Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

“He [Will Varner] was at once active and lazy; he did nothing at all (his son managed all the family business) and spent all his time at it, out of the house and gone before the son had come down to breakfast even, nobody knew where save that he and the old fat white horse which he rode might be seen anywhere within the surrounding ten miles at any time, and at least once every month during the spring and summer and early fall, the old white horse tethered to an adjacent fence post, he would be seen by someone sitting in a home-made chair …

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Dear Editor: Scientific American magazine, for the first time in its 175 years, has endorsed a presidential candidate—Joe Biden. Trump is so anti-science that the highly-respected magazine feels compelled. It didn’t even endorse Abraham Lincoln, as Steven Colbert pointed out on “The Late Show.” Trump, in regular self-delusion, compares himself to Lincoln. Trump also thinks C.D.C. head Robert Redfield is “confused,” that Redfield publicly disagrees with Trump. Redfield states that a Covid-19 vaccine won’t be available until the 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2021. Trump wistfully wants it here by the Nov. 3rd election, as he projects himself the winner. He even has the soldiers …

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To the Editor: How is President Trump doing on his promise to Make America Great Again? The 2020 Social Progress Index measures quality of life in countries around the world based on the research of Nobel-winning economists. The top 10 countries are: Norway, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Iceland, and the Netherlands. The U.S. ranks 28th. It ranks No. 1 in the quality of universities, but No. 91 in access to quality basic education. We lead the world in medical technology, but are No. 97 in access to quality health care. The U.S. has the most wealth, but the highest income inequality …

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To the Editor: I very much appreciated Curtis Springer’s August 22nd [Portsmouth] Herald letter explaining how he would describe white privilege. A small example from my life is that I was at a yard gathering in Rye a number of weeks ago. I had evidently parked in a place on the road that wasn’t designated as safe for oncoming traffic. Midway into the gathering, I saw the lights of a police car. I knew immediately what the problem was. I moved my car. Incident done. Neither the policeman nor I was threatened by the other. I am a white, graying, middle class woman, and he …

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Generally we are not inclined to toot our own bosun’s whistle. In this case, though, we’ll make a happy exception. Our Tidal Guide for September 21st included this item: “1989—The Chase Manhattan Bank accepts for deposit a check sent as a prank by Spy Magazine. Endorsed by ‘short-fingered vulgarian’ Donald J. Trump, it’s for $0.13.” On Wednesday, this showed up on Twitter: “The ‘this day in history’ feature in the @NHGazette is the best I’ve ever seen—and not just because one of their events for yesterday was Donald Trump in 1989 becoming the only rich American of the dozens to whom Spy sent increasingly tiny …

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