RADIO RANT
Love him or hate him, Rush Limbaugh is entertaining and amusing. Al Franken (Cover Story, "Al Franken is a Big Fat Candidate…Maybe," by Sheelah Kolhatkar, Nov. 30-Dec. 6) is neither, which is probably why Limbaugh's show is carried on 600-plus radio stations, and Franken's on less than 80. One of my friends once told me, "Limbaugh infuriates me, but he's funny! As for Franken, every time I listen to him, he's off on another angry rant!"
Kenneth R. Gilder
St. Petersburg
PARADISE LOST
I think Lance Goldenberg should recuse himself from reviewing films having to do with Palestinians ("Blow-up," review of Paradise Now by Lance Goldenberg, Nov. 23-29). He's proven himself time and again of being incapable of separating his political bias from his film reviews.
Goldenberg rolls his eyes as he painfully tells us how he saw no less than four films on suicide bombers at the Toronto Film Festival — poor Lance. Maybe that's because more filmmakers are trying to shed some much needed light on the horrific effect that decades of occupation can have on a people. But Goldenberg would rather accuse Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Asad of having an "unconscious desire" to satisfy the public's appetite for movies about suicide bombers, which he then equates with serial killers.
And as if that wasn't enough, Goldenberg berates the potential audience for Paradise Now as having a "seedy fascination with the glamour of the pathological" rather than the need to understand the circumstances that can drive someone to strap explosives to their body and detonate themselves in a crowd.
Lisa Marzilli
Riverview
Lance Goldenberg replies: Like it or not, Lisa, we're all political creatures. My main beef with Paradise Now is simply that it takes a very complex subject and turns it into something black and white, which is pretty much my definition of bad art and bad politics. Propaganda is propaganda no matter what side it comes from, and I find it very troubling that Paradise Now is only able to give a human face to one people by denying that same basic humanity to another. That kind of hypocrisy makes for problematic filmmaking, as well as uncomfortably mirroring the worst impulses driving the whole mess in the Middle East.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
I was verily impressed with "Giving In" (by Max Linsky, Nov. 16-22). I am also gifting-impaired. To give you an idea of how bad it's gotten: I clumped my mother's Mother's Day (May) and birthday (September) presents together. She came to my house on a visit, I showed her the presents but asked her to wait and not take the picture frame and book with her 'cause I was not done making it yet. Last I knew it was in my trunk. It's only November, so it's not that late, right?
My father once got a CD that I purchased for Father's Day a year and a half later (unwrapped) for Easter.
I once bought a friend a beautiful silver-plated piggy bank for her baby shower. She never got it. The kid is now in first grade.
I want to improve. I love shopping for babies. Once, a very dear friend of mine had a beautiful baby boy. I eagerly bought him a pastel blue velour baby blanket. Maybe if I get it to him in time for Christmas, he can use it as a shroud while he potty trains.
You might think the problem is that I don't love the recipients enough. That's not the case. My nephew "confronted" me last February in the middle of the mall, because I had promised him a Christmas present and he had yet to get anything. I handed him a Power Ranger or something just as I finished paying for it at K-B Toys. He's only 6 so he won't remember these things.
I have finally decided to just call people on their birthdays. It's worked fairly well. Everyone has been pretty appreciative. Although my father thought it was pretty funny that I insisted that he check his calendar when I called him on Aug. 8. After he stopped laughing he assured me that his birthday was on Aug. 5.
Do I earn a separate category?
Naydelis Rivera Lebron
Tampa
This article appears in Dec 7-13, 2005.