Letters to the editor, July 2006This a traditional letter column. You are encouraged to write a letter of comment on anything that you find worthy of comment. It will (may) be published in this column along with my reply. As editor I reserve the right to delete material; however I will not alter the undeleted material. E-mail to me that solely references the contents of this site will be assumed to be publishable mail. All other e-mail is assumed to be private. And, of course, anything marked not for publication is not for publication. Oh yes, letters of appreciation for the scholarly resources provided by this site will be handled very discreetly. This page contains the correspondence for July 2006.
From: Peter Neilson Harter, your lettercol is screwed up yet again. I wrote to you about the Cyprus Dreams, and mentioned the name of the fellow who is pushing that Cyprus website, I mistakenly wrote his name as “Christopher” even though he called himself Christian. Any moronic idiot could have detected this error in my letter and corrected it before publishing it for the whole world (not to mention your subscribers on Mars and the Moon–NESFA’s Moon, I might add) to see. You saw fit to leave it as it was, showing everybody my shoddy research. Have you no sense of decency or whatever? I won’t even try to pronounce what Dr. Flynn might have said. You do yourself an injustice; I wish you would stop that. I prefer doing you injustices myself. If you inspect my letter column carefully you will indeed see that you spelled his name as Christian. Reality has a way of changing out from under you, doesn’t it?Return to index of contributors
From: Don Crowder I last wrote to you in January of 2003 when I was writing an ezine for an ink company. I was linking to a story on your site and wrote to ‘scold’ you for not having alt text on the images you use. The one or two images I checked still don’t have alt text which leads me to suspect you of being irascible and set in your ways. Since I’m somewhat that way myself, I can hardly gig you for it so I’ll just “leave off” about the alt text. I lost my job with the ink company and have gone through one or two other mundane jobs since then but I’ve continued to write a twice monthly ezine. I connected with freelists.org for hosting and never missed an issue. My subscriber count did go down by an order of magnitude but that’s a matter of perspective. As I see it, the quality of my subscribers is up by an order of magnitude. All of which is a convoluted path simply to say I’ll be listing your site in my ezine again and this time it really is my ezine. Or maybe it’s community property since my wife helps me with it, We have our own website as well. I’ve no idea what moves you to reproduce some of your email online but if this email “wins” the signal honor, do me the kindness of not reproducing my email address in clear HTML for the ‘evil web minions” to cabbage onto and send me unwanted email. None of my appendages require enlargement or chemical assistance to achieve normal functionality. I am irretrievably graceless. Some one of these days I will do something about that alt text business. Fear not, these things do happen, they just take time … lots of time.Return to index of contributors
From: Peter Neilson I was dreaming about how to avoid buying property in Cyprus. Suddenly I was face to face with Christopher’s letter in your lettercol. What a stroke of fortune! I went immediately to his website, and saw a huge selection of properties I would never dream of owning. Thank you for including a link to his Cyprus properties page. I would never have imagined that staying totally away from Cyprus could be so easy! As for Christian, prosperity is surely following him, as you wished. He seems to be running pretty fast, though, and I’m afraid it’ll never catch up with him. This sort of public service is just the thing that I am good at. If it hadn’t been for me you probably would have found yourself with a Cyprus property. That might have been all right (assuming you are fond of stuffed grape leaves) but you probably would have ended up having to extend hospitality to refugees from Lebanon.Return to index of contributors
From: C Groberty This is Christian from http://www.cyprusdreamproperty.com Today, I visited your web site and I like it. I am interested in your site because it looks like it’s relevant to a site for which I am seeking links. I have already added your web site link to our link exchange page at: http://www.cyprusdreamproperty.com/cyprus-resources/
I would be very grateful if you could link back to us. I couldn’t find the link to my site; that is quite all right with me. You may keep it or delete it just as you choose. Your letter will appear in my correspondence column where your URL will appear. To be honest I can’t see that this will do you much good. I rather fancy that few of my readers are seeking property in Cyprus, and, if they are, they would be looking for information on my web site. Still, you never know. Many people read my pages and perhaps someone …Return to index of contributors
From: Merle Gifford could feel a thousand needles puncturing his face. “For- ward!” he kept don’t get pulled out of the meatgrinder. He did pull him out of the Zone, on that tough freckled mug of his. Another marine, I see.Return to index of contributors
From: Charlotte Blount it?–and slithered into the field, behind the hushes and the rotten fences, and Scandinavia, increasingly in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, and is heads every which way and their fear was almost all gone. They started purpose for life? For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, Oh dear, that sounds bad. And here I thought I had troubles.Return to index of contributors
From: Sam Hine Please consider publishing this commentary in Richard Harter’s World. Johann Christoph Arnold is the author of ten books and an advisor to some of the world’s best private schools. If you have further questions, I can be reached at 724-329-1100. If you decide to publish this piece, please let me know. I will be pleased to include Arnold’s commentary; it will probably appear in the August issue. As before it will be in point/counter point form.Return to index of contributors
From: Robert Eggleton Thanks again for the blurb. I’m writing to let you know that “Rarity from the Hollow” was published: www.fatcatpress.com. Jag Lall did the cover pro bono. A satirical essay about its self-promotion was also published by Wingspan Quarterly: www.wingspanquarterly.com (the online is free). I’m not sure if I told you before — a percentage of any profits will prevent child abuse in West Virginia where I work as a therapist in a children’s mental health program. I’m hoping that this angle will also help sales in addition to kids. You did mention the division of profits; it is quite commendable. I do hope that you achieve all of the success that you deserve.Return to index of contributors
From: Jim FitzPatrick I just read your review of The Doppelganger of Dabney Prood. While other works of Nathan Childers are available (both earlier and later works), I cannot find Doppelganger. One used book sales person suggested that the original was in Latvian and that the translations did not (yet) include English. My own thought is that your review gives the glue (er, rather, the clue): “Tolstoy” Is it not true that the original is in Russian and the Latvian is merely a translation (and possibly a poor one at that!)? I remain on the alert! That is a very astute observation on your part; however it is slightly off the mark. The original edition was in English; it did absymally. I have heard that only seventeen copies were sold, and that three of these were purchased by Childers himself to give as presents to his mistresses.Return to index of contributors
From: Peter Neilson There may be others yet. Think of A. P. Ershov’s mushrooms. I must (or at least I shall) admit that I am not familiar with his mushrooms. I know, of course, that he was the author of “Modeling a Fast Deflagration to Detonation Transition in Porous PETN”, but, then, I imagine that everyone knows that. I blush to admit that I have never read that paper.Return to index of contributors
From: Anthony R. Lewis, PhD, FN Richard, please inform your readers (who might otherwise not know) that the two small moons of Pluto have been named. S/2005 P1 is Hydra, S/2005 P2 is Nix. Please do not confuse Nix with asteroid 3908 Nyx. No word on “Xena” yet. Tony I quite agree that my readers should be acquainted with these facts. I fear that some of them have been quite remiss in keeping up with the latest happenings in the local solar system. I do feel, though, that they should have named Nix Nox. Nox is Roman, and Nyx is Greek, whereas Nix is simply … let me put it this way: A google search on Nix turns up lots of information on head lice!Return to index of contributors
From: Brady & Wendi Rinehart Excuse me…….you wrote,”See how much trouble you are causing.” I do believe you are stressing over something you can never control. Seconds into minutes, minutes into hours, hours into days, etc. Time stands still for no one, not even you. If eliminating the 29th day of June on your own calendar makes you tickled……well then, go for it.
We shall of course ignore it and you. We will sing you b-day
greetings again, off key and with smiles in our voices…..Deb
has the best voice by far, then the Nebraska crew, I, unashamed,
will gladly screech my version out and come in last…..You have
a whole year to dread the day…. (giggle). If performing dreadfully cruel acts floats your boat then so be it – I shall just have to suffer. If only I had been born on February 29 I could have gotten away with having a birthday once every four years. That is a happy thought. On the other hand, I would not have yet attained by 21st birthday and thus would not be of age to purchase wine. There is a price for every boon.Return to index of contributors
From: Mark Holczhammer The funny thing is: I found your page by googling for: motorcycle +”black box” and I found http://richardhartersworld.com/cri/2004/behe.html J Anyway. I found your page interesting so I send a mail to others with a quotation from your page: > “This site is best viewed with a bottle of scotch.” 😉 The roads into Richard Harter’s world are many and devious. Someone, Tolkien, I believe, said that not all who wander are lost. Someone, me, I believe, said that not all who read my website are confused, but if they keep reading they will be.Return to index of contributors
From: Peter Neilson Your recent presentation, “You grew up in rural South Dakota if…” contains several spelling errors. Perhaps they are intentional. At any rate, I am not going to bother to list them. Proofread for them yourself. It’s a moral obligation. Think of Dr. Flynn. I posted it as I received it. However I suppose I should protect the reputations of my sources, to say nothing of my obligations to Dr. Flynn. Therefore I will do something. What that something might be is yet to be determined. … continued on next rock … Sheesh.
“its really windy” Make that a double sheesh. And an extra one in honour of Dr. George Flynn, may his example lead all of into fewer ypographical terrors. I am shocked, sir, simply shocked that you would say such a thing. None of your quoted instances are spelling errors; all of the words in question are spelled correctly. All that is wrong is that the author used the wrong word. I admit that the sentenceReturn to index of contributors“You grew up in rural South Dakota if cruising “main” last for 6 blocks.”is rather peculiar. I can’t imagine what the intent was. That isn’t quite right – I could imagine it if I were sufficiently pressed, but I prefer not to. In any event it scarcely counts as a spelling error.
From: Peter Neilson
Mr. Harter, Your birthday, being sneaky as birthdays are, would fall on the 30th. There are additional problems. June is your mother’s own month, and presumably you would have to obtain her posthumous permission to rearrange the days in her month. Furthermore, she was actively involved in the selection of your birthday. My unsolicited advice would be, “Don’t mess with June.” All things considered (or at least all that occur to me at the moment) your advice is excellent, and I shall take it, even though there is documentary evidence for the existence of the 31st of June.Return to index of contributors
From: Jo Dansie Dear Mr Harter Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading all about Piltdown Man. My curiosity was aroused by a reference to it in The Forsyte Saga which I am currently reading. I found the information on your website fascinating. Thank you for writing; I’m pleased that you found the Piltdown pages enjoyable. The Piltdown hoax and its aftermath are quite remarkable.Return to index of contributors
From: Judas Iscariot Stopped by your site, wanted to drop a note to say hello; I hope all is well and a gentle breeze is blowing in your neck of the woods… Gentle breezes indeed – why just the other day a tornado touched down 21 miles north of here.Return to index of contributors
From: vicky ford is it possible to have morning sickkness a week after sex? It is possible, but it probably wouldn’t have anything to do with being pregnant. I am far from an authority on the subject but my understanding is that morning sickness shows up a little later. In case of doubt, take a pregnancy test.Return to index of contributors
From: Brady & Wendi Rinehart
At 03:15 PM 6/29/2006 -0500, you wrote:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUU! Can’t ya just hear my wonderful “Northern Plains Redneck” rendition, pounding this little ditty out to you? I did hear you had the Ms. Monroe version of this tune earlier today……..(be nice Richard, its the thought that counts) Never mind, don’t bother answering the question. On second thought …..here is a warning, turn the volume down on your answering machine….NOT OFF Richard…… just down and I’ll sing it to you…..lucky b-day boy. May you and Deborah, have a lovely evening of dining on the scenic Missouri River at Cedar Shores Resort. Hugs….Wendi
P.S. Brady sends a normal : Happy Birthday Richard 😉 We did indeed have a lovely evening. I will say, though, that the threat of caterwauled messages on my phone may require drastic measures, such as getting rid of the phone or else getting rid of my birthdays. Since I do not really want to put a period to my existence (the conventional way to cease having birthdays) the latter option would require that I abolish June 29th from the calendar.Return to index of contributors
This page was last updated July 22, 2006. |