The rundown]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Even though I enjoyed checking out each designer's collection, I was disappointed at how dull the finale was as a whole. It was missing all of the key elements of a PR finale: designers sniping at each other (nope -- we got TWO group hugs instead); last-minute crises threatening to derail the entire collection (nope -- just Jillian being indecisive as usual); and Nina/Michael picking apart the collections outfit by outfit (not a chance -- just vague compliments for everyone). Combined with the fact that Christian was obviously going to win (despite the fact that watching the first half of his collection made me feel like I couldn't breathe, it was so heavy and constricting!), this has to be the dullest PR finale yet. What a bummer.