Readers’ Voice
One of the duties I used to have at the paper was transcribing Readers’ Voice. I reluctantly passed that buck a few years back. Even though it was time-consuming, it was always so entertaining.
I’m not sure if it’s me who that’s changed or the people calling in, but the comments on there now are so aggravating that I’m grateful I no longer have to listen to them for about an hour a day. For example:
“If I get hurt by one of these kids wearing Heelys, I will not only sue their parents, but I will also sue the store and the mall where it happened.”
What a sad, bitter, resentful person. I wonder how they managed to reach adulthood without ever being a kid?
“The next time the police want to do a recorded call campaign to look for somebody, they should do it at a reasonable hour. When the phone rings at 5 or 6 am, you wonder who died in your family.”
Child abductors don’t always work the 9 to 5 shift. How anyone could be resentful of a phone call that could help save a child’s life is beyond me.
I wish along with Readers’ Voice we also ran a pat-on-the-back line, although I suppose we’d have to come up with a catchier name. Or maybe we should change the name of Readers’ Voice to the Whine Line.
March 29th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
What a great idea! A kind of a ‘Pay-It-Forward Line’. Spread a few smiles instead of letting the whole world know how ignorant people can be at times.
I seldom read Reader’s Voice anymore just for that reason. Sometimes, if my mood is right, I will read it just to have a good giggle. After all, I’d ten times rather laugh at someone’s stupidity than to be angered by it.
March 29th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Speaking as a young-at-heart old codger, I think Heely’s look like fun. I wish we’d had them when I was a kid. However, as my son-in-law tells me at every opportunity, if I break a hip at my age, I’m toast. (It’s at this point in the cnversation that he gets the “I’m gonna kick your @$$ speech”). I guess I’ll just stick to dirt bikes.
March 30th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
If I could learn how to master the Heelys without anyone watching, I’d be tempted to try them. It didn’t take Celeste long at all to get really good at them, but she doesn’t wear hers all that often because they’re so heavy. (She bought hers with her own money and takes extra special care of them.)
April 1st, 2007 at 1:45 pm
The ongoing Heely debate really isn’t about “kids being kids”. It’s more about parents being responsible parents. The big issues are that kids are very seldom wearing helmets while they are skating on their Heelys, and they are skating in places that they shouldn’t be (indoors). So while I agree that kids should be kids, get bumped and bruised along the way, and have a good time, I am bothered by the huge majority of parents who do not require their kids wear helmets with Heelys, as well as those who ignore that their kids are rolling through indoor places on them. I believe the caller isn’t so much a bitter person at heart, he or she just sounds really fed up with the general disrespect of some kids these days.