Letters to the Editor
Pat Katzmann
Published Letters: 8 Editor's Choice: 2
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Foreign vs. Domestic
[Read the article: Sweet smell of snobbery]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am a child of European immigrants, and a lover of milk chocolate, who always preferred brands like Lindt over Hershey, which tasted peculiar to me. We purchased Swiss, Dutch, and Belgian chocolates in our household.
As an adult, I've come to find that certain candy bars that are common here, like Kit Kat bars, taste much richer across the pond, because the quality of chocolate is higher, and they are also available in a variety of flavors. Last year I became addicted to special edition Kit Kat bars with fruit fillings of seville orange and red berry (a blend of strawberry, raspberry, and cranberry). Sadly, they are no longer available, and this year, Kit Kat introduced pedestrian peanut butter and mint flavored bars. I'm sure they taste better than their American counterparts, but I didn't bother sampling any because they seemed juvenile and uninspired compared to the more grown-up palate-pleasers I fell in love with last year.
There are certain Cadbury chocolate varieties, like the Banoffee bar, that I seek out when I travel each year in Ireland and the British Isles, but I've become loyal consumer of Butlers Irish Handmade Chocolates (www.butlerschocolates.com). They're every bit as good, if not better, than the finest Belgian chocolates, and I'm not referring to those overrated, waxy Godiva chocolates.
P.S. The Guittard Chocolate Company is located in Burlingame, not Burlington, California.
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And what about male housekeeping habits?
[Read the article: The way to a man's heart is through a vacuum cleaner?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Am I the only one here who has evaluated the possibility of a relationship with a man after seeing how he cares for his crib? I'm no fan of pigsties or pristine pads or the extreme personalities who keep them. But in my experience, a guy who keeps his place relatively clean and organized, with a little disarray and clutter for that lived-in look, tends to be a good bet, as well as willing to share housework without being asked if the option of living together looms.
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Clooney Splits With Soderbergh
[Read the article: The Fix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Funny how FOX broke this story a week after other news organizations did. Has anybody clicked on the FOX link? It's more revealing of FOX's slant than anything else. Roger Friedman's lame attempt (took him a whole week, it seems) to dish dirt with snide asides on his network's least favorite liberal doesn't add up to much. First of all, Clooney leaving Section 8 to start Smoke House with Grant Heslov isn't news, and it didn't happen suddenly. Actually, it became common knowledge last January, months before Clooney won his Oscar for "Syriana."
Here's a quote:
"We decided that three years ago, the minute it becomes a business we're going to get out. It doesn't mean that I won't continue to make films, it doesn't mean that Steven and I won't continue to work together either. You've got to thin the herd after awhile and start again, so it's not all meetings about posters and contracts," Clooney said at the beginning of the year.
So this is no diva move on his part. Neither Soderbergh nor Clooney ever expected that they'd run their shop together forever. This is an amicable, long-foreseen split -- they still have "kids" like "The Good German," "Michael Clayton," and "Ocean's Thirteen" to shepherd along, and no doubt they'll work together again even after these films are released, as Clooney said. Just judging from the actors that he works with time and again, talents like Luis Guzman ("Out of Sight," "Welcome to Collinwood"), Don Cheadle ("Out of Sight," "Ocean's 11, 12, 13"), Isaiah Washington ("Out of Sight," "Welcome to Collinwood"), Sam Rockwell ("Welcome to Collinwood," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"), and the "Ocean's" crew, he seems to be a loyal sort who likes having familiar faces around. Soderbergh included.