“There were no “free lunches” in my house.”
A big spread
Our main course: the traditional dish, just like you wanted
Editor, The Times:
It’s that time of the year again, when we hear from all the do-gooders, who don’t believe in eating turkey on Thanksgiving and celebrating Christmas in a traditional way.
Those who are complaining about eating meat, i.e., turkey, ham or prime rib, on Thanksgiving or Christmas, obviously didn’t grow up in the ’40s and ’50s, when meat was scarce to many tables, unless it was for a special occasion. There were no “free lunches” in my house.
On Christmas, first and foremost, Christmas Eve was at church, going to late services, then back home and open one gift. Christmas Day was the big day, even though our gifts were small and mundane by today’s standards, we were all together in mom and dad’s home.
So to all of you who are trying to pull the guilt trip on those of us who had little on special holidays, back in those days, maybe you should let people enjoy the way they want to celebrate any way they like. After all, this is America and our forefathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles gave us this priceless gift, freedom to choose.
- Patsy Gee, Federal WayHave a little of everything
Jerry Forrel’s letter [”Our way or the highway: We’ll fight if pushed,” Northwest Voices, Nov. 15], suggesting that Americans should cut back on their oil consumption as a way to fight terrorism, sounds great to me.
I believe it’s high time that “regular” Americans be asked to make sacrifices - until now, the burden of this war has been borne only by the military and their beleaguered family members. Most everyone else has just been merrily hurtling along, enjoying our cushy lives despite the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Recently, I’ve been working my way through Ken Burns’ PBS miniseries, “The War.” Much of the show focuses on the home front and how the sacrifices made by the American people were an extremely important part of the war effort. The following rules were shown in a newsreel of the time:
1. “Don’t waste anything”;
2. “Buy only what is necessary”;
3. “Salvage what you don’t need”;
4. “Share what you have.”
How very quaint they must seem to most Americans today. Can you imagine modern Hummer-driving, Wal-Mart bargain-shopping, Starbucks gingerbread-latte sippers voluntarily giving up anything nowadays?
Maybe staying home one day on the weekend or biking or walking wherever they need to go? Maybe choosing family time together at home instead of another trip to the mall to buy yet another tchotchke for their 4,000-square-foot cottage?
Yes, I’ m a proud tree-hugging, Prius-driving, vegetarian, peacenik, bleeding-heart liberal patriotic American and I try my best every day to drive and consume less. I wish people of all political persuasions would also take on this challenge.
It’s the least we can do to honor those thousands of men and women who gave their lives for the freedom we now enjoy. To do anything else is a slap in the face to those Americans - military and civilians alike, past and present - who willingly sacrifice(d) for their country.
- Julie Cohen, BellevueToast with Port
Congratulations to the voters of King County who, in their collective wisdom, have unelected Port Commissioner Alec Fisken [”Fisken concedes in Port commissioner race,” News, Nov. 19].
Fisken was the only reformer on the commission. He questioned the necessity of subsidizing the Port with property taxes and believed that after more than 100 years, the Port ought to be self-sufficient. He pushed for environmental and fiscal responsibilities and objected to the “golden parachute” for the former director.
He represented the conscience of the commission, something we find in short supply with all government agencies that operate on taxpayers’ money.
Well, back to conformity and the good old boys’ way of doing business, without the annoyance of having Alec Fisken asking unwelcome questions.
- James Behrend, Bainbridge IslandSaying gracefully
It’s a pity that stories like “UW alum and popular podcaster, Mignon Fogarty is Grammar Girl” [Living Nov. 19] help spread such limited notions of grammar and good writing.
Using “lie” and “lay” correctly is nice, as is the proper use of an apostrophe or comma, but these have as much to do with good writing as holding a fork correctly has to do with good eating. Thanks to the wondrous language-producing computers in our brain, all of us have been performing unconscious feats of grammatical meaning-making with language since we were little children.
“Grammar” can be seen as the study of the forms these feats take within a given language.
The study of grammar can make writers conscious of some of the sentence-building tools available to them to shape, and even discover, what they want to say. It can expand their range of choices when they write and help them see the possible effects of their choices on their meaning and on their readers.
Unfortunately, those who teach these things hardly ever get called gods!
- Michael Kischner (co-author, with Edith Wollin, of “Writers’ Choices: Grammar to Improve Writing”), SeattleBack for seconds
To Eugene Krautt, the man who wants everyone to eat tofu and nuts on Thanksgiving [”Gluttons for guilt? Martyr less fowl,” Northwest Voices, Nov. 19]: I bet my turkey is going to taste better than your lecture is going to sound.
Within the past two weeks, I watched one documentary that said the East Coast is overdue for a 1,500-foot-tall “mega-tsunami” that will wipe out Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and Miami; and another documentary that said the Pacific Northwest is overdue for a magnitude 9.0 earthquake that will knock over skyscrapers in Seattle and then bury us under 30 feet of water. True, we won’t have Tacoma to kick around anymore, but it’s still going to be a problem.
So pass the butter-injected meat. And the stuffing. And the mashed potatoes. And the gravy.
And the cranberries. And the sweet potatoes. And some more butter-injected meat. And some more stuffing. And maybe some more butter-injected meat.
And then some pie. And some whipped cream. And some more pie.
Did I forget anything?
Each to their own, but I can’t help feeling some pity for the man whose last meal will be “tofurkey” and lentils.
- Charles Pluckhahn, Seattle