Every week, The Washington Post publishes a collection of letters of complaint from readers pointing out grammatical errors, missing parts of the story, and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong, and sometimes they even include words of praise. Here are this week's Free-for-All letters:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the May 29th Metro article, “Boomer was due to be euthanized. Now he's sniffing out bombs,” but my enjoyment was marred a little by a misuse of language.
Boomer is not “Nee Baldwin.” Unless Boomer's biological parents named him Baldwin, he wasn't born with that name. He got that name when he entered the Anne Arundel County animal shelter. And since he's a male, it's not a “nee.” It's more like a “né.” Well, if he had a name at birth, we don't know what it was.
I got over my frustration and read more about Boomer and I'm so happy. I'm so happy to know he and his owner found each other and are living a wonderful life together. The people of our county and the fire department are so lucky. I'm so grateful the shelter gave him a chance.
Carolyn Makovy, Silver Spring
This league is far superior to MLB.
Kevin B. Blackstone's May 31 sports column, “Record Book Changes Confirm MLB's Flaws,” on the merging of Negro League statistics into MLB statistics:
Blackstone cited a 1991 study by sports scholar Jules Tygiel that found that Negro league players won two-thirds of games against white players. In 1994, Jeffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns wrote that black players won well over two-thirds of games, 309-129.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Joe DiMaggio called Satchel Paige the toughest pitcher he ever faced, and James A. Riley's 1994 Encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues notes that Babe Ruth called Negro league player John Henry Lloyd the greatest player in baseball history.
Perhaps we should talk about integrating MLB statistics with Negro League statistics?
Ron Wielkopolski, Anchorage
The True Fruit of the Loom
“Simple is hard,” reads a lengthy tribute to fashion designer Evan Kinori that ran in the May 28 Style section, reporting that Kinori collaborator Marina Contro was spinning fabric on a 19th-century loom. Yarn, fiber, and thread are spun on a spinning wheel. (See the connection?) The resulting fiber is then woven into fabric by the loom.
Presumably, judging by the opinion column in Thursday that day, they had to fire their last remaining proofreader on May 23rd.
Joan Hartman Moore, Alexandria
Regarding the May 14 online article, “Who is Angela Alsobrooks, winner of Maryland's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate?”:
Again. Please explain why every reference to former Republican Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland precedes his name and former title with the adjective “popular.” The Washington Post has been adding that adjective for years, from when Hogan was Governor through to now, when he is running for a new office.
This isn't a popularity contest to decide who will be the prom king (or queen). This is an election to decide which party will control the Senate. So, sticking to the facts, “Former Republican Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan.” And that's it.
A picture is worth a thousand words
The May 31 news article, “Kiev and the West Struggle to Coordinate as Ukraine Stumbles on War,” was depressing enough, but a photo by Yves Herman taken during a photoshoot at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July made the essential point clear.
Like the others, this photo captures only a moment in time, but it may speak to the complicated relationship between the Ukrainian leader and his supporters: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stands in the middle of the stage, but no one is speaking to him, while other leaders are seen talking to each other in small groups, all of whom seem to be avoiding contact with the leaders of the countries they are discussing.
Thanks to the photo editor for the choice.
Leon Weintraub, Washington
A book worth 1000 photos
In his May 19th Book World column, “10 Rules for Reading from a Professional Reader,” Michael Darda said, “I'm not the type of person who rereads books frequently.”
My first rule for reading great novels is to commit to rereading them. No great work of literature can be fully understood on a single reading. Great works of art in any medium — film, music, painting, sculpture — must be read repeatedly to appreciate their depth. Take William Faulkner's great novel, The Sound and the Fury, for example. It would be impossible to understand its meaning without rereading it. It's not the quantity that counts, it's the quality. And that quality requires rereading.
Kitty Bryant, Fort Valley, Virginia
Lewis Bayard's essay in Book World on May 26th, “Long Days Gone With Each Turn of the Page,” about the joys of reading classics, was a delightful read, and as a half-British book lover, I empathize with him.
I savored most of the titles he listed for the same reason he did: I felt that great writers knew things, and I wanted to know them too.
Though I am long past the summer of my life, he is right that as we get older, we should reread our favorite books. The Brothers Karamazov awaits him.
For millennia, poets such as William Shakespeare, Matsuo Basho, William Blake, and Mary Oliver have sung the coming and glory of summer in their verses. But in the May 26 issue of Book World's “Summer Books,” which features a wealth of novels, romances, histories, thrillers, and a classic leisurely journey to the Outer Banks that Louis Bayard fondly remembers, poetry books were hardly featured. Despite the recommendations in “28 Books for Summer Adventures,” reading a haunting poem by the sea or a lake during the sultry summer months can be pure joy for any age. But since “close” may be enough for an August game of horseshoes, we'll have to content ourselves with poet Hanif Abdurraqib's moving memoir, “There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension,” and James Marcus' passionate profile of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Glad to the Brink of Fear.” To make his “summery” judgment, he wrote that we were “swaying with joy, eating plenty of fruit, and sweltering with heat.”
Michael Reis, Silver Spring
Frasier's Shining Light
I applaud Sebastian Smee's May 26 Critic's Note column, “LaToya Ruby Fraser's Photographs Challenge Art World Assumptions.” [Arts & Style]”Frasier's work in Braddock, Pennsylvania, Flint, Michigan, Lordstown, Ohio, and elsewhere fulfills art's time-honored function: documentation. We see the struggles of women left behind after losing their fathers and husbands. They are nurses, bartenders, factory workers, office workers. They are forgotten people, and their stories need to be told, and her photographs speak volumes.”
The President is drinking juice (and maybe you are too)
Shame on Dana Milbank for questioning the wisdom of the Republican Physicians Association in his Wednesday, May 22, opinion column, “Republicans Have Found a Cure for Incoherence, But They Refuse to Drink It.” Perhaps the Association is entirely correct in its assertion that President Biden frequently takes chemical drugs to enhance the incoherence of his speech. I am nearly as old as the President, and I take such substances multiple times a day for that purpose. I bet the President does too. And I bet even the young people in the Republican Physicians Association do so.
Clifford S. Fishman, Rockville
The square doesn't deserve to be pushed out.
We have noticed that the Post has changed the way it offers its crossword puzzles online. There are now fairly large columns designated for advertising on either side of the puzzle. However, most of that space is empty. These columns compress the space available for the puzzle and its hints, and force you to navigate the page quite a bit to see the hints. This is ruining the experience. We ask that the Post reconsider this change, as there is no benefit to us, especially when the Post does not reserve advertising space for us. It just makes it more tedious to play, and it's unpleasant.
Jack Zwemer, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Above the main headline on the front page of the May 31st issue, “Trump Guilty,” was the phrase “34 Guilty Counts,” and below that was a list (“Count 1,” “Count 2,” etc.) followed by the word “Guilty.”
Using “guilty” 34 times (or even once) is tautology. “34 times guilty” means that the person is guilty.
Susan M. Grady, Falls Church
Bob Brody's May 21 Health & Science Perspective, “Feeling Bad Makes You Feel Good, or Why It's Okay to Feel Guilty,” gives a good definition of guilt but doesn't distinguish between guilt and shame: Related to guilt but quite different, shame is the belief and feeling that “I am bad,” as distinct from the feeling that “what I did is bad.”
The issue of shame is the basis of many psychotherapies, which help people understand the origins of shame and overcome it.
Sheila L. Cohen, Chevy Chase
I don't read much beyond the Post headlines these days because I can't stand the negativity. But the Post always has uplifting articles, even if I have to dig around for them. When I started reading the paper in college in 1975, it was Henry Mitchell's Any Day column. More recently, it's John Kerry's Washington (good old times, John). May 28 was a fun Tuesday opinion piece about Russell Lee, “20th Century Photographers in the iPhone Era,” by Lucien Perkins. Perkins, whose first name means “light,” was a longtime staff photographer but is not a writer. Thanks for showing the bright side.
Thank you, Trisha Pasricha, for your May 21 Ask the Doctor column, “If you have iron deficiency anemia, take iron supplements, but don't take them every day.” [Health & Science]As someone who has advocated for iron deficiency to be taken seriously, I have one more piece of advice for my patients: Many doctors will run a hemoglobin test to detect anemia, but iron deficiency can cause problems before it progresses to anemia. (My own primary care doctor initially dismissed my fatigue and cognitive problems because I wasn't technically anemic.) Ask your doctor to get your iron and ferritin tested, so you can get a more accurate picture of your body's iron stores. You may need to get your iron a little above the lower end of the “normal range” to feel better.
Monica Gorman, Hyattsville
Feeling angry, annoyed, and frustrated with your whining child
Regarding Mark Lasswell's excellent May 17th op-ed, “Trump is Making the Oxford Comma Great Again”:
The adjective at the end of the last sentence, “I imagine Trump gets angry, annoyed, frustrated every time he hits the delete key and a comma disappears,” could be replaced with three lines from the Rodgers and Hart musical “Pal Joey”: “fascinated, bewildered, perplexed.” And let's not forget another line from that song: “A whimpering, whining child.”
T.H. Ottewell, Silver Spring
This story should be shown on the big screen
I was stunned by the June 2nd front page article, “In God's Name.” It should be required reading for everyone. It is foolish to ignore such atrocities. Unfortunately, I fear that those who should read articles like this will not. My hope is that a film will be made about these Native American children and the boarding schools (many run by Catholics) where they were sent in accordance with U.S. government policy to “strip Native American children of their identity.” Such a film would be a wake-up call for many.
Mary Elizabeth Cox, Lawton
