Megan Smith and Kara Swisher

Reader Comments from The Fray:


Ms Smith writes on Monday:

When I lived in Japan it was nice to watch this kind of global news without the 'U.S. is the best' spin every five minutes that emanates from the announcers.

Well, I'm living in Japan now and the coverage is just as pro-Japan. And it doesn't irk me in the least. Of course the producers want to serve the main of their audience by focussing on home-grown athletes and revealing genuine excitement when the home team wins. Furthermore, U.S. coverage is more justifiable because the U.S. is the best, at the moment, by medal count, if that's how you want to measure these things. Isn't the Olympics all about a relatively healthy variety of patriotism, shallow though it may be?

--Mack

(To reply, click here.)


Notes from the Fray Editor: Well first, JP says it was Dean Martin and not Frank Sinatra who sang "Ain't that a Kick in the Head". Nobody argued.

WillV and Kevin discussed in this thread how a gay sensibility might affect the Breakfast Table, but despite very differing initial positions in the end seemed not to find much to disagree about.

Jim was one of several readers interested in the WSJ view on gays and how it might affect Ms Swisher: Mike Gebert's take was "Don't like being fired for being gay? Then don't work for an anti-gay group of right-wingers like the WSJ". There were polite exchanges of views. Kara Swisher took up the question in Thursday's entry.

Fray poster Kara W. says she doesn't know many other Karas, but several are gay, and thanks for the informative article. Nothing to worry about there.

It's not clear how insulting Joe Q. Public meant to be--another reader was surprised that he could quote Dorothy Parker but not spell scum. Mr Public replied that he meant to spell it that way: skum. To see Kara's response to that, click here.

(9/19)

[Added later: At this point on Tuesday your Fray Editor said "And that's the nearest thing to controversy that we could find." We may have spoken too soon, and the Breakfast Table writers felt [Thursday] that some of the comments in The Fray were hard to take. Titles of posts included:

Illegal behavior/Illogical behavior
Lesbian sodomy (no, no link, if you're that interested go and find it)
Kara needs to get to work
Proof of thin skin
Vulgar favors

Though we hope Kara and Megan found some consolation from the many posters who came in to cheer the writers on:]


I have noticed, in the Fray postings and other public discourses, the use of the phrase "homosexual lifestyle". This locution is used almost exclusively by those who hate homosexuals. I am a middle-aged single father of 2, engaged to a middle-aged mother of 2. We share a house. I have a good job and am actively involved in my local youth baseball league. In all of this, I am utterly unable to come up with a label for my "lifestyle". I don't have a lifestyle. I have a life. And while my sexuality is a part of that life, I don't define myself by the gender of my partner. It is those who define people's lives by sexual orientation who are sick.

--Bob K

(To reply, click here.)

And finally, we at The Fray say Thank you Michael Rebain: "Remember: On land, flags fly at half staff. At sea, they fly at half mast."

(9/22)

• Telnaes Animation: Bush Ponders His Legacy
• Editorial: The World's Expectations for Obama
• Dionne: The Rebirth of American Capitalism
• Samuelson: The Real Engine of Mayhem