I did not want to take the bait and continue a dialog with Mr Rowen.
However, while he was so gleefully focused on finding this week’s bon mots, an error was made: my last name ends with a “D”
While we’re at it, perhaps someone (him? another reader?) could explain to me the following:
- Am I being compared to a trout?
- Should I or trout be offended?
- Is he referring to himself in that sentence instead? In which case, whew! The trout and I can sleep well.
- Who are the buffoons? The citizens of Santa Clara?
- Who is the immoral munchkin? While it’s true I am only 5′ tall, I am too young to have been in the Wizard of Oz. I will not stoop to discuss morality with him.
- Careful throwing around words like “buffoon” and “munchkin.” No joking matter: those words can offend whole groups of people.
I am quite certain Mr Rowen, that you will not be able to resist replying to this letter.
And once again, feel it necessary to obscure what you are really trying to say with literary analogies and cruel adjectives for people just as you do week after week.
To use a writing analogy you should be familiar with: Kill your darlings! then get on with it!
Just say what you really mean to say!
This is a local paper. Not a literary journal, scientific paper, Master’s thesis, or poem.
If you feel it necessary to continue your exclusionary writing style, then please take the time every time to cite your sources (for every literary analogy you are attempting to make.)
Yes, it will mean each letter will be even longer and even more awkward to follow.
But perhaps we will all start patronizing the local library, book lists in hand.
And dear readers, including you Mr Rowen, this concludes my dialog with Mr Rowen. Unless he decides to attach derogatory adjectives to me or forgets that my last name ends with a “D”
Mr Rowen, I am quite sure our local paper is read by visitors to the city as well as others outside of our city limits. Consider that when you write and ask yourself when you do write your Letters to the Editor, what impression(s) about Santa Clara do your letters give to these readers?
I’m certainly not suggesting that all Letters to the Editor be rainbows and unicorns about Santa Clara (Santa Clara has its flaws) but all opinions can be expressed with civility whether written by grown-ups or children.
To put it succinctly: play nice.
Sincerely,
JoJo Noland