BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: LETTERS TO EDITORS

Dear Editors:

    When Patrick Stewart tells us that he arranges his books by size, he got me thinking about large books on my shelves. The largest is a world-wide stamp album about four inches thick. The smallest is a North by Northwest flip book showing a crop-duster plane chasing Cary Grant.
      On a grander note, the biggest  book in the world, according to The Guinness Book of Records, is The Prophet Mohammed. It is  the largest, heaviest, widest, longest and the most expensive book in the world. I have no idea where I would put it. I have no idea what the smallest book is, but it would most likely fit on one of my shelves.

Sincerely,

**
Dear Editors:

 At the conclusion of your By the Book interview with Edan Lepucki, the author said (humorously,I believe) that she wanted Robert Caro to write her life story. No doubt she knows that if her wish were granted, Mr. Caro and his wife would have to move in with her and her husband and their children for at least three years.
   And then a long wait afterwards for the volumes to appear.

Sincerely,

Published in NY TIMES BOOK REVIEW (Sunday, August 19, 2023)
**

Dear Editors:  
       
   As a fan of Jason Zingman's essays on comedy, I have been considering hislatest column that is headlined "A Wistful Yearning for Weirdness."  If any person wishes to watch weirdness in action, I recommend that he,she, or they forsake comedy clubs and attend performances at the House of Representatives, wherea good number of these zany public servants play to standing room only, playing to the audience of  Donald Trump, with Trump's one hand clapping,applauding himself. 

Sincerely,

**
Dear Editors:
 
 What is wrong with the New York Times? Can't your editors
report some good news without also throwing cold water on it?
For example: July 20th's front page story is headlined:      
            
            RECESSION WORRIES ARE WANING,
            BUT DON'T POP THE CORK JUST YET
       
I decided not to read the article. I would have felt so much
better without the warning. I believe that Times readers
are old enough to know that all good things eventually come to
an end. 

Sincerely,
**
Dear Editors:

 2 RIDDLES: 
 HOW MANY PERSONAL GIFTS FROM BILLIONAIRES DOES IT TAKE TO INFLUENCE SUPREME COURT VOTES?

     What constitutes an impersonal gift to a Supreme Court Justice?
  
Sincerely,
**

Dear Editors: (THE NEW YORKER)
  
    I learned a lot about Linnaeus and binomens in
Kathryn Schuz's fine essay/review but I must take issue 
with her statement that "the fundamental task of biography is "to show us why that life mattered." After watching "It's a Wonderful Life" every Christmas for decades, many persons have come to the conclusion that even the lives of "ordinary" persons matter. Or, as the fictional detective Harry Bosch maintains, "Everyone matters or no one matters."
         Why a certain life matters is  merely the sales pitch for the selling of a biography to the book-reading public.The fundamental task of a biographer is to tell us a story of a life in such a well-written, well-structured way that we as readers see and become involved with a life that is different from our own. As we turn the pages of a good or great biography we encounter, the knowledge and consciousness of the biographer as he or she or they grapples with the actions and motivations and thoughts of another human being. 
     Knowing, as well as we can, the lives of other persons matters in non-fiction and fiction matters.

Sincerely,


**

Dear Editors:
    Is the Times Editorial Board being satirical when it 
asserts in bold print that :"Before he faces a jury, the 
former president must answer to his supporters"?
   The Board must be kidding.  Almost every day, President 
Biden must answer to his own supporters. "Never apologize, 
never admit you're wrong" Trump does not have to answer to 
his followers who believe, support, and enable everything
he says and does. No questions because Trump has all the answers. His heroes are dictators. The list of 18 co-conspirators with the Donald in Georgia is a gallery of
Yes-persons. How many of the so-called GOP Presidential Candidates dare to say No, dare to question Trump on any policy issue?
      The Editorial Board hasn't been reading its own newspaper.

Sincerely,
**

Louis Phillips <louisprofphillips@gmail.com>
Sat, Oct 28, 3:38 PM
to Newsroom

Dear Editors:

     When I read the words "House of Horrors" on the cover of the October 29th issue of the book review, I imagined that a new non-fiction book about the House of Representatives had been published. Then ,on the lower right hand corner, there it was: the book's title -- "The Haunting of Hill House" -- thus,confirming my misapprehension. 
    Happy Halloween, America!

Sincerely,
**

Dear Editors:

In his Sunday Opinion piece, Matthew Walther contends that William  Friedkin's  The Exorcist (1973) is the best film ever made about the Roman Catholic Church.  I disagree. The best film about the Roman Catholic Church is, hands down, Spotlight. (2015) directed by Tom McCarthy.
   The Exorcist may deal with an imaginary Hell, but Spotlight deals with the real hell of young men suffering from being sexually preyed upon by priests and then the cover-up by the Church. The film is also a tribute to the importance of investigative journalism.

Sincerely,
**

Dear Editors: 

THE GOP BLUEPRINT FOR '25

When I was one-and-twenty
       I heard Republicans say,
“Give schoolbooks and libraries
       But not your guns away;
Give health away and charities
       But keep your weapons free.”
Because I was one-and-twenty,
       The NRA really suited me.

When I was one-and-twenty
       I heard the GOP say again,
“Global warming is a fiction.
     Gun laws are in vain;
 Votes bought with bucks a plenty
       Is what politicians do.”
Now I am two-and-twenty;
       And I wonder what is true.

Sincerely,
Louis Phillips
**