Doing so makes it come throughout because the so-called massive lie or the alleged massive lie. It seems to be as if The Put up is portraying that characterization as simply another person’s opinion or an outline that some would possibly use however others might fairly disagree with.
No. The large lie is just not a matter of perspective. There isn’t a cheap interpretation of it as something apart from a frontal assault on democracy. Capitalizing it’s absolutely applicable, given the magnitude of the offense, however distancing from it by placing it in citation marks trivializes it. There’s nothing trivial in regards to the preservation of American democracy.
Politics is just not a sports activities competitors
The Sept. 22 information article “After months of debate, Democrats in House strike a deal to fund police” mirrored what’s flawed with the information business in the present day: protecting politics as a sports activities competitors whereas ignoring the substance of the essential points at play.
The article coated intimately the back-and-forth between Democratic factions on the proposed invoice, however it barely touched on the substance of the invoice itself. Readers have been left with a transparent sense of variations among the many factions and divisiveness in our nation, in addition to a complicated define of what’s within the invoice.
Publishing op-eds in regards to the failures of in the present day’s information business comes throughout as performative journalism when The Put up’s personal editors fail to heed the warnings.
Francisco Gonzalez, Bethesda
Snowden didn’t flee to Russia
On the Sept. 27 information article “Putin grants citizenship to Snowden,” a secondary headline learn: “He fled to Russia in 2013 after leaking secret U.S. surveillance data.”
Flawed. Whether or not you assume Edward Snowden is a hero for revealing how the Nationwide Safety Company secretly and unlawfully gathered data on People or is a traitor for doing do, he didn’t flee to Russia. He tried to fly from Hong Kong to Ecuador with a stopover in Russia to vary planes. That’s the place the State Division inexplicably pulled his U.S. passport, stranding him in Russia. The State Division ought to clarify how that occurred.
Sadly, the article didn’t clarify how Snowden ended up in Russia, which might have knowledgeable the headline author. Even headline writers must get the details proper.
Visible storytelling of ‘Flashbacks’ was distinctive
Studying Patrick M. Reynolds’s final “Flashbacks” panel on Sept. 25 elicited a way of loss. I loved his visible storytelling for years, and my feelings have been clearly acknowledging the long-term worth he delivered to my life.
Although some folks see the Comics part as an idle waste of time, I, as a visually communicative individual, see them as an exceptionally scrumptious type of emotion and thought-provoking leisure and training. I’m not a cover-to-cover reader of the Comics part. Only a one that cherry-picks the tantalizing bits to start out my day with fun, a nod or a head shake.
I thank Reynolds for including curiosity, high quality and a reminder to our lives that historical past could be a trainer. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Expertise retains a pricey college, however fools will be taught in no different.”
For the previous 30 years, I’ve loved Patrick M. Reynolds’s cartoon strip “Flashbacks,” which supplied nice historic insights to the story of D.C., and its folks. I used to be unhappy to listen to he’ll now retire; he might be missed by loyal readers, together with me.
I used to be particularly touched by his final strip in regards to the Child Elevate from Vietnam in 1975. Like Reynolds, my spouse and I went to New York to choose up our adopted youngster from the Child Elevate. His strip introduced again heat reminiscences.
I thank Reynolds and The Put up for supporting his work.
Norman Hicks, Falls Church
‘Squishing’ disrespects the work of cartoonists
The Sept. 27 Type article “Shrinking of comics pages draws concerns for cartoonists” was illuminating in regards to the plight of the shrinking comics web page. I fondly keep in mind two print sections of comics within the Sunday Put up, and that was when the pages have been bigger, too. However an equally distressing sample is the literal shrinking of the comics. Or, extra correctly, “squishing.”
Within the Sunday Put up comics print version, it seems somebody dropped an anvil on “Barney & Clyde” and “Liõ.” For a while now, they’ve been squished down right into a (*ahem*) cartoon model of themselves. I perceive there are extra essential issues printed (or pixelated) in The Put up as of late than the Sunday comics, and there have all the time been area constraints to take care of. However the artists who labor over these intelligent episodes of wit and design deserve their work to be considered as they supposed.
Please show all of the strips of their full glory and halt my weekly matches of obsessive-compulsive dysfunction.
Johnson is a shocking omission in vogue column
I used to be shocked that in her Sept. 26 column on Iman, “Fashion meets humanity,” Robin Givhan omitted Beverly Johnson, an iconic presence in vogue and modeling for girls of shade within the mid-Nineteen Seventies.
Though Johnson didn’t obtain the worldwide fame and glory of Iman, she was the primary lady of shade to look on the quilt of Vogue in 1974, two years earlier than Iman. There isn’t a doubt as to Iman’s magnificence, enterprise acumen, and African heritage and refugee backstory that led her to fame and fortune. This, mixed with being married to famous person David Bowie, secured her dominance within the vogue world. Nonetheless, when protecting the historical past of iconic girls in vogue, Givhan ought to have famous that Iman was not the primary trailblazer within the discipline.
As a younger South Asian woman rising up in an all-White neighborhood in Potomac who was fascinated by vogue, I used to be very impressed to see Johnson on the quilt of Glamour and Vogue. Her contribution to the business shouldn’t have been ignored or performed down.
Nabila Altafullah, Haymarket
Surprising phrases from a former Cathedral dean
I used to be shocked that the Sept. 22 Metro article reporting on Washington Nationwide Cathedral’s lovely service for Queen Elizabeth II, “Sharing a past, uniting in grief,” included a quote from a former Cathedral dean, Gary Corridor, stating that “kings are these ineffective goofballs that costume up however don’t have authority.” This was an enormous detriment as we be a part of our British mates mourning the lack of their queen and, on the similar time, protecting King Charles III, the royal household and all of Britain in our prayers.
Barbara E. Miller, Washington
Weighing in on the usage of pronouns
The intelligent lede within the Sept. 25 Enterprise article “The robots are here. And they are making your tacos.” used “he/him” pronouns to explain a culinary robotic. That exemplified (or maybe critiqued) a broader, troubling pattern in journalism and customary discourse.
We ought to handle people by no matter pronouns they need. However robots and digital assistants resembling Siri, Alexa and the fry-dunking Flippy are usually not alive; as they turn into extra subtle and humanlike, the issue of blurring the excellence between human and machine will turn into extra vital.
We must always formalize the excellence now: The one applicable pronouns for these creations are “it/its.”
Samuel Klein, Philadelphia
I don’t usually discover the “Mike du Jour” cartoon humorous, however I not often discover it as offensive as I did the Sept. 27 comedian. This strip, mocking individuals who introduce themselves with pronouns, was reductive at greatest and transphobic at worst.
Whether or not or not we expect our pronouns are “manifestly apparent” as within the comedian, we must always all try to assist normalize sharing them for the numerous transgender and nonbinary of us on the earth.
Mia Rothberg, Takoma Park
Kudos to the fun of small-time faculty soccer
Please settle for a cheer from me, as the daddy of a James Madison College freshman, for Chuck Culpepper’s uplifting Sept. 26 Sports activities article in regards to the joys of small-time faculty soccer, “Blue Raiders. Dukes. These tiny kingdoms do enchant us.” As somebody who attended one of many solely state faculties within the nation and not using a soccer workforce — the College of Vermont — I’ve had a tremendous time this fall cheering on the JMU Dukes as they’ve taken to the field for a 4-0 start. Even watching them within the rain was pure pleasure. Not solely did they win their second recreation in a rout, but additionally my son performed his coronary heart out on the saxophone with the Marching Dukes band.
Harrisonburg is certainly a particular place, and going 4-0 on the Division 1 degree is not any small feat for these younger males in purple and gold. Till this 12 months, I assumed faculty soccer was simply Michigan vs. Ohio State and Alabama vs. Georgia. Thanks from the underside of my coronary heart for serving to readers perceive what I’ve lastly discovered: It’s additionally a couple of workforce resembling JMU getting back from a 28-3 deficit to upset division rival Appalachian State. Sustain the nice work on specializing in the small image.
Why can’t soccer have its personal heading in The Put up the best way baseball, soccer and different sports activities have?
I want to see extra about soccer, particularly European soccer (assume Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé), in print media. The Sept. 23 Sports activities article “A band of brothers” was a begin.
American soccer is an exercise that has been deified lengthy sufficient — with accidents resembling compound fractures and mind harm. Gamers have been getting larger and heavier, and the punishment they deal out to one another is just not what human our bodies are made to outlive.
I do know that is absolute heresy in lots of locations in the US, however soccer, though it’s not with out accidents, is a phenomenal recreation. American soccer motion is halted always. The performs are dictated by one or two folks; some parts are so predictable.
Soccer is fast-moving and unpredictable right down to the final minute of extra time. In soccer, gamers should assume on their ft — they should be nimble in addition to robust.
So far as sheer “sport” is anxious, I feel soccer wins, palms down (sorry for the pun).
Natalie Ann Mason Gawdiak, Columbia
Extra knowledge wanted in article about sinking cities
I discovered the Sept. 23 information article “Asian cities are sinking, study finds” fairly attention-grabbing. Nonetheless, the assertion “the median velocity of land subsistence — the speed at which land is sinking — in every of the 48 coastal cities ranges as a lot as 16.2 millimeters, or greater than 0.6 inches yearly” seemed to be missing data.
A variety of values with no different data is just not very useful. (The variety of house runs on the 1927 New York Yankees ranged as excessive as 60. This doesn’t let you know a lot about the remainder of the workforce, does it?) The unique research in Nature Sustainability exhibits the sink charges are fairly skewed. Two cities, Ho Chi Minh Metropolis and Chittagong, are sinking at alarming charges of 16.2 and roughly 12mm per 12 months, respectively. (Solely a graph was supplied.) All different cities are experiencing a lot smaller charges of sinking — lower than 6.5mm — together with three cities that aren’t sinking. The general image is way extra nuanced when knowledge past simply the vary are offered.
J. Todd Sahlroot, Ellicott Metropolis
Rejoicing on the return of E book World
“Come join us,” Michael Dirda wrote within the Sept. 25 E book World. Sure. Sure. I assumed you’d by no means ask. I’ve been ready for thus lengthy that I questioned whether or not I had misinterpret the announcement that E book World was returning. However no. There it was nestled in The Put up on the finish of my driveway that Sunday.
Due to Dirda and Ron Charles for protecting the e-book opinions and proposals alive in the course of the dry spell. A giant due to The Put up for returning this priceless part. And to all of the devoted e-book lovers, learn on.
It made my day once I surprisingly discovered E book World nestled among the many pages of the Sept. 25 Put up. I’ve been lacking it since its demise in 2009, by no means anticipating to learn it once more. It was a downer once I learn that Outlook had been reduce, however my spirits have been lifted when discovering that E book World has been resurrected. Thanks for this boon to e-book lovers.
Sharon Klees, Hyattsville
Honest due to The Put up for reviving E book World. For the numerous within the space (and elsewhere) who nonetheless are immersed on the earth of studying, that is a lot appreciated. These of us who nonetheless get pleasure from print are maybe probably the most grateful.
Thanks for bringing E book World again. It was all the time the primary a part of the Sunday paper I learn after glancing on the headlines.
I a lot loved Michael Dirda’s Sept. 25 article revisiting the unique, “Book World revisited: Memories of the storm.”
Anthony Bates, Alexandria
Causey proved useful to federal employees
Mike Causey was removed from a family identify for many, however he was for me. Although he hung up his typewriter for The Put up in 2000, I instantly acknowledged his identify within the obits [“Longtime columnist was must-read for federal workers,” obituaries, Sept. 28]. I loved studying his column once I first moved to the D.C. space, however, extra essential, he immediately made my life higher, although it took some time.
There weren’t anyplace close to as many retirement funding choices for federal staff again within the Nineteen Eighties, particularly for these of us on the previous Civil Service Retirement System. However in my first 12 months in D.C., Causey wrote a couple of considerably quirky however high-interest, tax-deferred voluntary contribution program for Civil Service Retirement System staff that allowed the funds to be withdrawn with out penalty earlier than you retire. I made annual contributions and had a pleasant little pile of funds that I form of forgot about — however in the end used to buy a trip cabin within the mountains that I all the time wished. And it was earlier than I retired. Thanks, Mike.
Placing 20,000 trillion ants in perspective
The Sept. 20 information article “How many ants on Earth? An ‘unimaginable’ sum, study finds.” reported that there are maybe 20,000 trillion ants on Earth.
I wished to quantify 20,000 trillion. Based mostly on the variety of characters and areas within the 26-page A bit the place the article about ants appeared, The Put up might print 524,160 single digits of 1 in that A bit. It will require practically 40 billion such A sections to print 20,000 trillion digits. That variety of A sections, at 2 ounces per part, would weigh billions of kilos.
Richard Hobcraft Allan III, Charlottesville
