Yea Karam, Nay Karam; Ames' Great-Aunt's Breasts; Hit Tabb; More Cheshire Fallout; Voltaire, Darwin...Stalin?; MUGGER's Apostasy
More jewels from Mary Karam, please, on any subject she likes.
Pelda Levey, Manhattan
Queens Logic
Mary Karam: "I look upon Queens as the redheaded stepchild of all the boroughs," you wrote in your 1/10 "Scouting Report."
I'm not sure where you are currently perched to get that view, or where you came from originally, but please spare us your condescending attitude about our home and its relation to the other four counties in the city. You were asked to write up a brief on an ice rink. Why did you insult the only people who actually might check the place out?
I'm not one who believes a location's merit should be judged upon what movies used it as a setting, but I do have to say, anyone who has paid attention (or at least is from Queens) has noticed the borough's increased presence in both film and television. From All in the Family (the greatest sitcom of all time) to Kevin James' show today?we have been visible. (CBS in particular consistently puts Queens as a backdrop.)
Admittedly, in movies we are a little light?but Eddie Murphy's Coming to America is a much better example than Queens Logic. Granted, Cadillac Man was not our finest moment?but we were seen in The Godfather a bunch of times.
But how can you think of movies based in Queens?and not automatically think of Goodfellas? I guess the name would have to be in the title for you to make a connection.
And Ms. Karam, if Queens really is the redheaded stepchild of New York City, I guess you think Staten Island is the crazy aunt locked in the attic. Or has no one told you about Staten Island yet? I think there are enough people in the country who hate New York. There is no reason to get snippy with each other.
J. Puccio, Queens
The editors reply: How Puccio knows that Karam was "asked to write up a brief on an ice rink" is beyond us.
Tongue Kiss
I just wanted to commend the excellent 1/10 piece by Andrew Baker ("Tongues of Fire: Pentecostals of the Lower East Side"). As a born-again Christian?who is not Pentecostal per se?I have too often found that the press writes stories like the above in a condescending tone. Though I may not have agreed with everything stated in it, Baker's is one of the purest pieces of journalism I have read in a long time on any subject. Baker appeared to truly try to remain descriptive rather than to be opinionated. It was a job well done.
Benkai Bouey, via Internet
The Description Was Great?The Pix, Better
I was a big fan of Jonathan Ames, and yet I wasn't entirely sorry to see him go. Everyone gets stale after a while. Seeing his byline in "First Person" (1/10) was like running into an old, neglected friend. I settled in to read, knowing it'd be good and, Mr. Ames, you did not disappoint. The description of your great-aunt taking off her bra?it was like Ames Unplugged!
Daniel Freed, Manhattan
The Aunting
Jonathan Ames: It is always amazing to me how a simple narrative describing our daily lives is so much more powerful than all the angst-driven drivel that comes from most "writers." It is so nice to hear from not just someone who can write but someone who lives. Thank you, Jonathan and Great-Aunt Doris.
Thomas Paynter, Las Vegas
Creeping Sickness
Lionel Tiger's warning ("Human Follies," 1/10) against the creeping religiosification of American public life is timely. I've always been nauseated by this hypocritical waving of the c