Letters to the Editor
Anonymust
Published Letters: 1982 Editor's Choice: 74
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That was a close one!
[Read the article: "Men want facts, women seek relations on Web," take two]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Whew! What a relief! I was beginning to be worried that maybe I wasn't getting enough estrogen (tho' after reading about the effects of delayed onset of puberty, maybe that's a good thing).
Let's see... NYTimes political pages, WaPo for Froomkin's round-up, Huffington Post for news on the fraudulent 2004 election, and, of course, Salon for a little bit of everything. Plus all of the serendiptous links one comes across. You get the idea.
And then there's Google, which I use less to connect with other people ;~) , and more to find answers to questions and problems, e.g., what is the best product for eradicating pantry moths, among other things. Frankly, I love Google, fact-finder second to none.
My boyfriend and I had to replace our garbage disposal ourselves, because we couldn't get a plumber to come soon enough, since it wasn't a "real" emergency. Via Google (be still my heart!) I (the one who did the research) found numerous sites/blogs with a variety of instructions, some with pictures, some without, and after going through them all, we knew what to buy, and how to install it after removing the old one. I could go on and on... but that's enough.
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Real Live Preacher "returns" to Salon
[Read the article: Sinfully bad TV]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I also REALLY wanted to like this show, but thought the writing was truly awful. In fact, I switched, in the middle of it to watch Numbers, instead. I have the second half on tape, but still haven't seen it. RLP's critique really sums it up-- and I may not even bother with the rest of it.
However, I would like to add my own reader's note and say that Real Live Preacher was already a regular part of Salon-- in Salon's blog section-- until this past August, when he moved his blog to a new site.
Always extremely popular, he still ranks pretty highly in Salon's blog stats, number 24 as of a few minutes ago. Apparently, not everyone has updated their link to his blog yet.
As for the comments he attracts... on his blog they were/are always plentiful and engaging, unlike so many of the comments that have begun to plague us.
If you have a hard time finding his or any other blog from Salon's home page... well, that "missing link" was something I did comment on when I emailed awhile back to say how much I liked the rest of the new design.
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Reading Ayelet in Salon...
[Read the article: Dividing the man from his mother]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I will confess that Ayelet Waldman's pieces do sometimes push at my buttons, too. Mostly my impatient one. Come on, cut to the chase, past the self-indulgence-- that chafes so uncomfortably-- to the awareness that soothes. And she does get there. And for that I am grateful, because who wants to spend too much time contemplating her own shadow in the light that Ayelet casts upon her self?
This time, I could identify best with her love of the sensuality of being a mother. And the sheer physical pleasure of appreciating your child's being. Still, there is a significant difference, as I am the mother of only one child, and a daughter, at that, who is now an adult and herself the mother of a son. My grandson (10) loves to cuddle with his mother, and shows no signs of wanting to end it soon, but there doesn't seem to be anything weird or strange about it to me. Just a sweetness.
There is a qualitative difference in the relationships of mothers with their sons and daughters, which is why I think one reader thought Ayelet implied that only women could really love their children unabashedly. Granted, there are those societal prohibitions against men expressing too much physical affection with children, but I think Ayelet was treading elsewhere.
Instead, I think her point was that women compete with one another more deeply than they ever do with the men in their lives. So, her "wish" for her son to be gay was not to deprive him of another's love, but that she and his love would not feel the need to compete for him. [Wouldn't be my choice, either, but I am not the mother of a son.] Still, having written this piece, isn't it likely that she'll be more aware, and perhaps model her behavior more after her mother-in-law's than she would have otherwise?
As for writing about one's children... best to do it while they're young. If you wait until they're adults, they might prove more of an inhibition to self-expression. What I'd really like to read now, though, is her mother-in-law's version. Perhaps there was more sturm und drang on Ayelet's part, but not so much for Mil. Given that her autobiography could be titled, "Quiet, I'm Reading," my curiosity is likely to continue unsatisfied.
Finally, I have discovered with this piece by Ayelet that the best way to deal with the dissonance her writing attracts, is to read only the editors' choices. Still a worthy discussion, but less agita.