THE YEAR IN LETTERS

In 2001 this office received letters from the left, the right, and every
point in between. A couple shared a sight from Switzerland: a fish
sculpture; a man provided a picture and letter about sympathy Americans
received in a piazza in Rome; another correspondent sent a piece from Ginot
Shomron, Israel, where just minutes away in Immanuel, terrorists blew up a
bus. The year will be remembered most for 9/11. We printed 2,950 letters -
more than ever before - on the Editorial and Op/Ed Pages; roughly one-tenth
dealt with the attacks and America's response.

Correspondents also wrote of the energy crisis and deregulation, the
"liberal" media, Dubya (about which letters questioning his intelligence
seemed to cease post-9/11), sprawl, reckless drivers, the two Marks, the
SOLs, WRVA, guns, No Car Tax, school dress codes, the Ghetto Burger,
grammar, Dominion development, the Civil War, "heritage," and boom cars.
Readers tackled the age-old question regarding the separation of church and
state; never tiring and always unyielding, others debated the definitions
of pro-choice, pro-life, pro-abortion, and anti-abortion.

We took our lumps, too. Times-Dispatch regulars didn't like our spelling of
Alex Rodriquez' name (oops, we did it again), our use of the term
schizophrenia, our misstating of certain candidates' positions, our
misquoting Henry V, and our wrongly citing a reference to General Lee
rather than General Bee. One writer was insistent that President should be
in the lower case. "Leftists," "agitators," and "leftist agitators" did not
appreciate being labeled as such. Angry parents (and teachers and students
and administrators) in the West End took us to task for implying Godwin
High had an alternative meaning.

Readers regularly hammered Op/Ed columnists Molly Ivins and Maureen Dowd
and Commentary columnists Ray Wallace and Doug Wilder. And the newsroom
hardly escaped unscathed: An 8-year-old noted the difference between an
F-14 Tomcat and an F-18 Hornet, and a restauranteur questioned a critic's
knowledge of snapper soup.

Duds existed outside 300 E. Franklin as well. A man misquoted a line from
"A Man for All Seasons": "It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the
whole world. But for whales?" (Save the Wales!) One wrote about an "elderly
whino"; another called Calvin Jamison's cancellation of parking tickets
written at the Landmark a "flair up." Mark Warner, a woman wrote, was "in
sink" with Panny Rhodes. "If we can turn over our own servicemen in Japan,
Okinawa, Europe, and other countries," a sentence in one letter began.
Another described an agency's "sole and only purpose." One of the statewide
campaigns sent letters, postmarked Richmond (and with the same stamps and
fonts), yet from Virginia Beach, Staunton, Ruckersville, Craigsville, and
Stuarts Draft.

The weird category includes "Chuck from Pennsylvania," who warned private
investigators "use many illegal tricks [including] a pain field generator,
or transmitter. This generator sends a radio frequency that will give you
splitting headaches and shattering earaches." But you can't hear them, so
don't worry, be happy. Another from someone not named H. Rap wondered,
"Where are the real white guys at?"

The year had its share of gems - well-written, erudite, informative,
insightful. Subjects as diverse as "Bojangles" Robinson, John Lindsay,
James J. Kilpatrick, the National Theatre, and John Adams' Sedition Act of
1798 were covered. One reader penned a witty barb regarding composer Iannis
Xenakis; another depicted Hillary's "Village" as not so bad after all. We
learned of lessons Dostoevsky taught in Crime and Punishment about Timothy
McVeigh, and why gas stations should drop the "9" in the price of gasoline
- - and why it was a relief to one writer that East Coast dropped the sale of
Lottery tickets. A recent graduate of the University of Richmond gave her
reasons for regarding the U of R a top school, while another correspondent
dazzled Richmonders with tales of growing up in pre-World War II Austria.

Some frequently asked questions regarding letters . . . .

- -When will my letter be printed? Depends. One may appear in print a day or
two after we receive it; another may take more than a week. Be patient, and
continue to read the letters section each day.

- -Why did you not print my letter? (1) Volume. For instance, publishing 35
letters in one week about John Calvin's role in American Protestantism
would be too many. (2) Length. We typically attempt to print letters with
fewer than 200 words - or about 7" in column space. (3) You didn't write it
- - although we did print (accidentally) a couple of letters this year that
made the rounds on the Internet. (We caught another who had copied a
different newpaper's editorial and sent it to the T-D as his own work.) (4)
Irrelevance. Try to stick to writing about articles, columns, or editorials
that have appeared in our newspaper. (5) Nonexclusivity. We will not print
letters sent to other periodicals - period.

- -Why do I have to provide my address and phone number? For verification
purposes only - and for our records. For those out there believing the
black helicopters are circling above your bunkers: No, we will not sell
your information to black-ops bag men or to the feds.

So keep 'em coming.