Near Cat-astrophe
I was deeply moved by Kathleen Pierce’s Connections about her cat Murphy’s adventure after getting outside “(The Fugitive,” July 23). I had a similar experience with my cat Simba. My family would let Simba out at night and she would be ready to come in the following morning. Then the morning came when Simba did not come when we called her. After three days of searching, we figured she was lost. Well, on the morning of the fourth day, lo and behold, here comes Simba out of the woods covered with mud. We’re not sure what happened to her but we were so glad that she managed to get back home safe. Cats like Murphy and Simba certainly do have nine lives!
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Judy Johnson
Needham
Very happy to hear Murphy returned home safely and [the writer] made new friends in the process. But please take this as a lesson learned to keep both cats indoors and safe. Most lost pet stories like [hers] don’t have such a positive outcome.
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Breaking Point
Great Perspective (“Movies Are Bloated. Bring Back the Break!” July 23). I would love a second crack at the concession stand. But Perspective writer Spencer Buell did leave out one of the greatest intermissioned movies of all time — Gone With The Wind!
John Decker
Plymouth
Even in the ‘60s, intermissions were far more common. The length of movies these days (over two hours) is one reason I prefer to wait until a movie is streaming rather than see it in the theater. The intermission is a chance to stretch, even if you don’t need the bathroom or popcorn.
Justicia613
posted on bostonglobe.com
Good call, Spencer. I enjoy intermissions at concerts (for the reasons the writer cited) and don’t recall anything I didn’t like when movies also had them. I do hate trying to guess at the best time to take an impromptu pit stop during a movie if I need to — inevitably, though returning as quickly as I could, I miss something: Who is this woman? What happened to that guy?
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MWK
posted on bostonglobe.com
Use the RunPee app. It gives you the best times to go to the bathroom during movies.
ColDax
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Health Goals
[Female soccer players’ ACL] injuries need to be studied with the same level of scrutiny and research (funding) that male athletes’ injuries receive (“The ACL Problem,” July 30). This article is very informative but the answer lies in more intense study on the training and biomechanics involved in high-level play and how to protect women from debilitating, recurring injuries. They should be able to compete at the highest level they can reach without fear.
envirsci17
posted on bostonglobe.com
This terrific piece, as good and revealing as it is, is disturbing. Better treatment of women, in sports and elsewhere, will not be ceded. It must be taken.
Gary Slovin
Honolulu
I’d be curious to know what percentage of these women participated in year-round travel soccer teams as kids....The NBA is seeing overuse injuries in young players that, 20 years ago, they would not have seen until a player gets later in his career. I think overspecialization among kids before high school is often the culprit.
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Missing Piece
In addition to the beautiful depiction of her twin’s selflessness and generosity, Connections writer Judy Norton provided her own selfless nod to all those who suffer the loss of someone close to them (“Twinless,” July 30). Several decades ago, while walking, I came upon a confused elderly man who needed help finding his way home. He told me that he had recently lost his twin and had essentially become groundless. The kinship among twins that he described — and the unbearable grief when one dies — has stayed with me all these years later. Ms. Norton captured this unique anguish with perfection.
Beth Duncan Ratner
Dover
Serendipity? Coincidence? What are the odds that I would stumble across Norton’s article when my twin was making her annual visit from Oklahoma to see me on Cape Cod? Needless to say, we could identify through tears and smiles with her loss and feel the looming departure of one of us leaving before the other. We both feel her grief.
Pamela Burkes-Smith
Newton
For three years I have been one of the “spouseless spouses” in the poetic closing paragraph of “Twinless.” My wife was similar in many ways to the author’s sister. Judy Norton is right. I would add only that love never ends once grief becomes an ingredient.
Bradford Harding
Natick
As an older woman who finds most of my family gone, I truly understand Ms. Norton’s grief. But her last paragraph will stay with me forever in the hopes of being more compassionate.
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Pamela Wilderman
Marlborough
Reading this brought tears to my eyes. No, I didn’t lose a twin but I did lose my dog after 15 years. She was our baby. I miss her so much. I have lost many others over the years as well. I still shed tears for them, too. I loved them all, I cried for them all, and I think of them always.
Sharen Kaufman
Norfolk
How I enjoyed Norton’s piece. It was so beautifully written and is such a loving tribute to her sister, Jan.
Ginny Moloy
Windham, New Hampshire
A hard read but accurate portrayal of those living in grief. I lost my wife to cancer 19 months ago. Life without her is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I push forward. For my daughters, for myself, for her. In love and purpose.
Carl Rapp
Charlestown
Truth Be Told
Artificial intelligence is scaring many people to the point that some believe it will ruin all of us (“AI is Muddying the Truth. The Way to Fix It Is Centuries Old.” August 13). I frankly believe that this is untrue. The Perspective authors have written that the supposed dangers of AI can be successfully controlled six ways: observing, hypothesizing, testing, analyzing, reporting, and repeating. That is how we did it in the past, and that is how we can and should do it in the future.
Santo “Joe” Aurelio
Winchester
AI offers a lot of positives, when used positively. While I agree with their suggestions and goals, I fear that Adam Bly and Amy Brand offer a false hope about the likelihood of its being used carefully and broadly for the public good. All those “we must” and “we could” and “we should” thoughts depend upon a benign “we” prevailing. Given human history and current behaviors, that seems to this jaded human unlikely to come to fruition in the foreseeable future.
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Ann Somers
Brookline, New Hampshire
We must not let the ease of AI search further flatten and simplify knowledge into oblivion. Let us not waste this moment indeed!
Sunny Bates
Climax, New York
Bittersweet Memories
Just read Jenna Ciccotelli’s Connections about her beloved grandpa, and their Red Sox/Yankees rivalry (“One More Banana Split,” August 13). I had the same rivalry with my dad. He lived in Iowa. We kept the rivalry alive through email, until he died in 2009. When baseball started in April 2009, my first thought was, No more emails. With the start of every season my thoughts always go to my absent emails and the love we shared through them. May Ciccotelli forever feel her grandpa’s love in her memories.
Patricia Leahy
Dartmouth
We all need to write memoirs like this, even if they never see the light of day. Its good for the soul.
Burncoatgirl
posted on bostonglobe.com
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