Letters to the Editor
blunderdog
Published Letters: 527 Editor's Choice: 10
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For Esme, with Love and Logorrhoea
[Read the article: Men, talk among yourselves]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]She goes on to quote one Esme, 38, who just had a long-awaited date night with her husband, scarce since the birth of their child, and could barely engage him in conversation.
I wonder what the conversations she tried to engage him in were about?
I'm a man. I talk to my mom weekly (at least) on the phone, and I suspect if someone asked her, she'd agree that I am "difficult to engage in conversation."
The thing is--her conversations are most often about things that I have absolutely no connection to. She lives a few thousand miles away and has elderly neighbors, most of whom I've never met, whom she likes to keep me informed about. She also finds her day to day mood/physical-state to be fascinating grounds for conversation.
Perhaps it's just a personal failing of mine, but medical history stories about people I don't know and will never socialize are excruciatingly boring.
So what I can say when she tells me about how her friend got into an argument with her other friend after they went out to lunch? What can I say when she spends 5 minutes telling me that Monday was an energetic day, but she was feeling down Tuesday, and she has more laundry to do?
Of course it's a special case, because it is my mom I'm talking about. But I wonder how much of this is just a question of whether people (in general) are aware of others' interests.
Every once in awhile, I'll lose patience with someone "talking to me" and start rambling off minutiae from my own life. It usually doesn't take long for someone to realize I'm teasing them. So why doesn't that same person realize what he/she sounds like when on a "conversation" that no one else is participating in?
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Yeah, so I got up earlier than usual today, and I had the AC on, so I had to turn it off before I made coffee, because my coffeemaker and AC are on the same circuit and when the hotplate kicks on it trips the breaker, so that's fine...but, for some reason the how water just dripped down the "side" of the coffee this morning, and it didn't come out right. It was terribly weak. I looked in the filter afterwards and most of the grounds were still dry. I checked the tube that goes into the reservoir and it was clear, and the holes the water's supposed to drip out of weren't clogged, either. So then I wanted to clean the heating element, 'cause I thought that might've been the problem, but who wants to do that before getting a decent cup of coffee? So I pulled on pants and bought coffee at the shop on the corner, and by the time I got back, I realized I had to start getting ready for work. But I just bought that coffee maker a few months ago, and it's even a Black and Decker--I paid over $20 for it. In this day and age, that should be a coffee-maker that lasts at least a year, don't you think? I guess I can go back to using a French press, but the thing is in the summer, boiling water on the stove makes the kitchen so hot first thing in the morning, and I don't like starting my day like that, but you know, it's more important to have a decent cup of coffee than a comfortable kitchen, I guess...
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When I put my mind to it, I too can generate a pretty much non-stop stream of speech. I just don't really think it's worth sharing with anyone.
It might be better to be silent and thought to be boring than to be chatty and remove all doubt.
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Discussing SS is a conflict of interest for McCain
[Read the article: Tell us how you really feel about Social Security, John McCain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]John McCain's position on
___social security reform_____
has never changed.
@ last digit of pi
Don't worry. You get old, you go broke, you take up bank robbery. Maybe you'll get away with it, but even if you don't, what are they going to do to you? Put you in prison for the rest of your life?
That's 3 hots and a cot for a lot cheaper than a nursing home. And you probably wouldn't be in a super-max at an advanced age.
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As with most subjects...
[Read the article: What happened to McCain the reformer?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]John McCain's position on
___government reform____
has never changed.
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Radioactive Posts
[Read the article: Russert dead from apparent heart attack]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I used to have this belief that the US was a free country, and an individual might be tolerated even if he made the choice not to respect the standards of decorum that another individual wished to enforce. Deleting any post which isn't deferential to other posters with different attitudes about death?
Death is one of the few things that we ALL have in common.
As for the point on Russert, I never liked him, but a lotta folks did, so he should be remembered as a successful entertainer.
RIP, Tim. Go easy, bro.
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Hah!
[Read the article: "She had her mouth on my dad's penis!" ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kinda reminds of that scene in The 40 Year Old Virgin where the concerned dad brought his son to a meeting to ask how to get his wife to put out like the kid's girlfriend...
Maybe if Bob was getting his own BJs he wouldn't have been so jealous of the old man.
One thing puzzles me, though. Do older folks in homes HAVE TO sign away their rights? Or is it just a common thing because many are suffering from various mental problems?
In other words, how is it that the son can ship Bob to another home without his consent in the first place?
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PSA for the complainers:
[Read the article: Bad Dad Gift Guide]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think if we submit lots and lots of letters on GOOD articles, and ignore BAD articles, we might be able to affect Salon's strategy of publishing stuff just to get a rise out of readers.
Remember: if you read an article on Salon and hate it, you are helping them make more money by posting volumes of commentary towards that article.