Then you’re in luck. Take a trip around the world without leaving your PC. Shut-ins welcome.
Since 2004, The Other Letter has consistenly emphasized integrity over yellow journalism.
I hope that you enjoy reading the Other Letter, as much as I enjoy writing this. That said, I do not have an editor, so please take this website, as is, with typos, incomplete exposition of thesis, etcetera. It’s just my hobby, and with thirty-five visitors a day, my appeal is rather limited, but I do enjoy creating this. In terms of quality control, my motto is the same as Uncle Sam’s: “Good enough for government work.” (No offense towards government workers.)
As seen on my most recent, weekly web statistics, I received sixty visitors a day.
I never have any intention of offending anyone, but I do hope people think in newer, more humanitarian ways upon reading what I write here. I am on the left side of the political spectrum (some might say far, far left), but not always. Trump’s skepticism towards COViD-19 I found to be very refreshing, but I do believe he was a fish out of water once he left the business world for Washindton.
If you do not like what I have on offer here, I understand there are other websites available that you can read.
The Other Letter is a web log, or blog. I log what goes on in my life, be these events, or ideas, be they consequential, or not so consequential. I don’t always avoid the esoteric.
I sometimes write tongue-in-cheek, or apropos of nonsense, prompting the reader to exclaim: “Is he serious, or is he making light of ultra-serious topics. Hey Other, cool it about Trump’s hair being day-glo orange, we all got hair, okay?! You think your hair color is so great for godsakes?!” The intellectual level of my readers varies alot.
Also, before you hire a hitman to “correct” a piece about church attendance, actually read the article about church attendance (which I haven’t yet written, but likely won’t, hitman are a dime a dozen in a weaker economy.)
I enjoy irreverence. If discussion of slave-laborers use of a appallingly stingy, $2,500 stipend for dessert Fridays, rubs you the wrong way, call on Martha Stewart (of all people) who learned well the prohibition against insider trading, to save you from liberal expression. (If this last sentence is gibberish to you, I don’t know what to say other than consider purchasing a newspaper, they are available every day at convenience stores, and libraries.)
To quote Dictionary.com, a blog is:
“noun
a website containing a writer’s or group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other websites.”
I am a blogger, one who blogs. (Having written eight screenplays, I would hope to be a produced screenwriter, but that remains to be seen.)
Use parental controls, if you feel this website is inappropriate for your Junior. I would try to translate this caveat into other languages, but I’m pretty sure the English translation is all that is necessary.
Nice to begin on a snide note, isn’t it? I get the impression that parents despise a website that doesn’t have any porn, drug references, or profanity, so I am more than a little concerned that the American body politic has gone mad (although I do have frank discussions of gender and race relations).
Again, and so there’s no ambiguity: Use parental controls.
How many times do I need to say it — a hundred times?
The Other Letter is anti-drugs, anti-pornography, pro-cops, and anti-police brutality, as well as being pro-religion, or more accurately, pro-spirituality.
This webzine is designed for adults with an open mind, it is not meant for the close-minded, the drug-addled, teenagers, or those looking to file lawsuits. Anyone else, enjoy a nineteen-year effort without any cost to you.
Here’s a formula for winning the office, football pool: Obtain the average margin of victory (or loss) for each team of each contest leading into this week. To do this, take the difference in points for, and points against, and divide by the weeks played so far. Do the same for the opposing team, and subtract this from the other team. Then add in the point spread for that game. Do this for the entire weeks’ games.
Which ever team has more average points up to this weekend’s games, is the team you pick. This method works surprisingly well. I won at least a third of the season’s pools, which had over twenty bettors. Why is this method so effective? It averages margin of victory, which is how sports contests are decided.
Twenty-two years to the day, nearly three-thousand Americans died in the World Trade Towers of Lower Manhattan. My childhood friend worked at Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower. I met his widow at a library function. She likely remarried. His kids would have a stepdad. Food has to be put on the table.
If the mostly Saudi terrorists had issue with America, make a f*cking movie about your cause, write op-eds, do not end the lives of thousands of innocent people.
A reason for the carnage was Israel’s bloodletting of Palestinians. Every few years Israelis fire lethal missiles into Gaza, from a very sophisticated, Iron Dome defense system, one partially funded by the U.S. of A. (Bombing was carried out most recently in 2014 and 2021; in 2014, 2,310 Palestinians perished, versus 68 Israelis).
But that’s Israel, this has nothing to do with my childhood friend.
[This is not a cheap shot against Jews, it is criticism against Israel for its militarism against the Palestinians. I am half Jewish, and I do appreciate my Jewish heritage. It’s Israel that I’m not so thrilled about, at all. 9/11/23.]
I had a nice grocery shopping experience this afternoon. I’m just there to buy food, I don’t go for the incumbent drama.
Most White Americans know of a word for African Americans, one which my Dad, early in my life, said to never say, ever. He told me this in no uncertain terms. I remember my mom saying this later in life: "What Whites put Blacks through was unconscionable."
Anyhow, I may have entered the “Price Club.” I got a near 50% discount. I’m still checking the receipt, it looks half price. The store card accounted for a little, but not 50%. I dunno, but I did very well this afternoon with price.
Another lesson my Dad left for us: Always leave behind a tip at a restaurant. If the service was not up to snuff, is it the waiter’s or waitress’ fault, or is it the manager’s fault? The manager decides if he has enough staff working the tables and the kitchen. The manager can also make working there difficult. These waitresses survive on tips, and if you refuse to pay them, then they’re working for free.
I was grocery shopping at the S&S, and as I was leaving, this Black man moving the carts asked me my name (he may have been 35 years old). I told him, then he said: “Happy Thanksgiving, Steve.” I asked him his name, he told me, and I wished him a happy thanksgiving.
As I walked away, he said that I was the only one who asked him HIS name. I was moved a bit by this.
This is a Dad lesson: There’s reciprocity in dealing with people. If someone shows you courtesy, you do the same for them. He would say, they work these menial jobs, for hours and hours, and months, and years. I don’t know how good I have it. Right again, pa, I don’t, but I’m beginning to see.
Admittedly, I know nothing about rap music, or Africa American music, other than Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, et al, really had it going on: Stage persona, charisma, melody-writing ability, and everything else.
I know very little about music of the Twenty-First Century. Then you’ll say: Do you know anything about music? Well, let’s see:
All these Donald Trump investigations do seem to amount to very little — but one. His January Sixth, 2021, summoning of the troops, his most devout followers, to the “Save America Rally.” The sexual dalliances fall short of the Weinstein mark of pay to play.
Yet to try to cancel a national election by mob force, that was extremely irresponsible, and dangerous. Trump invited his followers on Instagram to steal the presidential election. Trump knew the voting tally, and thus the outcome, was accurate. He could not be so stupid, or ignorant, as to think otherwise.
Trump’s high crime of insurrection could be prosecuted with these questions: First, why did he call a rally together; and second, two and a half months after the election, how could he not understand that he lost the election by seven million votes?
Would Trump try to muscle his way into the White House, demand a second ascendency to Chief Executive, because he mobilized his people to make him President, with fists, and battering rams, even. From these intents and purposes, this was exactly what he was trying to do.
Video credit via Adobe Flash:
© The Other Letter, Inc.; 2015 to 2023
Music credits:
Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 - Classical Whimsical by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This means that Jesus the Christ did not die on the cross, that he survived his own crucifixion. In the Book of Luke 24:39-41, post-Crucifixion, Christ states: “A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” Then he begs: “Have ye here any meat?” A spirit doesn’t need food.
In other words, Christ did not die for your sins (whatever that means), because he didn’t die. Two-thousand years of venerance has been sadly misplaced.
Readers see this and think, geez, I have a thing against Baby Jesus. I don’t hate Jesus, he is an important philosopher, but he was not supernatural, he was not of the spirit world after the Crucifixion. This is a list of his most well-known adages. 2/18/23.
[An aside: My Dad was raised a Catholic, and my Mom as a Jew. I identify more with Judaism. 9/19/23.]
Your wedding is next month, and you need to lose thirty pounds. The following can help, except there is no way you’re losing thirty pounds in a month. Movie stars cannot even do this, Gwynnie Paltrow cannot even do this. No one can lose thirty pounds in one month. We can salvage your wedding day though. 5/16/23.
I am considering campaigning to make Kate Upton’s birthday a national holiday. I love women, so I wrote The Pantheon of Hollywood Women, not yet with current entries. As a retiree, I spend enough time writing sweet nothings to these women on Instagram. Why? Why the hell not. Regulars, they know. I’m a regular, above average intelligence, who has writing chops. Do the math.
(Sarah Jessica Parker did write that she “looked forward to my posts.”
“We don’t believe you.” “That’s too bad.”) 5/12/23...
Very few U.S. presidents, or presidential hopefuls, of draft age during the Vietnamese War, actually went overseas and served there. The following is a list of presidents (or presidential candidates), and the reason why they served or did not serve.
President | Party | Did they serve in Vietnam? If not, why not? |
Joseph Biden | Democratic | No, excused because of asthma. He was a lifeguard. |
Donald Trump | Republican | No, excused because of bone spurs in his heel. |
John McCain | Republican | Yes, spent five years in the Hanoi Hilton with an untreated broken leg. In the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had the audacity to complain that he liked war heroes that didn’t get caught. Talk about service to your country, above and beyond the call. |
John Kerry | Democratic | Yes, he captained a swift boat. |
George W. Bush | Republican | No, he joined the Texas Air National Guard. |
Bill Clinton | Democratic | No, educational deferments. |
Mitch McConnell | Republican | No, eye issue, optic neuritis. |
Mitt Romney | Republican | No, Mormon missionary work exemption. |
Apropos of very little, here are important phone numbers from the American Civil Liberties Union:
White House Switchboard | (202) 456-1414 |
U.S. Senate | (202) 224-3121 |
U.S. House of Representatives | (202) 224-3121 |
ACLU National Office | (212) 549-2500 |
COBS, Canadian Other Broadcasting System, recently had their top reporter interview Taylor Swift. Ms. Swift would only accept interviews by phone due to security concerns. Here is a transcript of that phone conversation.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Is this Taylor Swift?”
“It sure is. Who are you?”
“I’m from COBS.”
“Cobs, meaning what?”
“Canadian Other Broadcasting System. An Other Broadcasting System, that’s the running joke.”
“That’s not funny. Okay, canuck, here’s the deal. My Canadian numbers suck. Avril Lavigne has me beat across every target demographic. You will say how much Canada means to me, yada, yada. Point out the Christmas music videos I made — I’m in the snow, okay? Canadian, eh?”
“Well, okay, but can we talk about more general topics. I mean outside of your passion for Canada.”
“Hmm, like what?”
“Who taught you how to play the guitar?”
“I just picked it up. I got a guitar for Christmas one year. I taught myself, okay?”
“How old were you?”
“I was six, okay.”
“Six years old?”
“Yeah, I’m a prodigy. Next question.”
“What is your favorite song?”
“Er, no, I mean of your songs.”
“Do you know Jake Scrubbmore — of the club?”
“Eh, no? Who?”
“Jake Scrubbmore, double ‘b,’ scrubb more. The Scrubb family of brushes.”
“No, I don’t.”
“He’s very important in the trade.”
“Trade of what?”
“Ha, ha. Funny.”
“What?!”
“The music trade.”
“The music industry?”
“Hey, my management did not send you here to belittle me. On to Canada.”
“Okay, well, okay. Do you follow the NHL?”
“The what? Ask me a few questions about Canada, I’ll field them.”
“What do you think of Trudeau?”
“Pierre, he is a very fine president. I try to stay current with our neighbor to the North. It snows there all year.”
“Well, about Trudeau, he’s Justin Trudeau, Pierre’s son, and he’s a prime minister, we don’t have presidents.”
“You’re pushing it, kid. Did I ever offer you my anecdote about shopping and shunning at the mall when I was a pre-teen? Yeah. Yeah.” [Not praising enough of Taylor Swift, apparently.]
“We’re back from commercial? Okay, Ms. Swift—”
“Taylor to you.”
“Okay, Taylor, thank you. Your Eros Tour—”
“Eras, you rodent.”
“In your Eras Tour, your sex appeal really shines. What I don’t understand, is that your target demographic has always been twenty-something women.”
“Well, once I hit twenty, yes.”
“When you lean over onstage, and show your décollètage, you look like you’re showing it to straight, young women.”
“What’s your question, Cobs?”
“Okay, hmm. Your fans, mostly female, love your songs about guys who just don’t get it. Yet, in your Eros Tour, you look like a stripper often enough.”
“We is done. Done! I hate Canadians. Where’s my agent, get me my agent.”
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is a luxury provided to every United States citizen by the Founding Fathers (this right has the comfort of a luxury). This guarantees freedom of the press: Iran and China do not have this luxury.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Satire, and parody are protected speech, lying about someone is not protected speech. Yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater (the standard example of a free speech exception) is obviously illegal.
As for Other Letter detractors: Hey, these are just words. (I just checked, I get 35 readers a day, so no one gives a hoot what I write.)
There’s much to commend America: The national parks; incredible variety and availability of food; Hollywood cinema; and professional sports; to name just a few highlights. Yet, the shining star in the land of the free, is 1A, the First Amendment, which provides for freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.
Hate speech is the power base of evil. Most lives have had to deal with this hate. This is how to deconstruct it, and effectively deal with these words of destruction and devastation. This is not ribbing (as in “you’re silly”), this is hate. (And I’m not even from Boston.)
Unacceptable Hate Speech | Acceptable Translation |
Nut, you’re crazy | Your behavior is inexplicable |
Loser | Unsuccessful, unproductive person |
Faggot, gay boy, fairy, c*cks*ck*r | Male same-sex coupler |
M*th*rf*ck*r | A male very close with their mom (or just meant disparagingly) |
Terrorist | Committed genocide, or actively contemplating committing it. Or someone of Middle Eastern descent. |
Pedophile | Has sex with children (as Cardinal McCarrick regularly did); or approaches children for the purpose of having sex with them |
Nazi, Aryan, Hitler | Vicious, especially towards minorities. Believes in racial purity and superiority. |
White trash | Without culture and values |
N*gg*r | An African American so lazy and shiftless that they are worthless |
White n*gg*r | A Caucasian so lazy and shiftless that they are worthless |
Dyke, clam-bumper, carpet-muncher, lesbo | Female who is a same-sex coupler |
Whore, slut | A woman who regularly has sex with many different partners |
C*nt, twat | Female worthy of only contempt |
Dick, schmuck, prick | Antagonistic and/or abrasive male |
Satan, Lucifer | Enjoys causing others pain and suffering |
Assh*l* | Someone who makes sensitive matters worse, often unreasonable |
Prude, religious nut | Someone who is overly cautious, and is incapable of having a good time |
Pig, porker, fatso | Significantly above suggested goal weight for height |
Murderer, Manson, Squeaky (Fromme) | Completely unfeeling and insensitive, capable of murder, or actually has murdered |
Pig, fuzz, the man | Police officers who cause much more harm than good, control freaks |
Pigheaded, stick in the mud, old fogy | Incapable of change |
Schlimazel | Waiter who spills the soup on the customer |
Schlemiel | The Customer |
The Evil | Those who use hate speech as a weapon. Attempts to make the happy as unhappy as they are. |
Joke | Someone who is not to be taken seriously |
Flat-chested, flat, flat as a board | Breast size is significantly less than average, unattractive, often due to anorexia. (Although Katherine Middleton is gorgeous.) |
Cow, flaps | Significantly more than average breast size, unattractive, often due to over-eating. (Although Ashley Graham and Kate Upton are gorgeous. Why is Kate Upton wrong? Picture her doing jumping jacks. She shouldn’t be doing jumping jacks. She’s wrong.) |
Psycho | Given to unfriendly, impulsive, antisocial, aggressive behavior. Instigates antagonisms, actively, openly hostile. |
Clone | Copies vocabulary, idiomatic phrases, tastes (especially musical ones) of someone deemed superior |
Weirdo, head case | Behavior is decidedly inexplicable, irrational, barely functioning |
Creep | Someone who preys on the unsuspecting for their sadistic pleasures |
Peeping Tom, voyeur | Getting pleasure watching the unsuspecting, typically in the nude |
Pervert | Getting sexual pleasure that is non-consensual |
Moron, imbecile | An individual with much lower than average intelligence |
Monkey, chimp, gorilla, primate, simian (ape-like), robot | Beneath a human on the evolutionary tree (robots are not a life form), incapable of thought |
Animal, beast | An individual who lacks the manners, civility, and sophisitication associated with being a human being; living, but non-human, animalistic, vicious getting sustenance |
Suicide | Very depressed, future economic prospects are extremely limited |
Moonie (archaic), cult member | So devoted to a religion, they only function within this religion, little outside interests |
Kike, Hebe (Hebrew) | A Jewish person, typically thought of as wealthy, likely because of their belief in education |
JAP (Jewish American Princess) | A young, Jewish woman or girl, who tends to be confident and loquacious. Might be from a well-to-do family. |
Oreo | Black on the outside, White on the inside. A lack of racial identity, and racial pride. |
Spic (and span), beaner | Hispanics who, because of discrimination, are typically poor, and are forced to do manual labor, instead of more meaningful work | WOP (without papers) | Italian immigrant who got to America illegally |
Chink (in the armor) | A Chinese immigrant to America who is not appreciated, despite their work ethic, because they are focused on competitively achieving the American Dream, at the expense of going to bars and night clubs |
Monster | Into frightening others as a power trip, icy demeanor, scary |
Nerd, bookworm | Spends a great deal of time studying to the detriment of any social life |
Freak | Freakish, so far outside the norm, you stick out like a sore thumb |
Bitch, bastard | From unmarried parentage, so offspring illegitimate and breeding questionable |
An illegal | You are denied all human rights because of your atrocious, instigating behavior |
T-Mobile has a great deal on Internet service. For $50 per month, you get a 5G Internet gateway for the entire house. It can be placed anywhere as it is not installed by a technician. You pay nothing for the gateway, although you have to return it if you cancel service. The plan can be quit at any time. I am very satisfied with both the cost, and the quality of service with the Internet connections.
[Editor’s note: I am not reimbursed for this recommendation.]
If you live in an area where most of the television stations are East or West of your home (as I do), then positioning your over-the-air antenna on a North or South wall will produce poor results, you will receive few stations.
Positioning the antenna on a East or West wall can make a tremendous difference. With a North-South orientation, I received four sub-channels even affixed to a window, but with East-West positioning, I received over thirty subchannels.
Reception is best past sunset, when the ionosphere is less active.
Use random passwords generated by a password manager such as Lastpass. The problem being they can be a pain to reenter and remember, because they’re gibberish. The plus side being, baddies cannot hack you, ever.
Two words: Dedicated hotspots. Your library probably has them. These can be used to get the internet free for up to fifteen devices.
I own a Synology client-server arrangement with the music app, Disk Station. This allows every iPod, iPhone, Roku television, and Fire Stick in my home to connect to MP3s digitized via Audacity. The MP3s are all stored on the Synology server, and distributed via wi-fi.
I greatly increased my signal reception of my stereo receiver by flattening out, and lengthening, my antenna cable. I was very surprised by the increased number of stations with much better reception.
When hooking up an antenna to a stereo receiver, choose 300Ω (ohms of resistance), not 75Ω, if amplifying the signal. You will need the greater impedance because the amplification will drown out the entire FM spectrum. 75Ω can still be used when: away from the city; the signals are weaker; there isn’t antenna amplification; so impedance of the signal, electrical resistance, needs to be less. You can play around until you maximize signal strength (antennas do not draw house current).
One night, I had a local radio station be the entire band of reception, until I suppressed the signal with 300Ω.
I just got a great deal from knarith15 on eBay, for a Denon DRW-660, Dual Deck cassette player. I paid $36, and $30 shipping. $30 shipping may sound steep, but it was really well-packaged for any weather.
At first, it wasn’t playing any cassettes, and I thought that I bought a lemon. But as more and more cassettes successfully played, as the cogs started moving again after a probable long respite, I was extremely impressed, especially the high fidelity at full volume (I bought a hi-fi deck, to be played with the analog Vector Research amplifier, hi-fi).
Audio cassettes are at least a forty-year-old technology, and I wasn’t expecting too much from the product. Yet, I was duly impressed. Unlike phonographs for vinyl records, tape decks can play media indefinitely, without interruption.
Denon is a Japanese, high-end manufacturer of audio products that has been in business since 1910.
How this headstone was finely engraved, with font fidelity, in 1764, in the Colonial era, is a real mystery. There weren’t any power tools, and Long Island doesn’t have a steel quarry to make chisels. Did the headstone maker bring the tools over from the Old World. And why does the angel look like an alien from outer space? Many headstones have that sculptured image of an angel with wings.
Have you ever taken “The Tour”? For years now, you’ve put off going to the local cemetery. Not to channel your loved ones with a box of tissues, but rather to investigate life antebellum as evidenced through headstone inscriptions. Well, now you don’t have to slog the family to the gravesite, kids and beach chairs in tow, for their history lesson. I have done all the legwork for you, free of charge, for a limited time only. Visit the dead, they must get mighty lonely, and you don’t want any Halloween-spirit, tumultuous, Dawn of the Dead-style rebellion, do you? 5/03/23.
By the way, if you find a headstone whose lettering is in relief, above the stone, and not engraved into the tombstone, you are hallucinating. Either that, or the stone was engraved by another civilization, not our own. A tombstone with raised lettering is impossible, even today. If you find a tombstone with raised lettering, the grave is of an alien life form. Just sayin’.
Try to keep in mind that this blog is not the Harvard Law Review. It is written solely by myself, without input from any other human being. If you do not appreciate the content here, visit The New York Times (although they charge beyond ten articles a month)...
The latest complaint about this website is that I am not qualified to write it. Admittedly, I am a four-degreed super-genius (two degrees, the M.B.A., and the M.S. in Computer Science, are advanced), with a wide variety of interests that I regularly research and explore. There isn’t any truth to the rumor that I have spent my life knocking back brew, smoking dope, and frequenting prostitutes. I do enjoy thinking about topics outside of everyday concern.
The EULA: I assume no legal responsibility for anything written here. If you do not like the content here, find another source of content. (Hey, the biggest players have their end-user license agreements absolving themselves of all resposnsibility for their Corvairs.) I am a whistleblower, and a muckraker. On May the 10th of 2023, according to my web host, I had 55 visitors. I have a very small readership, but writing is a big joy I have in life, so I keep at it.
I, as well as the Founding Fathers, endorse the free exchange of ideas.
© 2004 to 2023, The Other Letter, Inc.
(Incorporated since July 28th, 2010; domain registration, September 1st, 2004.)
Email address: ideas@otherletter.com.
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