Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

Dear Editor: Special for me during isolation—by phone playing a Scrabble game just about daily with my 96-year-old friend Marylou in Florida, in assisted living, in isolation too. We have conversation while playing, so please don’t suggest online “Scrabble with Friends!” My Scrabble game’s box lid is falling apart, but in it I glued, when new, this article about the manufacture of Scrabble letters. The article is dated January 13, 1999. A Hasbro spokesman said, “The Bauhinia Limited Co. of Hong Kong is [now] making the wooden tiles and tile racks at its plant in Shanghai.” Also, “For 20 years, Milton Bradley Wood Products, Inc., …

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a found poem I. Donald Trump’s Failed Businesses Trump Steaks GoTrump Trump Airlines Trump Vodka Trump Mortgage Trump: The Game Trump Magazine Trump University Trump Ice The New Jersey Generals Tour de Trump Trump Network Trumped! II. Donald Trump’s Bankruptcies Trump Taj Mahal Trump’s Castle Trump Plaza Casinos Trump Plaza Hotel Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts Trump Entertainment Resorts W. D. Ehrhart Bryn Mawr, Penn.

To the Editor: In recent days, protestors carrying weapons and wearing Trump, Nazi and Confederate insignia, have confronted Democratic governors to demand that Covid-19 social distancing orders be lifted. In Michigan, their cars blocked ambulance access to a hospital. Protestors demand that governors “reopen” their states, public safety be damned. “When it’s my time to go, God’s going to call me home,” one said, with disregard for the safety of others. The protests themselves endanger lives, congregating in tight groups without masks, handing out candy to children with bare hands. Conservative media figures and officials have encouraged such protests, to “free” the states, suggesting that …

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To the Editor: New Hampshire’s founding fathers knew what it was like to live under a king. Our State Constitution imposes many limits on elected officials to prevent anyone from acting like a king. Elected officials are elected for two-year terms. Uniquely, we have an elected Executive Council. Appointments by the Governor must be approved by the Executive Council, as are contracts over $10,000. Unfortunately, New Hampshire now has a Governor who wants to play king. He says we are in an emergency and he should be given sole power to distribute $1.25 billion in Federal aid. He says there is no time for oversight …

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To the Editor: All of us here in New Hampshire and the rest of the country are doing our best to push down the Covid-19 threat so that we can get back to our previous normal lives. However, it is important for our political leaders, the healthcare community and the business community to develop a strategy now to get there after the health threat subsides. Most professional medical experts and worldwide business leaders are already recognizing that a major component in any such strategy must be intensive and comprehensive Covid-19 testing and testing for Covid-19 antibodies. We can assume that if a person has developed …

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To the Editor: Thank you for continuing to publish during this time made even crazier by the coronavirus. Thank you, too, for your generous offer to extend my subscription until you go back to print, but please keep my renewal date the same (November.) Yes, I love the feel of freshly printed cellulose between my fingers, but if I’ve gotten it, even in digital form, you don’t owe me. Please take the small amount that my subscription represents and use it to keep the commentary rolling. Stay well, Nan Graves Cape Neddick, Maine Nan: Aww…. The Editor