Letters to the Editor

Please, God, don't let him be a penis grabber
BY JONATHAN KRONSTADT
(10/28/99)

I loved all the humor in Jonathan Kronstadt's article, but I was disturbed that Kronstadt stopped his son from getting a good look at his daddy's wanker. By letting him look the exploration will become a passing fancy rather than an obsession that roots itself sneakily in the subconscious throughout his life. The more communication around sex, including the sexual parts, the better.

-- Nancy Peterson
San Francisco

Jonathan Kronstadt's chronicle of his son Max's exciting new discovery left me wiping my eyes, and put me in mind of my own childhood adventures. Of course, being female, my awakening involved a vagina, corn starch (don't ask), and a clothesline pole in the backyard -- clearly visible, much to mother's chagrin, to neighbors on three sides.

Congratulations on fulfilling every woman's fantasy -- finding a man who understands the true joys (and horrors) of motherhood.

-- Angela Terryll
Birchwood, Minn.

Jonathan Kronstadt's article, while cleverly written, was none the less appalling. In the United States, any depiction of a frontally nude child is considered child pornography, yet it's completely legal to perform plastic surgery on it so that it suits his parent's social or religious whims, then make the child's ordeal the humorous centerpiece of a tasteless article. What kind of a society is fixated on altering their infant son's genitals for no medical reason?

-- Christiaan Hobijn

"I want a dream when I go to a film"
BY MICHAEL SRAGOW
(10/28/99)

One of the more endearing images to emerge from David Lynch's "The Straight Story" is when Alvin invites people he meets along the way to sit a while with him, by the fire, near his makeshift home of a trailer. It's nice to think that a rusty old folding chair is all we need sometimes.

-- Thomas Nochera
Silver Spring, Md.

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