Nonsense

How could you allow William F. Buckley Jr. to state such patent nonsense as "You can do almost anything to the Christian majority - take away their right to pray in the schools. . . . "? Sen. Lowell Weicker (R., Conn.) says in the march issue of Church & State, "Thanks to the Constitution as written, no one, no individual in these United States, can be prevented from praying or reflecting as they deem fit anywhere, anytime. Why would anyone trade off such a total freedom for the organized freedom of prayer in a classroom?"

RE THE letter "It's an El of a ride (Dec. 11): I agree and disagree with Mr. Adamson's points regarding the Market-Frankford El. There's no doubt SEPTA could do a better job with its revenue and in turn, stop its passengers from having to dig so deep into their pockets to get to work. But fewer stops? I get on and off at Berks Street every day with many other riders during the rush-hour communte. Mr. Adamson, if you don't feel like sitting through some of the less-popular stops on your way home, then stop riding the B train and ride the A instead.

WHEN THE Daily News prints silly right-wing letters, Philadelphia looks stupid in the process. If Jason Conlan wants to compare Philadelphia to Iraq, we can have him walk down a street in North Philly, and on a bad day nothing would happen to him. But let's send him to Sadr City, in the heart of the Baghdad Shiite ghetto, and this lily-white Republican would be beheaded faster than you can say YouTube. And Tom Bell wants to send the majority that believe Iraq is a mess to Iraq.

I READ YOUR recent front-page story about Sen. Rick Santorum's new book. He's against abortion, in favor of women staying home, against gays and for the ongoing war, tax breaks for millionaires, and whatever George W. says. Is there a single apple on the Republican plate he doesn't polish, to speak in polite terms? No. I can't understand how people can watch the unbelievable price of gas and the windfall profits of oil companies, the continuous loss of American life and limb in a war that has lost all meaning, and the attempt to control peoples' thinking by linking a political agenda to religious feelings that are taught from early childhood - how people can watch this and not get furious.

Today, I have submitted my letter of resignation to the Board of Education.. . . I came here change the status quo. What's going on now is as status quo as it gets: Backroom deals, no public hearings, no accountability, a job here, a job there, divide and conquer, people straddling the fence.. . .What's new about that? Not a thing. It's because of decades of that nonsense that we're in this mess.. . . I have no problem with trying new and innovative things such as privatization.. . .But I also believe in honesty and candor and openness and accountability.

What you remember about Patricia Neal, who died Sunday at the age of 84, is the tobacco-cured voice and appraising eyes that in a glance could take the measure of a man to the millimeter. In her two best roles, The Fountainhead (1949), as absolutist architecture critic Dominique Francon, and A Face in the Crowd (1957), as radio journalist Marcia Jeffries who midwives a maleficent media personality, the way she looked at Gary Cooper's pneumatic drill and Andy Griffiths' acoustic guitar was positively indecent.

During the first Gulf War, Marco Lokar became the poster boy for unpatriotic behavior. While you might not remember his name, you probably are familiar with Lokar's story. Before Operation Desert Shield, Lokar was a rather anonymous player on the Seton Hall University basketball team. But as Desert Shield transformed into Desert Storm, the basketball team showed its "solidarity" with U.S. troops by displaying American flags on its jerseys. Every jersey had a flag stitched to it, except Lokar's.

WAS SHAKESPEARE A FRAUD?" asked the poster at the Ritz at the Bourse. "Uh, no," I replied. I was there for Anonymous , a movie about how William Shakespeare never wrote his plays. I was a college teacher of Shakespeare for 22 years. I've read every word most scholars believe he ever wrote. More, I've read every contemporary document connected with him. I'm not special; lots of folks, in and out of school, can say the same thing. This "he didn't write his plays" thing?

THEY'RE filming that movie on my block - and I notice that every member of the crew is white. We have such prominent liberals in Hollywood but they have not managed to integrate their film crews? I understand that they have some kind of "grandfather" nonsense going on with the unions. Are film crews to remain forever all-white? By the way: Their catering service left a pile of trash outside my door. James Morton Philadelphia

BEIJING PM: ARMS SALES 'TOTAL NONSENSE' Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin angrily rejected yesterday as "total nonsense" allegations that Israel had sold China billions of dollars worth of military equipment or had violated Washington's ban on the transfer of U.S. arms technology. But Rabin bluntly refused to comment on defense links between the two nations despite persistent reports that Israel has supplied the Chinese with sophisticated military equipment for at least a decade, well before the nations established diplomatic relations two years ago. "We are not so stupid as to endanger $3 billion in (annual U.S.)

After painting a rosy picture - singing praises of the siblings' work ethic and attitude - Timber Creek wrestling coach Nick Cottone heard a question that tripped him up a bit. What are they like in the room together? Almost not wanting to concede it, Cottone paused before offering a grittier picture of why the Shade brothers have been so successful. "They butt heads a lot," he said. "Blaze is constantly pushing Bryce to get better. They're definitely close, you can tell.

WAS SHAKESPEARE A FRAUD?" asked the poster at the Ritz at the Bourse. "Uh, no," I replied. I was there for Anonymous , a movie about how William Shakespeare never wrote his plays. I was a college teacher of Shakespeare for 22 years. I've read every word most scholars believe he ever wrote. More, I've read every contemporary document connected with him. I'm not special; lots of folks, in and out of school, can say the same thing. This "he didn't write his plays" thing?

When President Obama told the media why he had released his long-form Hawaiian birth certificate, all I could think of was Pakistan. Yes, Pakistan, where no conspiracy theory is too bizarre and you'll hear that 9/11 was a Zionist plot - and Osama bin Laden a U.S. agent. Ordinary Pakistanis turn to conspiracy theories to explain the overwhelming problems that face them. But those unhinged theories distract them and their leaders from dealing with real problems that could do them in. So I felt a painful twinge of recognition when Obama said he'd decided on the release because the birther flap was eclipsing the debate over the budget.

There's the legendary pitch, which may be more legend than fact, by the legendary TV producer Aaron Spelling for his not-so-legendary drama Nightingales : "Student nurses in Dallas in the summer, and the air conditioner doesn't work, so they sweat a lot. " ABC ups the ante with its ridiculous Off the Map , premiering Wednesday at 10 p.m.: Doctors, in some South American backwater where there is no air conditioning to begin with, so they sweat...

A version of this review appeared Wednesday. The Focker franchise is like Chrismukkah, an interfaith mashup serving plum pudding with a latke on the side. Starring Ben Stiller as the Jewish son-in-law who fails to meet the unreasonable expectations of his gentile father-in-law (Robert De Niro), Little Fockers , third in the series that began with Meet the Parents , comes to bury grudges and inevitably raises them instead. The best that can be said of the overpopulated and underwritten film is that it gives in-laws, spouses, and spawn a place to put their holiday anxiety and laugh at it. But the humor is sporadic, with Viagra jokes that don't provoke laughs so much as cringes.

The Focker franchise is like Chrismukkah, an interfaith mashup serving plum pudding with a latke on the side. Starring Ben Stiller as the Jewish son-in-law who fails to meet the unreasonable expectations of his gentile father-in-law (Robert De Niro), Little Fockers , third in the series that began with Meet the Parents , comes to bury grudges and inevitably raises them instead. The best that can be said of the overpopulated and underwritten film is that it gives in-laws, spouses, and spawn a place to put their holiday anxiety and laugh at it. But the humor is sporadic, with Viagra jokes that don't provoke laughs so much as cringes.

What you remember about Patricia Neal, who died Sunday at the age of 84, is the tobacco-cured voice and appraising eyes that in a glance could take the measure of a man to the millimeter. In her two best roles, The Fountainhead (1949), as absolutist architecture critic Dominique Francon, and A Face in the Crowd (1957), as radio journalist Marcia Jeffries who midwives a maleficent media personality, the way she looked at Gary Cooper's pneumatic drill and Andy Griffiths' acoustic guitar was positively indecent.

There's a wickedly funny Stieg Larsson takeoff in last week's New Yorker: Nora Ephron riffing on the late Swedish author's mega-selling Millennium Trilogy. Titled "The Girl Who Fixed the Umlaut," Ephron's piece takes The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo , The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest to task, deftly mocking Larsson's penchant for Stockholm street names, his characters' ardent consumption of coffee and sandwiches, and the unwavering seriousness exhibited by his punk, brainiac heroine, Lisbeth Salander.

T'S HARD to miss the two-tone 1979 Cadillac Coupe de Ville as it rolls down the streets of Coatesville. But it's not just the long red-and-white car that commands attention. It's the driver behind the wheel. Gladys Flamer is 103 years old - 104 next month - and as active today as she was at 90, when she worked as a department-store clerk. She runs errands for her younger neighbors and bakes pies to sell at holiday time. She serves as treasurer of a local club, as she has for decades, just retired as a judge of elections, and doesn't miss a church or city council meeting.