Letter Number 100

Greetings, and welcome to Friday Letter Number 100! Dig in.

Number 100

The Friday Letter was actually the brainchild of one of my children.

“You’re a good writer, Dad,” she said. “You shouldn’t put off writing just because you’re doing other things for a living now.”

That struck a chord with me. Some of Laura’s family had also encouraged me in a similar way to write with regularity. So we invented “The Letter.”

Number 100 doesn’t mean a hundred weeks in a row. It means a total of 100 weekly efforts – we missed a couple of weeks because of vacations.

It does mean a pretty consistent and time-consuming effort must be exerted. I’m often taking notes, even though I might not be right at the keyboard at the moment.

Once I have a rough draft, I go through the whole thing repeatedly, perhaps as many as ten or a dozen times. I’m a good writer, but I’m a better editor. Editing is the factor that makes writing good.

Laura copy edits each letter before it goes out. She has caught me in any number of misspellings, goofs and gaffes that would otherwise have been most embarrassing.

And, Laura knows how to “post” on the “blog” and takes care of that as well as the photography.

Laura has a couple of hours in each week’s effort, and I probably put in five to eight hours. Many thanks to her for the application of her expert English usage and her devotion of time to the effort.

The daughter who was so encouraging of my writing? Interestingly, she quit speaking to me after I sent the first two or three “Letters.” I forget what the issue was. Perhaps one day we will be joyfully re-united.

The e-mail address list has increased at least fourfold in size since we started. “Hits” on the blog have come frequently and from all over the planet. (We have a service that shows these facts.)

Response from readers has been gratifying to us – anything from “way to go, Tom,” to “I wouldn’t have thought of that. Thanks.”

The “Letter” has resulted in an increase of communication – correspondence – with any number of friends and family. This was the primary goal of the Letter, to establish or improve correspondence.

Still, sometimes it feels like we’re doing all the work. In other words, deeper and more frequent correspondence is still a goal. So get with it. We can’t benefit from your thinking or experience or your perspective if you don’t take the time to write it down and send it.

Controversy

The “Letter” hasn’t shied away from controversial issues – politics, religion and other hot topics.

People whose views differ radically from my own have been eerily silent. I suppose, it’s difficult to write something cohesive in favor of abortion, for example, because in actuality, abortion is indefensible.

However, the blog will remain open to comment. And I can’t learn anything from your silence. Here’s hoping I haven’t mowed over anyone who might have otherwise had something to teach me.

Thanks for your continued support of “The Friday Letter.”

Two recipes

Go down to your favorite grocery market and pick up a three-pound package of potato salad, any flavor.

At home, dump it into a mixing bowl and add two or three cooked, peeled, cubed potatoes from your refrigerator. (You do keep cooked potatoes in the fridge, at the ready for hashed browns or whatnot, do you not?)

The ready-mix you get from Safeway or King Soopers will always be too heavily laden with mayo and spices. Adding your own boiled potatoes will “make it your own” and it will make it taste lots better when its ingredients are more properly proportioned. Guaranteed.

Second recipe

Buy a large bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice or a variant. Also buy a large bottle of flavored, unsweetened sparkling water. (Quart? Liter? Dunno any more.)

Pour the two liquids in glasses half and half. This reduces the overall sugar content of your refreshment, and gives a nice zippy summer drink. We like mandarin orange, for one. Uh, you might venture to add a shot of vodka and some ice cubes – if it’s after dark.

The vasectomy

Once upon a time in the ‘70s, there was a young man whose mother had certain ideas about how many children a young couple should have.

Two. No more. No less.

So by and by, when the young man and his lovely young wife had had four children, the young man’s mother took charge of things.

She instructed her son to go get himself a vasectomy, and sent along a check to pay for the surgical procedure. Guidance? Helpfulness? Loving motherly care? Perhaps manipulation would be the best word.

It wasn’t a good idea, but it took a few years for the young man to figure it all out.

When other parents were trying to tell their children about “self control,” this young man’s mother was telling her son about “birth control.”

Did the mother ever realize that, in a way, she had encouraged her son to throw away any semblance of self control he might have had at age 25?

No more worries, the mother was saying. You don’t have to worry about getting anybody pregnant now . . .

You’ll be quick to point out that the young man should have grabbed the bull by the horns, he should have said, “No, thanks, Mom.”

He should have called his own moral conscience into play, and he shouldn’t have bought into his way-liberal mother’s value system. True.

However, the implied license to fool around is difficult to resist. Would your own mother expose you to temptation?

In today’s world, it’s true, we have replaced “self control” with “birth control.” We may never get it back.

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Word of the week: Verisimilitude. We’re back to Latin today. This one comes from verisimilis, or veris, “true,” and similis, “like.” It means the having the mere appearance of being true or real. It’s like true, man.

Next week’s word: Callous.

Gripes? Complaints? Whines? Comments? Adoration? Puppy love? Reciprocal rant? Feel free to express yourself in the comment section below!