Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Letter Writing

I like to write letters to publications when something bothers me. Vogue published an article about female circumcision. I wrote them a strongly worded letter how I didn't feel that what was happening to these women in Africa could be named such a thing, unless of course circumcision entails cutting off a man's entire penis. My letter was succinct, and downright disgusting in the way I described what was actually happening. I did get a response that they'd be printing my letter, but it didn't make the cut (no pun intended).
One of my favorites was a letter to CNN about this . Since I worked there at the time, I knew of the man "creating" the calendar, and also knew he just simply made up this idea of what he wanted to do. I asked CNN in my letter, every time some possibly unstable man comes up with an idea (with no execution or support in place whatsoever) is this news?
My latest letter I just wrote to the New York Times is a bit trickier for me, as it's about vernacular. Merill Perlman is a copy editor, and occasionally takes questions from readers.
I wrote to her and asked her her thoughts on an article in my local paper, the L.A. Times. In brief, here is the paragraph that bothered me:

Giving away products can backfire when people have a bad experience with them. Brooke Morgan, 13, said she received a sample of Suave deodorant but wasn't happy with it. And bad word gets out: Keller Fay found that teens are slightly more likely than the general public to dis a product if they don't like it.

Dis?

I wonder what Merill will think. I also asked about 'bling"-- which graces the pages of both these newspapers. I hope she answers my question in her column.

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4 Comments:

Blogger frank b. said...

Who is Marleen?

April 3, 2008 4:29 PM  
Blogger Bernie said...

Whoops. Edited that. Marleen is Merill. Why not?

April 3, 2008 10:24 PM  
Blogger robert said...

My pet newspaper article peeve is when they quote unnamed blog commentators. Things like "Most people seemed to enjoy the concert, but one blog commentator wrote that it sounded like noise to her." It's exactly the same as writing "Most people seemed to enjoy the concert, but a random person on the street commented that it sounded like noise to her.

April 4, 2008 2:16 PM  
Blogger Jack Silbert said...

I'm pretty sure it was Anonymous #6 who didn't like that concert.

April 4, 2008 9:19 PM  

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