saturday, november 16 , 2019. the washington post eZ re A
Free For All
Win mcnamee/getty images
Katie Hill (D-Calif.), second from left, answers questions from reporters on Oct. 31.Thanks to The Washington Post Magazine for the important Nov. 3
prison issue. In her essay, “We’ve normalized prison,” Piper Kerman
wrote that she went to prison for a “first-time drug offense.” One might
imagine she was charged with drug possession. In f act, she was charged
with heroin s muggling and money laundering for her involvement with
a West African drug kingpin, and she pleaded guilty. That was missing
from her narrative exposition and explains why she went to prison.
Our nation i s in the midst of a destructive drug epidemic. Transpar-
ency is important if we’re going to tackle both the drug epidemic and
bursting prisons.
Suzanne Meyer, WashingtonI was moved by the Washington Post Magazine issue centered on
the experiences and voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated
people. I loved the representation from across the country, and I
appreciated the special advisers who contributed t o the i ssue. But I was
saddened not to see highlighted the particular work of so many
activists and leaders in our own city. The District has among the
highest incarceration rates in the country, and our incarcerated
residents and their families face unique challenges, including the
distance many must travel to visit their loved ones in federal prisons
hundreds of miles away. We also have amazing people working to
support returning citizens and family members of incarcerated peo-
ple, to improve the conditions in the D.C. jail and to address the
significant racial d isparities in arrests in the D istrict.
As w e shine t he spotlight on t he experience of incarcerated people in
the United States, let’s not forget the way that mass incarceration —
and t he f ight against i t — shapes the city we call home.
Amanda Poppei, S ilver SpringSincere thanks to The Washington Post Magazine for its issue
written, illustrated and photographed by prisoners. A very special
thanks for not including another review by To m Sietsema regarding
some pretentious restaurant. Glad to see that someone could see the
insensitivity of including a restaurant review in this issue. I did miss
Gene Weingarten’s humor, which would have been appreciated after
such heavy and heady articles. Surely, he has some kind of conviction
on his record that would h ave allowed h im to participate in the i ssue.
Michael Zimmerman, Williamsburg, Va.Unlocking the truth
I really enjoyed what Sebastian Smee
had to say in his insightful, well-expressed
“A rt that makes a lasting impression,” the
first installment in his “Great works, in
focus” series on art in permanent collec-
tions. The selection was interesting and
diverse, and Smee’s observations were
eloquently and thoughtfully conveyed.
This new series is a great way to educatethe public about art, put focus on specific
artists and their techniques and processes
and raise awareness about the rich perma-
nent art collections available to enjoy. It i s a
terrific addition to The Post’s Art & Style
section.
Nan Morrison, Arlington
The writer is a docent at the
N ational Gallery of Art.This art is like butter
national gallery of art
Antoine Vollon (French, 1833-1900), “Mound of Butter,” 187 5/1885, oil on canvasI thank Patrick McDonnell and Wiley for their
incredible work posted in the Nov. 3 comics pages. In
my years of teaching, I have used comics in my
lessons. With few words, much is conveyed elo-
quently. McDonnell’s Nov. 3 “Mutts” strip wasbeautiful and needed. Wiley is always right-on when
showing us lessons needed in clear terms. Both are
heroes to me, and I hope they are appreciated by
many.
Lydia Maggiora Walter, AlexandriaGood breeding in ‘Mutts’
Patrick mcdonnell/king features syndicate
From the Nov. 3 “Mutts”I spent 25 years in broadcast journalism, a rewarding and
challenging career. In the 1980s, I was denied international
travel for investigative stories I was working on because it was
deemed unsafe for a woman. In t he 1990s, I spent a lot of time
gritting my t eeth about comments made to me while covering
fires, plane crashes and riots.
For reasons I cannot fully explain, the photograph thataccompanied Paul Kane’s Nov. 3 @PKCapitol column, “Hill’s
swift exit casts light on Congress in #MeToo era,” gave my
heart a lift. Five women journalists reporting on an important
story of our time. The twist and turns of #MeToo rage on —
and for good reason. This photo shows progress is being
made.
Rosemary Freitas Williams, AnnapolisThe present is female
Reid Wilson’s Nov. 3 Travel column, “Stellar skiing
and lower costs at France’s ‘Grand-Bo,’ ” said that
Mont Blanc is “the highest mountain peak in Eu-
rope.” At 15, 777 feet high, Mont Blanc is the highest
peak in Western Europe, but that is good enough to
make it only the seventh-highest peak in all of
Europe. Russia’s Mount Elbrus tops the list at 18,
feet.
For those trying to climb the Seven Summits (the
highest peak on each of the seven continents), it isn’t
a trivial issue.
Peter Len, Springfield
Europe’s highest is in Russia
Please find a way to give Joel Achenbach an
honorary degree in physics and astronomy. His
description in the Nov. 5 Health & Science article “A
cosmic mystery” of the expanding universe and the
speed of its expansion was more easily understand-
able than anything I’ve read recently on the subject.
While the actual answer to the “Hubble constant” i s
sort of like trying to count the number of angels
dancing on the head of a pin, Achenbach did full
justice to the issue of understanding our vast
universe. Now, if he could only apply his writing and
analytical skills to sorting out the political mess our
dear country is in — that may be harder than
understanding how fast the universe is expanding!
John Mason, Silver Spring
Next up for Joel: Political science
The Oct. 24 news article “Computer achieved
‘quantum supremacy,’ Google says” correctly stated
that each quantum bit (qubit) is associated with
twice as many binary states as binary digits (bits) but
gave this example: “Two qubits are associated with
four possible numbers, three with eight, four with
16.” Really? That s eems like bits to me: 000, 001, 010,
100, 110, 101, 011, 111.
John SanFilipo, Reston
There’s a bit of a problem here
President Trump, in the photograph accompany-
ing the Oct. 25 news article “ ‘Pottymouth’: Trump
presides over a coarsening of U.S. politics,” appears
to be making a gesture, right arm extended with a
fist, left a rm crossing over with the hand in the crook
of the right arm, that when I was growing up in the
Bronx, unequivocally and emphatically meant
something quite vulgar. This gesture, supposedly of
Italian origin, was universally recognizable even to
children. There couldn’t h ave been a more appropri-
ate illustration to capture the subject of the article.
Lawrence D. Powers, Springfield
Pottyarms
Though he would claim otherwise, Dana Milbank
has been sucked into President Trump’s boorish
habit of name-calling. His unnecessary use of ad
hominem epithets, such as “lickspittle” and “oleagi-
nous,” weakened his otherwise reasoned and com-
pelling Oct. 25 Impeachment Diary, “Lickspittle
Lindsey’s week of walk-backs” [Friday Opinion], on
the craven flip-flops of Sen. Lindsey O. Graham
(R-S.C.). Milbank may not have joined Graham or
former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice
in public vulgarity, but I hope that Post contributors
and editors aspire to elevate public discourse, rather
than merely avoid scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Francisco Gonzalez, Bethesda
Name-caller!
I bow to no one in my a dmiration for the ecological
mash-up that is “Mark Trail.” As with many sharp-
eyed readers, I find great amusement at how the
strip’s author manages to put disparate creatures
into the same ecosystem. The Nov. 4 strip was no
exception. While hot on the trail of the yeti, the group
is being observed in a lush forest setting by what
appears to be a Komodo dragon. This massive lizard
is found, as its name suggests, on Komodo Island,
which, at l ast look, was nowhere near Tibet or Nepal.
H ow is it possible that cartoonist James Allen got
it right on Sept. 29 describing the work on Pinzón
Island in the Galápagos archipelago where there is
indeed an ongoing giant tortoise restoration effort? I
guess the dynamic tension between what is and what
might be in Allen’s fevered imagination keeps us
reading.
Johannah Barry, Falls Church
The writer president of Galapagos Conservancy.
The abominable dragon
The graphic that accompanied the Nov. 2 news
article “Poll: Americans sharply divided over wheth-
er to impeach, remove Trump” was headlined
“A mericans and independents roughly split on im-
peaching and removing Trump.” I would like to point
out that independents are Americans.
Karl Brown, Pomfret
Not independent from the U.S.
The “Beetle Bailey” comic strip of Nov. 2 should
not have taken trench safety lightly. In 2016, the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
reported that 23 workers died in trench accidents.
That is 23 too many.
The U.S. utility construction industry trains its
employees to avoid unsafe trench construction
hazards. Our members promote safety awareness at
every job site, including those on military installa-
tions. A real-life SFC Snorkel w ould order his troops,
including Pvt. Bailey, to stay away from open,
unsupported trenches on base.
Robert Baylor, Fairfax
The writer is director of communications for the
National Utility Contractors Association.An entrenched problem
greg and mort Walker/king features syndicate
From the Nov. 2 “Beetle Bailey”The Nov. 6 Style article “National Gallery of Art hires pair of
executives from the Smithsonian” reported that National Gallery of
Art Director Kaywin Feldman “has hired two Smithsonian executives
to lead programs focused on the visitor experience.” I suggest they
start by adding evening hours. Nearly every major art museum in the
country remains open until 8 p.m. or later at l east one day a week. The
National Gallery generally evicts its patrons at 5 p.m.; on Sunday, it
deigns to allow visitors to linger until 6 p.m. In its lack of evening
hours, it keeps company only with the de Young Museum, the Barnes
Foundation and the Frick Collection (which manages to keep its
doors open until 9 p.m. 10 days a year).
Noah Meyerson, WashingtonNight at the museum
Whatever happened to putting
a caption directly beneath a pho-
tograph? I noticed a partner in
frustration: Te d Houghton’s
Nov. 2 Free for All letter, “We
plead nolo contendere,” won-
dered, “What did the picture have
to do with the caption?” Placing
captions directly under pictures
used to be the way of The Post a nd,
I thought, standard print conven-
tion. Sometimes, though, I find
myself wearying while searchinga page for the description of a
photograph. Somewhere along
the way, The Post began stringing
multiple captions together in one
clump to explain numerous pho-
tographs that dot a single page or
even multi-page spreads. One
would think it challenging for
those employees responsible for
providing the proper directive
(upper left, far upper upper left)
for identifying which verbiage
goes with which image. How
about just slipping that little cap-
tion nicely and neatly directly
under the photograph? Frustra-
tion, confusion avoided for all.
Betsy T. Brady, Palmyra, Va.The Post’s
far-left
problem
Slip the c aption directly
under the photograph.
The Oct. 29 front-page headline “Ukraine call
concerned officer who listened in” presented a
double-entendre that I first read to say that Army
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was culpably involved
in President Trump’s July 25 telephone call with
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Stating
that the call “concerned” t he colonel could mean he
was “anxious” or “worried” but could also mean he
was “implicated,” according to Merriam-Webster.
In these highly charged times, The Post should be
more careful with word usage.
Jeffrey M. Hamberger, Potomac
Concerning diction
Jabin botsford/the Washington PostPresident Trump in Manchester, N.H., on Aug 15.
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