Dear Shirley, Butch, Duke and Steve
I don’t know if you will remember me, my name’s Pat Pope and across a few years in the nineties I worked for you as a photographer. That’s one of my photos of you accompanying this letter. I worked pretty hard on that photo – actually, throughout my time as a photographer I hope I’ve always worked hard to make all the artists I’ve had the opportunity to shoot look as good as they can.
Today I received an email from your management company Big Picture Music Co. It’s a very nice email, and in it they announce that you’re working on a book about the band which you plan to self-release next year. The email says that you really like some of the photos I took of you and would like to use them in your book. It also says that in return for the use of my...
Lifestyle
Dear Daniel Snyder,
Tough day, huh? It's not all the time a company is stripped of its trademark by the U.S. Patent Office. At your past job as CEO of Snyder Communications LP, I guess you didn't have to worry about that.
Well, you do at this one and here we are. The Redskins' name has been canceled by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which deemed the name "disparaging to Native Americans" (applause for the 21st century).
In principle, this allows you to keep your name, but hinders the ability of you (and the NFL) to make money off Redskins merchandise. Of course, you say you are going to appeal.
I say you shouldn't.
It's time to throw in the towel, Dan. I get it. I respect you. You're a local product from Silver Spring, Md. You spent a couple years in your...
2,923
Dear Mr. Precisely What's Wrong With This City,
Hi. Remember me? Short chubby opera lover from the DIA? I'm the guy for whom you very nearly ruined the dress rehearsal for the opera Frida.
I remember you and your two friends. How could I forget your searing, South Eastern Michigan voices hot in my ear, disrupting the sounds of a world-class opera company and orchestra with comments such as "Ewww. That was awkward." What was awkward? Was it that Frida Kahlo's lifelong struggle with injuries sustained as a child was examined in the libretti? I'll tell you what's awkward, you: A trio of art-hating pseudo-hipster malcontents going to an opera, putting their feet up on the seats, and talking at a high volume throughout the entire performance.
I've just one question for you, you half...
2,581
Dear Jay Z,
First off, congratulations on the most talked about launch of a music service in years. As the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity. If indeed you have finally opened the door to the discussion of what people do want from music on the internet, I applaud you and I have the greatest respect for everyone who is part of it.
I'm saying this as someone who fights for my artists rights every day but is also the mother of a 15 year old music addict so I see both sides and I applaud and need ... both sides.
Music is free. It's the bastard child of the internet that no one can control and make behave in a manner they want it to, and yet it remains the most consumed product online except maybe porn.
The sooner everyone gets their head around music being free...
2,340
Dear New York Times
As the paper of record, your op-ed page is a natural target for snark, derision, and other forms of criticism.
I'll certainly plead guilty to these venial sins. I've found flaws in more than a few of your columnist's writings on foreign affairs. Thomas Friedman, in particular, has invited a fair measure of scorn from your correspondent over the years — though I'd note that I'm hardly the only one guilty of that sin. Let me stipulate that I have no doubt that Mr. Friedman can polish off an accessible 800 word column on foreign affairs better than 99.5% of the foreign policy community. And Friedman has locked down a certain Greatest Generation demographic, the one that emails their children with Ph.D.s in political science to say "Tom Friedman said something...
2,377
Dear Pastor,
Tone can be tricky in writing. Picture me popping my head in your office door, smiling and asking if we could talk for five minutes. I'm sipping on my diet coke as I sit down.
You know that I'm not one to shy away from speaking my mind, part of the reason you love me (mostly!), so I'm guessing that internally you brace yourself wondering what might be next.
I set my can down and this is what I'd say.
A few years ago I sat across from a woman who told me she doesn't go to church on Mother's Day because it is too hurtful. I'm not a mother, but I had never seen the day as hurtful. She had been married, had numerous miscarriages, divorced and was beyond child bearing years. It was like salt in mostly-healed wounds to go to church on that day. This made me sad, but I...
7,029
Dear L.A. Times Editors:
It has come to my attention that you will no longer be publishing letters to the editor from "Flat-Earthers". This is an outrage, and shows your obvious spherist bias.
By taking the stance that the Earth is round, you are going against 6,000 years of obvious truth. Look around you! Do you see the world curving down, away from you? Of course not. And the idea that we live on a thin skin of crust outside a giant sea of molten rock is simply ridiculous. If that were true, the ground would be warmer than the air above it! Duh.
The claim of a scientific consensus is another orbist lie. Have you not seen the Global Flattening Petition Project, which is signed by thousands of scientists* who know the true unbent shape of our planet? And don't forget...
2,453
Dear New York Times,
The ReThink911 campaign has erected a billboard across the street from your headquarters to call your attention to the evidence, cited by over 2,000 architects and engineers, that proves World Trade Center Building 7 was brought down by controlled demolition on 9/11.
We urge you to look at the evidence — starting with the video footage of the collapse — and publish an editorial stating your position on the challenges being made to the government's explanation of Building 7's destruction. The question of what happened to Building 7 is simply too important for the New York Times not to examine in a careful and balanced way.
To that end, we urge that your editorial include, but not be limited to, the following information and facts:
A link to this 30-...
2,124
Dear Jeremy,
As you know, for decades there was widespread child sexual abuse taking place in the London Borough of Islington. The extent of the abuse was only uncovered through the tenacity and bravery of whistle-blowers, journalists and survivors which led to a number of independent inquiries and the damning Ian White report in 1995.
As with the rest of the country, the reality is that child abuse was rampant, ignored, covered up and the extent of it is only just beginning to come to light. The attitude was that of the Head of MI5, who was revealed yesterday to have written about a paedophile MP to the then Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong in 1986: "At the present stage ... the risks of political embarrassment to the government is rather greater than the security danger...
4,249
Dear Lieutenant General Mark Andrew Brilakis,
Many thanks for your service to our nation, I will not bloviate on how critical recruiting quality men and women is to the defense of our nation. I understand how important this is to you.
You and our U.S. Marines are at the tip of the spear. I spent over three years as a Special Programs/Officer Programs Recruiter in New Mexico. Our headquarters was in Phoenix, AZ. I recruited folks out of the desert, sent them to Officer Candidate School and then the U.S. Navy trained them. Many are still serving today.
In regards to the loss of life at your recruiting station in Tennessee. I send my deepest sympathies to you, the U.S. Marine Corps recruiting command and the families of Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, from Springfield, Mass., Lance...
2,564