SAYING THANKS

To: The Rittenhouse Review
From: T.S.T.
Date: December 17, 2002

I’ve bookmarked your Web site and read it every day, Mr. Capozzola.

I appreciate your politics and wit and have used your extensive list of blog links to discover other interesting sites.

Thank you and please keep up the good work.

Best,
T.S.T.

STRIKING BACK

To: The Rittenhouse Review
From: M. Davis
Date: December 20, 2002

You, sir, write very well.

I read your jeremiad against Norah Vincent just now with unusual relish.

I have wondered for a while how Ms. Vincent gets published -- not because she spouts asinine viewpoints, but because she simply cannot write. At least George Will can turn a phrase.

I live in Los Angeles, and the Times subjects me to Ms. Vincent’s writing far too often. I was delighted to see the blogosphere strike back.

Thanks for adding a new source of reasoned inquiry to my file of bookmarks.

Best,
M. Davis
Los Angeles

ANDREW SULLIVAN EMBARRASSES HIMSELF?
NORAH VINCENT HATES ME?

[Editor’s Note: This e-mail arrived carrying the subject line: “Blog circle jerks.”]

To: The Rittenhouse Review
From: Siva Vaidhyanathan [ sv24@nyu.edu ]
Date: December 20, 2002

I love your blog and read it habitually when I should be grading my student papers or writing my own book.

But one thing I hate about it and so many other major blogs is the circle of snide blog reference. Who cares what some other blogger wrote or said? Who cares if [Andrew] Sullivan is embarrassing himself again? Who cares if Norah Vincent hates you?

Give me wit. Give me insight. Give me news. That’s what you do most days.

Signed,
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Department of Culture and Communication
New York University

LISA McNULTY & HER FRIEND NORAH VINCENT

To: The Rittenhouse Review
From: Lisa McNulty [ doloreshaze68@hotmail.com ]
Date: December 20, 2002

Regarding today’s Norah Vincent post [Editor's Note: Actually, it was published the previous day, on December 19.] -- you were working awfully hard at denials and recriminations for someone as blameless as you claim to be. Reminds me of Tom Cruise’s absurdly overzealous lawsuit to prove he wasn’t gay. It seems that you, were caught with your proverbial pants down as well. Perhaps next time you will be more judicious in your accusations, for it seems you don’t enjoy looking foolish in public. Unless, of course, you are just enjoying the free press from a writer more accomplished and more visible than yourself. While I often disagree with Ms. Vincent’s work, your behavior in response to it has been and is tiresome and shabby. You seem smart, try not to lash out like a twelve-year old next time someone hurts your feelings.

Signed,
Lisa McNulty

[Post-publication addendum (February 16): For more information about Lisa McNulty and Nora Vincent, see Upstream Mailing List “Conservative Gay Columnist is Under Fire,” and “Writer Norah Vincent Moves to the `Bburbs,” in the Philadelphia Gay News, February 14, 2003. The heading for this letter was changed on the same date.]