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Letters to the Editor

We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here

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Inspired by Waxwings

Dear Bay Weekly:

Not to sway from being a longtime devoted fan of M.L. Faunce, I want to thank Sonia Linebaugh for her Bay Reflection, Waxwing Winter’s Finale (Vol. xiv, No. 10: March 9). Midway thru the piece I found myself pausing, thinking how well written it was. It was a pleasure to take a short journey away from the office, even if for only a few minutes.

—Romi Plociennik, Pasadena

Barks of Approval

Dear Bay Weekly:

Us two Chessies had to get our human to type our reaction to Kat Bennett’s recent article, “Where Have All the Chessies Gone?” [Vol. xiv, No. 9: March 2].

We think that it’s a good thing there aren’t a lot of us around when compared to Labs and swamp collies (golden retrievers). That means we aren’t being over-bred to the point that our desire to work has been bred out of us. When was the last time you saw a cocker spaniel that hunts? Would the honey-blond swamp collie down the street rather swim the Bay in the winter or ride around with mom and the kids in the SUV?

Although all of our owners don’t necessarily hunt, we still work with them. Besides hunting and field work, we enjoy competition obedience, tracking, agility and even fly-ball. Some of us enjoy working as therapy dogs, too.

While we liked the article, we sure hope it doesn’t cause people to want to live with one of our breed when they might be best suited for another or perhaps a stuffed animal. We are not Labs with curly hair. As the article correctly notes, we were bred to retrieve ducks and geese in the coldest and nastiest weather and to protect our owner’s possessions when not working. We are still a hardworking, intensely loyal, protective and serious breed and are best suited to live with an owner who doesn’t try to make us into something we are not.

Some think us surly and aloof; we like to think that we are reserved.

Roo-roos!

—Jan and Nettie, via David Steinhoff, Severna Park

What’s Not to Love about Curious George?

Dear Bay Weekly:

I couldn’t disagree more with Jonathan Parker’s review of Curious George [Vol. Xiv, No. 8: February 23]. It was my three-year-old son’s first big screen movie, and he was enamored and terribly sad when it ended.

Both the movie and music represent a hopeful and wholesome view of the world, which not a lot of cartoons, let alone movies, do these days. Cartoons for children are generally littered with adult humor or have at least one sassy, negative character who is not a good influence. I left this movie loving George, the music and the movie and felt really good that my three-year-old may have learned a positive life-long lesson or two. I just wish there were more appropriate children’s movies out there like Curious George.

—Wendy Hamilton, Waukesha, Wi