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Also this issue: Pho Whatever Ails You Street at the Crossroads Smugglers' Blues Someplace Special |
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December 19-25, 2002
mailbag
(Re: Holiday Book Quarterly, "Second Sight," Dec. 5, 2002)
Andrew Milner's review of Lawrence Osborne's American Normal was a travesty. Instead of just repeating the gossip of the Asperger Syndrome grapevine, where his controversial thesis is bound to raise hackles, why didn't you try something more original -- like, er, read the book? Osborne does not, in fact, "misquote" Mitchell, and Dave Spicer's comments are purely his own displeasure at Osborne's. There's nothing "pathetic" about the book -- it's brilliantly original. What's pathetic is the philistine laziness of your reviewers.
Christopher Voulangas
address
Milner responds: For the record, I did read American Normal cover to cover, as I do with every book I review. I was aware of complaints about the book in the Asperger community, but I read the book with an open mind. (In fact, given that Osborne wrote an AS article I enjoyed very much for The New York Times Magazine in 2000, I wanted to like this book.) Osborne does, in fact, misquote Mitchell's fiction. Check Osborne's version of Mitchell's story, "Questionmark Etiology," against Mitchell's version, posted on the Web at www.hometown.aol.com/jmitch955/myhomepage/qmark.txt. You'll notice that Mitchell gets the name of the fictional doctor wrong and bungles the "Who you see here" quatrain at the end of the story.
You write, "Dave Spicer's comments are purely his own displeasure at Osborne's." Why, then, has the publisher of American Normal issued an apology on its website (www.copernicusbooks.com) retracting Spicer's statement on his father's alcoholism? You should also be aware that Copernicus Books has already issued a correction sheet with no fewer than seven errors. I can name an eighth: Osborne writes that author Temple Grandin has AS; she in fact has moderate autism.
Frankly, I don't mind the book's "controversial thesis." Osborne is under no obligation to adhere to a strict party line about Asperger Syndrome. Osborne is entitled to his own opinion. He is not entitled to his own facts.
(Re: "Shady's Back," Howard Altman, Pretzel Logic, Dec. 5, 2002)
Howard, as usual you voice an excellent position on current events. When I first heard of Henry Kissinger's appointment to head an unbiased, bipartisan, fact-finding commission to look into the events of 9/11/01, my stomach dropped and I said to myself, "Now we'll never know the full truth." And worse yet, a few minutes later reality hit, and I felt even worse for I knew it was true. This appointment is an insult to, and a slap in the face of, all America. Truth and Kissinger do not work in the same sentence. An oxymoron if you will. I'm appalled that this relic of the Nixon administration, the very arbiter of dishonesty and deceit, would be appointed to a commission to find out the truth about anything. In the recent past I have gotten angry with the media for telling us "more than we want to know," but even as angry as I've gotten, I'm now very thankful that it is a much different media now from the one we had decades ago. Maybe this time around, with journalists like you and Christopher Hitchens, who also wrote a very insightful article on this topic (Daily News, 12/7/02, Opinion Column), Kissinger, and subsequently the Bush administration, won't be able to get away with the same deceit and duplicity as past administrations that Kissinger has been involved with.
Rusty Powell
Center City
Editor's note: This letter was sent before Dr. Kissinger stepped down.
What is up with A.D. Amorosi and his constant jabs at Philadelphia success? I was a minor fan of Wanderlust and just discovered their new band, Feel. And I love them. I saw the band at The Point recently. It was a pretty packed house, there were at least 100 people there, and the lead singer definitely had all his hair, so why the snub from A.D. [Icepack, Dec. 12, 2002]? Can't he just be happy for a band that has some success and show them some kind of kindness when they return to their hometown? Just seems so negative and I surely don't think the world needs any more of that these days.
Randy Johnson
Manayunk
Re: Your item on the failure of The Inquirer's boss newsman to invite all 400 newsroom employees to his home for eggnog [Soundbites, Dec. 12, 2002]:
I am an Inquirer reporter, and I wasn't invited to Walker Lundy's Christmas party. Of course, I was never invited to predecessor Bob Rosenthal's holiday parties, either. Or to Gene Roberts', way back in my pre-reporter days, when one of my jobs was to put The New York Times on his desk every morning.
If I remember right, editor Max King once put out a global (non-Christmas) party invitation to what Inquirer veteran Doug Robinson called "King's goat-ridden farm" in Chester County. But I didn't go to that one, either. Who the hell wants to party with their boss?
Joe DiStefano
Philadelphia Inquirer
I was out for the 22nd running of the Philadelphia Marathon a few weeks ago. While watching the runners strive to complete this endurance event, I noticed along Kelly Drive a group of individuals protesting abortion, you know, the pro-life crowd. The runners were digging through, around mile 18, and they were subjected to large photos of bloody fetuses. These pro-lifers had their children hold pictures up while the runners were trying to get through that 18-mile-marker "wall."
I am all for taking up a cause, but when you ruin an event your cause has nothing to do with, then shame on you! So, to all you militant pro-lifers who attempted to ruin this spectacular event for some 10,000 runners, go home, pollute your own neighborhoods with the trash you spew and maybe one day in your narrow-mindedness you'll come to respect others' beliefs. To all who ran the marathon, "Semper fi." The mettle in your character is far above those protesters you endured!
Scott Holencik
Philadelphia
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