<html><body><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div><br></div><div style="color:#000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;text-decoration:none;font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000"><div><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;">NOT TOO HARSH</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;">Editor,</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;">Here is another quotation from Marilynne Robinson that I found intriguing. It is the conclusion of "The Strange History of Altruism," one of the essays in The Absence of Mind: "It has been true in fact that the renunciation of religion in the name of reason and progress has been strongly associated with a curtailment of the assumed capacities of the mind."</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;">Also, I sometimes wondered whether the AVA criticisms of KZYX were too harsh, but I tuned into a call-in show while driving in Mendocino and it was appalling. The intense self-seriousness was really sad, and so was the assumption that KZYX was important and special. My theory about a lot of these people is they have just enough money not to work, but not enough money to do much of anything else.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;">Writing about Tennessee Williams' rough last years, Gore Vidal described people like this as "remittance men," people who were paid off by their families to keep their distance.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;">Richard Russell</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;">San Jose</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; vertical-align: baseline; color: #555555; line-height: 19px; background-color: #ffffff;"><a name="16" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #ad3b07;" class="mceItemAnchor"></a><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28459" alt="* * *" width="87" height="46" style="margin: 0px auto 7px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; display: block; line-height: 0;" src="http://i1.wp.com/theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ornament2.gif?resize=87%2C46" src="http://i1.wp.com/theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ornament2.gif?resize=87%2C46"></p></div></div></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>