Dear Glen T. Senk, CEO Urban Outfitters Inc.
This past weekend, I had the unfortunate experience of visiting a local Urban Outfitters store in Minneapolis. It appeared as though the recording "artist" Ke$ha had violently exploded in the store, leaving behind a cheap, vulgar and culturally offensive retail collection. Plastic dreamcatchers wrapped in pleather hung next to an indistinguishable mass of artificial feather jewelry and hyper-sexualized clothing featuring an abundance of suede, fringe and inauthentic tribal patterns. What do you think?
In all seriousness, as a Native American woman, I am deeply distressed by your company's mass-marketed collection of distasteful and racially demeaning apparel and décor. I take personal offense to the blatant racism and perverted cultural...
Lifestyle
Dear Ms. Morrison,
I feel compelled to respond to your recent blog post regarding comments I "allegedly" made outside the BAFTA dinner on Saturday night. I never spoke to you at this event; in fact, you weren't even there.
I am completely and utterly shocked that a professional journalist, whom I have never met, would take a partial quote out of context and use it as the basis for a misguided personal attack. Further, I find it appalling that you would resort to name-calling to get your point across. In a court of law this would be called hearsay, and in journalism, I believe this should be the beginning of an investigation, not the end of one.
Let me be clear: the quote from USA TODAY that you used as the foundation of your piece was taken completely out of context. I NEVER...
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Dear Roosh V,
I'd like to start a dialogue with you, if I may. I find you to be very interesting.
Allow me to introduce myself: I am a Canadian writer and blogger, the majority of my content veering on what may be called "feminist". From my name and photo, you may be able to glean that I am a woman.
I have done extensive research about you and your work, and I have to say, I've never seen anything like you.
Most PUAs sort of beat around the bush (no pun intended), but you really cut to the chase, don't you? I mean, at least the others pretend to like women. You actively show your hatred and disdain for the fairer sex in ways that would make any self-respecting person cringe. That, good sir, is a feat.
As I was watching your videos and reading your material, I kept asking...
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Dear Prime Minister,
As an alliance of organisations concerned with improving energy efficiency through the refurbishment of Britain's homes, we are writing to express our grave concern regarding proposed changes to energy efficiency legislation and to ask that you reconsider the dramatically reduced target for solid wall insulation (SWI).
The 8 million British households currently living in energy-leaking solid wall homes, including half of our most hard-pressed "fuel poor" families, have been badly served by successive Governments. Through their energy bills they have paid £2.7bn into "energy efficiency obligations" over the last decade and have received very little in return.
The proposals set out in your Government's "Future of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO)"...
2,750
Dear Minister,
I write to make two points.
First, I fully support the idea you have proposed of building more homes for Aucklanders on public land. I am pleased your government has reversed its long-held opposition to major government-led house building projects to boost housing supply in Auckland. I know you're constrained from explicitly acknowledging a "housing crisis," but I can see from your actions that you understand the crisis exists and that you want to help solve it. While my preference is for a larger and more closely-controlled scheme than you've proposed, and I would prefer other, additional, reforms to help more Aucklanders own their own homes, your proposal is a step in the right direction.
Second, however, you are clearly not competent to do this work. The...
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Dear Prime Minister
Urgent action needed to respond to the national epidemic of violence against women
We, the undersigned, are writing to you about this week's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting to discuss ending violence against women.
The media reports that, this year alone, 31 women in Australia have died as a result of gender-based violence. And we're not even half way through the year.
Where we used to talk about the death of "one woman a week", tragically the figures are now closer to two women. Violence against women is a national emergency that requires urgent responses from the leader of our nation.
You have recognised this in directing COAG to address violence against women in 2015, by your establishment of the Advisory Panel on violence against...
2,999
Dear Zac Efron,
Thank you for pushing the boundaries of mankind by unhooking a bra in 0.453416 seconds ...
It was inspiring.
Yeah, we know you've probably had a lot of practice in matters concerning the female anatomy — I mean, damn dude, a condom fell out your pocket during the premiere of The Lorax — but you're cool about it.
You didn't think your "pinch and slide" strategy was remotely impressive.
Once that female interviewer sees you in action, she visibly gets a chick-boner.
The fairer sex appreciates this moment as much as we do. Keep up the modesty — it suits you — but don't ever downplay your mad skillz.
High School Musical 4 lyfe.
Much Love,
GQ
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Dear Mum
Ever since dad taught us children how to pray, I’ve never let a day slip by without asking God to grant the both of you eternal love and mercy, which you both thoroughly deserve. Today is no different.
Even though your tireless devotion to the family is undoubted, I’ve never pondered deeply into it until I became a mother myself. I was pregnant with my first child at the same age as you were pregnant with me, your 10th. The scoreboard read 10:1 in your favour. I felt instantly defeated. Each time I struggle with the myriad of responsibilities that come with being a woman and feel tempted to complain, I think of you.
As a young mother, you lived in an era where water for domestic use must be collected daily from the well, disposable diapers were unheard of, washing...
2,340
Dear Hollywood,
As Vulture's resident comma queen, my job is to make sure our writers mind their p's and q's and em dashes. While I mostly edit for clarity, accuracy, and house style, lately I've been fielding excessive questions regarding movie titles of unwieldy length, and the mechanics that make them manageable. Or, in the case of this weekend's Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, attempt to do so.
It's been a banner year for punctuation on multiplex marquees, and we copy editors have had to brush up on our HTML as a result. New York's house style requires that we use films' official IMDb titles on first mention, which is how we wind up with marked-up monstrosities like The Divergent Series: Insurgent. There was a time when colons and dashes served a practical purpose: to convey...
2,211
Dear Premier Wynne,
We were cautiously optimistic to read your open letter to the people of Ontario announcing your Open Government initiative promising "engagement, accessibility and welcoming new ideas." When your party formed the government ten years ago, the Society for Quality Education contacted the newly appointed Minister of Education to introduce our organization and offer insight and information on quality education practices in order to improve student achievement. As an education stakeholder, we had always met with every Minister of Education from the David Peterson Liberal government, on through the Bob Rae NDP government, to the Mike Harris PC government--until the current Liberal government, your government, took power. At least when you were Minister of Education we...
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