Letters to the Editor
cestJLD
Published Letters: 7 Editor's Choice: 1
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One thing that bugs me
[Read the article: More drunken pirates, fewer teachers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]is that Millersville is just passing out degrees in English as the amoral alternative to an education degree. I guess I understand that the intent is to prevent her from teaching, not saying she didn't earn a degree. But what kind of school swaps degrees out of convenience?
As someone with a degree in English, I'm happy to welcome all pirates who have completed their degree requirements, drunken or otherwise, to our not-particularly-exclusive club of, well, people with degrees in English. I'm just not all that excited that any college or university is in the practice of issuing replacement degrees to students whose degree programs (fairly or, in this case, blatantly unfairly) choose not to grant them the degrees. (And this is not the same as a PhD program issuing a "consolation" MA to a student they don't pass on to candidate status.)
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Babies are Fragile
[Read the article: "Sopranos" wrap-up: Uncomfortably numb]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One element of the story that struck me last night, chilled me, was Tony's voiced fascination with the destroyed car seat, how it was (paraphrase from memory) "smashed into a million pieces," and how Christopher's baby COULD HAVE or WOULD HAVE been killed (as if a) the baby ever would have been riding with C and T after a late night mob meeting or b) Christopher would have been driving her around high (which is clearly the more possible version)). Carmella sure didn't like hearing it, and neither did the guy next to Tony at the wake. I guess it's just Tony's way of voicing his awareness of life's fragility, but the thing about it that interests me is that Chase et al. have already used this trope: Tony had to tell Bobby and Janice the terrible story about the baby drowning in the pool with all the adults around.
Tony is clearly locked in this season on how easily a child be erased from the world, even with the "protection" of adults (whether it be a carseat or just supervision around a pool). Perhaps it's a reflection of how easily his "son" Christopher's death came, and his realization that his protection as boss and father meant very little for Chris against his personal affliction, and Tony solved both of their problems with a dispassionate squeeze of the nose.
I don't think that's all there is to Tony's baby-death fixation, though, so I imagine Meadow or, more likely, AJ (but maybe Meadow, since she's more ostensibly "protected") will demonstrate how fragile children of any age are. I'm very curious about the repetition of baby-death from the mouth of a character who now has no sadness for or real fear of death at all. If he can kill his "son" dispassionately, what death would touch him? (Maybe though--and sorry to go on like this--the example of Johnny Sack's dying in prison mostly separated from but ultimately in the presence of his wife and daughters shows that Tony will realize, the bad way, that your real family is way the hell more real than your "business" family.)
FWIW, I'll cast my votes for Tony feeling the joy of his burden lifting and his luck changing in the casino (not NOT being able to feel it), and for saying "I GET it" (not I DID it) to the Sun God or whoever winked at him in the desert.
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MCHebert
[Read the article: "Sopranos" wrap-up: Uncomfortably numb]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Please see recent articles by David Talbot and Patrick Cockburn, both of which refer directly to Iraq right in the headlines. There are at least 300% more words devoted to the Iraq war than to the Sopranos in just the last 2.5 business days. I think you're being willfully obtuse to make an unnecessary critique of a magazine that's devoted to American culture, not just American politics. Do you suggest sending Ms. Havrilesky on assignment to cover TV in Kuwait City or something? She's a TV critic, employed by Salon to write for people who are interested in television--an important if often ridiculous element of American culture. The Sopranos is one of the less ridiculous examples of the programming regular Americans--including the ones fighting the war or with family members over fighting the war--enjoy as part of their daily lives.
You're probably the kind of person who doesn't have time to watch TV or read novels, so I understand your ignorance. Mysteriously, you have time to post comments on articles written about TV shows you've never seen, though. I'll just assume you're jesting to get a rise out of people like me.
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Never before has simply a big list of dudes
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]been so much fun.
Dale Berra was the best.
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That's the end of Godfather II
[Read the article: Our favorite murderer]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]not the original.
I'm just saying.
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Is this a petition?
[Read the article: Goodbye to Audiofile]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Two petitions? I'll sign.
Save Audiofile.
Bag (or fix the redundant and/or annoying)VideoDog.
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Donald
[Read the article: Hot off "The Wire"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I didn't think McNulty was going to kill him, but I did think he was going to follow around until he died and not do a thing to help him. And then choke, denture-bite, and beribbon his corpse, of course.