Have a Drink on Us

Discussing a group of college presidents (the Amethyst Initiative) who want to low­er the drinking age from 21 to 18 (“The Week,” Sept. 15), you say “there are good arguments for lowering the drinking age,” but don’t list any.

The old bromide “If you’re old enough to fight for your country, you’re old enough to drink” is inane. The service teaches you how to shoot a gun, how to respect your weapon. Who teaches 18-year-olds how to drink? How to respect liquor? So they learn the hard way — which results, too often, in death.

Joe La Zizza New Milford, N.J.

The Editors reply: It’s true that novice drinkers “learn the hard way,” but this would be true with any drinking age. The question of where exactly to draw the line is too complicated to discuss in this space, but in general we prefer to let adults make their own decisions. The best way to stop them from harming themselves and others is by educating teenagers and en­forcing drunk-driving laws, not by abridg­ing the rights of an entire group.

A-Comin’ To Set the Record Straight

Rob Long has such a good ear for the varieties and styles of American speech that I was disappointed in his otherwise amusing piece on Sarah Palin (“The Long View,” Sept. 29). It ends with her saying, “We’re a-comin’ to gitcha!”

The lack of a final “g” on “coming” is certainly accurate; she drops them “like there’s no tomorrow,” as one friendly reporter put it. But in general she speaks a normal variety of northern-continental standard American, without prefixed “a-comin’.” And forget “git” for “get.” She doesn’t fake down-homeyness.

Long’s linguistic characterizations fit Mrs. Obama’s speech more closely. In a brief clip I viewed, she says “attinned” for “attend,” “whirl” for “world,” and “git” for “get.” However, I think she may be trying to code-switch, as the linguists say — she tries to change her “Iraq” from real-people “eye-rack” to elite “ee-rock,” but comes up with “eye-rock.” So maybe she’s as phony as her hubby.

Richard L. Leed Ithaca, N.Y.

Rob Long replies: I confess wholeheartedly to taking liberties with Palin’s dia­lect — I was going for a kind of Annie Oakley vibe, a go-getter frontiersgal sort of thing. Artists of my stature — your Oliver Stones, your Al Gores — occasionally have to bend the facts to suit the joke.

Go Eat Uranium

Richard Brookhiser — I enjoyed your column “Built to Last” (Sept. 15), but don’t become too enamored of that ’30s Fiestaware. It could be hazardous to your health.

I searched the trivia sector of my an­cient mind, and it told me that orange and red Fiestaware from that era may be radioactive. A Google search confirmed that my 84-year-old brain is still functioning. The message is: “Don’t eat or drink from red or orange Fiestaware.”

If you have access to a Geiger counter, check it out.

Charles E. Small Westford, Mass.

Richard Brookhiser replies: Maybe that’s why my prose glows.

Touché

On page 10 of your Sept. 29 issue (“The Week”), you mention that Asif Ali Zardari has a chance for the presidency only be­cause he could stand in for his widow, Benazir Bhutto. If he has a widow, isn’t he dead?

Linda Hagglund Norton, Mass.