Tom Danehy: Not Only Ignorant, but a Fool, Too
I have long suspected that Tom Danehy is unusually ill-read, so his confession that he had never heard the phrase “April is the cruelest month” until his readers recently alerted him to it did not much surprise me (July 29). But his infantile dismissal of “The Waste Land”—one of the towering monuments of American literature—for being too long exceeded my expectations of even his capabilities.
It proved him to be not only ignorant, but also a fool.
Erik Ryberg
Cynical Actions by the Right Have Harmed Discourse
I enjoyed your piece today (“Down One Fan,” Editor’s Note, Aug. 5). It’s so true. I remember jawing politics with my best friend all the way home from high school back in the ’60s. He was a Democrat; I was a Republican. Now retired after 30 years of teaching at Pueblo High School, I’m probably more liberal than he ever was!
But now, no one can even broach the subject of politics without bitter anger rearing its ugly head. It is too bad. And I’m afraid the cynical tactics of the right are much to blame.
Doug Potter
A Comment From a Reader at TucsonWeekly.com
Regarding “What a View!” (Aug. 5):
Are you kidding me? When (Alex Mills) bought the property, he knew it was against the Mexican border. Anyone with any common sense knows there will be problems with that stretch of property. This is 100 percent an excuse to try to collect money from the government (our tax dollars) by saying he lost property value. … That property is worthless unless you’re a fool. It’s only good for cattle, and I’d be worried that they would come up missing.
—jps3464
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2010.
Erik, I often don’t agree with Danehy, and sometimes I don’t even like what he says. But, he does always make me think. And that is the point here – the reason I want to keep reading him. He should NOT write just what he thinks I’ll agree with, he should write something that makes me think, “I never thought of it that way before.” If it changes my mind, then I’ve learned something; if it doesn’t change my mind, then I’ve learned something.
I suppose I could say something like, if you don’t want to think, then don’t read Danehy – but I won’t.
W Corvi
Papers like columnists who generate strong reactions, as long as they are not too strong. You point could be used to defend any writer no matter how stupid or ignorant he or she is. On the rare occasions that I forget how worthless Mr. Danehy’s commentaries are, and read one, it does “make me think.” It makes me think , “Now why did I waste my time reading that fool’s pointless blathering?”