I was quite puzzled after reading “Confessions of a Band Namer." Is Harold Wells, who purports to have named many famous bands, a real person? Was this a joke by Mr. Thorpe to see if his readers are awake? Nirvana could not have been named by this character. They were a nowhere band that had no backing or money. “Nirvana picked their name from a list” that was sent to their record company? Impossible! This Mr. Wells named the Sex Pistols and Malcolm McLaren didn’t pay him? Absurd! I don’t know the history of those other bands, but I’m sure it’s made-up nonsense too.
David, did you take what he was saying at face value without thinking about it?
Gregg Walker
Watertown
Palin to destroy freedom and sex; save the world
I have to agree with the lead-in to your recent editorial “Palin: The Plain Truth”: Governor Sarah Palin is a menace. A menace to the Western hegemony represented by the out-of-control colleagues of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on interventionist courts in Washington, Massachusetts, and California. With undisguised contempt for voters and people of faith, courts strike down things that are still obvious to everyone from Hindus in India to millions of Catholics and Protestants in Latin America: family and freedom are important. There is more to life than possessions and sex. The world is more than what Harvard-educated elites in Chicago and Sacramento say it ought to be. We should rejoice that Western liberals and their statist, anti-democratic ideas are in danger — and that they are threatened by democracy, and faithful, committed, gutsy leaders like Sarah Palin.
Darrell Hartwick
Newton
For many Americans, the term “a heartbeat away” is a meaningless euphemism. For those of us who have lost loved ones in a “heartbeat,” the term is very real. The thought that Governor Sarah Palin could be just a heartbeat away from the presidency should Senator John McCain be elected is the stuff of nightmares.
The McCain/Palin ticket will erase all the work done over these many years for equal rights, for both men and women. Our very ability to control our bodies, our lives, and our families based on our own personal values is at stake.
Forget gender. At this point what counts is keeping our inalienable rights as American citizens. Don’t let the Republicans take that away.
Nancy Merz Nordstrom
Pelham, New Hampshire
Palin’ around
Regarding “Feeling Minnesota": if Obama didn’t steal a play from the George H.W. Bush playbook, McCain certainly has. As his running mate he chose an intelligent, female Dan Quayle.
Gordon Marshall
Boston
Text of the week
Recently we asked our readers to text in their thoughts on the best show they had seen that week. Here’s what one person had to say:
This Thursday, I saw Xavier Rudd with Griffin House at the Wilbur Theatre. Not only the best show of the week but one of the best shows I’ve been to.
