Erin Weir, economist, United Steelworkers, Toronto
Brothel business booming
Do you really think a fourfold increase in the sex trade is a sign of success (Where Sex Means Success: Japan Sees Green Shoots In Its Red-Light Districts – front page, Aug. 7)? For Japanese women who “have been finding it increasingly difficult to obtain work”? For young Japanese who “have drifted into jobs once scorned in Japanese culture”? Would you want your daughter to aim for success by applying for work in a brothel? Maybe your headline would have been more accurate if it said: Men At Bank Of Japan See Green Shoots In Red-Light Districts.
Alicia Priest, Victoria
The skull beneath the college
May I add another snippet to Richard Lock’s letter History Of The Head (Aug. 7), about Oliver Cromwell’s skull? My grandmother was a resident of Kettering, Northamptonshire and, after her husband’s death in the 1950s, took in lodgers. One of them was Canon Horace Wilkinson, who we learned had two idiosyncrasies. The first was he had a silent piano in his room – a keyboard, really – that he would play for long periods of time; the second was, yes, he had Oliver Cromwell’s head in a box.
I often wondered what became of the head, until I read Antonia Fraser’s biography of Cromwell. That’s when I learned it had, indeed, been buried on the grounds of Cambridge University’s Sidney Sussex College.
Ian Savidge, Brampton Ont.
Prescient day at Site 41
It’s appalling that residents rightly concerned about the long-term negative impact of Dump Site 41 on the aquifer above which it’s located are being arrested by the OPP for blocking the landfill (Seven Charged With Mischief For Landfill Protest – Aug. 7). Any type of landfill membrane will eventually deteriorate, allowing seepage to contaminate the community’s water supply. It might be decades before any problems arise, but arise they will.
The advanced years of these wise souls give them a perspective that seems to be lacking in local officials who want to charge ahead with the dump’s completion. The protesters are to be commended for their prescient action: protecting a precious resource for the benefit of future generations they will never meet.
Douglas Counter, Toronto
When a language is a language
It’s no surprise the ambassador of Romania denies there’s such a thing as a Moldovan language – it’s her diplomatic duty to do so (Romanian/Moldovan Update – letter, Aug. 7). The first thing one does when one wants to deny a group of people independence is to deny they have their own language. One can then co-opt some “scientific body” to confirm the opinion.
Any self-respecting linguist, the only kind of scientist whose opinion should matter in this case, will refuse to tell you what a “language” is – for the simple reason there is no “scientific” way of defining the concept. A language is a language when people treat it as such.
This is exactly why linguists avoid terms such as “language” or “dialect” and use the more neutral “linguistic variety.” So call it Moldovan or Romanian or whatever you like, but please don’t try to convince anyone there’s anything remotely “scientific” about it or that someone else’s name can be incorrect in any way other than politically.
Inge Genee, associate professor of linguistics, University of Lethbridge
‘I coulda been a contender’
Screenwriter Budd Schulberg (Obituaries, Aug. 7) did not originate the On the Waterfront line, “I coulda been a contender.” Roger Donoghue, a prizefighter who killed another boxer in the ring and quit “contending,” was hired to coach Marlon Brando. When asked by Mr. Schulberg how far he could have got, Mr. Donoghue uttered the famous phrase that Mr. Schulberg incorporated into his script.
Gary Waller, Toronto
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It appears that a complex vocabulary is not necessarily perceived as a mark of intelligence (How To Seem Smarter – Social Studies, Aug. 6). Mark Twain once said, “I never write ‘metropolis’ for 7 cents, because I can get the same money for ‘city.’” How’s that for intelligence?
Sharon Speck, Pointe-Claire, Que.
