Letter: Noteworthy Items in the Paper
To the Editor:
The recent publication of so many good things has finally impelled me to write.
Foremost among them is Chuck Wooster’s new Perspectives page commentary on the property tax, “Subtraction by Land Subdivision,” published Feb. 3. If this mindset gains currency, it might actually be possible to make progress in our method of local taxation. At least it would not require a complete new structure of assessment; we already collect the information; we just need to add it up differently.
Then there are the editorial cartoons. When did Clay Bennett first start appearing in your pages? It’s not just the gentle subtleness of his points I appreciate, but also the drawing style that he uses to express himself. While most cartoonists slash with bold blacks, he uses multiple shades of grey. How low key, how appropriate.
What would a letter to the editor be without a little grammar? In response to Stephen Campbell’s Feb. 6 letter, I, too, have seethed over “lie” and “lay,” whose misuse infects everyone, it seems. Here’s my guide: “Now I lay me down to sleep/I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” This old prayer uses “lay” properly, and reminds us that we need to lay something; in this case “me.” So hens lay eggs; but I lie flat on the snow when I cross my ski tips. But who played the dirty trick on him and pluralized the subject of his last sentence so it fails to match the verb? “The solutions lies with you.”
Jerry Doolittle
Meriden
