Peter Foster often writes us letters. Sometimes we publish them, and sometimes we don’t. No further correspondence on a particular letter is made in either case. Not even when I comment on the letter negatively or disagree with him. They are always fairly polite and usually interesting, so we publish them. When they arrive in the inbox at editor@lmtimes.ca, I don’t have strong feelings about it one way or the other, and I certainly don’t have a label set up to intercept them and colour code them, so I know they are definitely not “important news.” ‘Webster’ knows I have such labels for other senders. But I always get to them, and they make it into the pages more often than not. Most things good enough to publish will be burning a hole in the inbox until they are vetted and printed. So sometimes, it is easier to get it over with right away.
Sally Field once told a young Tom Hanks, or whatever, that “life is like a box of chocolates,” but the rest I disagree with because boxes usually come with a Map or Legend. Instead, I substitute that “...blah blah blah...chocolates, you have to eat the bad ones first, and the rest will taste better by comparison.” Judging by the conclusion of the story below, maybe this is more like a box of brandy beans and, like Mr. Foster, the underside of the lid is...no legend. Possibly an ABV disclosure.
All this to say – we welcome more letters from readers. Even if it’s a story that proves to be a long-winded excuse to have a drink at 5:30 AM. Peter, when they say “it’s five o’clock somewhere...” they mean P.M.
-Editor
