Victor
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My late father (who was born in 1928) once told me he didn’t know what all the fuss about Native American iconography in sports was. I told him that it wasn’t up to us but up to Native Americans to decide what is offensive to them. And that we’d be horrified if a team had a mascot in blackface or yellowface. He told me he understood. So it’s up to the people with Hansen’s disease to decide whether the term leper is derogatory. And they have. So perhaps the Times could find alternatives? <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/12/health-campaigners-call-for-an-end-to-the-use-of-the-word-leper" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/12/health-campaigners-call-for-an-end-to-the-use-of-the-word-leper</a> Ps. I served in the Peace Corps in West Africa and saw people with serious cases of Hansen disease. They were ostracized enough without more help from us. PPS. My wife and I visited Kalaupapa NHS on Molokai where Father Damien ministered to people with Hansen disease who were exiled there. In the early 1980s a state legislator in Hawaii seriously proposed sending people with HIV there.
@Paul M I agree. Polite and thoughtful feedback is one thing but some of the comments seem to go way beyond that. My late mother in law came from China in 1929 at age 9 with her mother and $10. She sent four children to college and three to grad school. And she made a mean congee.
As an adoptive parent of two beautiful daughters we celebrate gotcha day. We also have a dog, and while we love our dog very much it is not the same as adopting a daughter. I (and many others in the adoption community) find this to be a false equivalency. Could I suggest rescued for pets? <a href="https://adoption.com/why-you-should-say-rescued-instead-of-adopted-when-talking-about-your-pets" target="_blank">https://adoption.com/why-you-should-say-rescued-instead-of-adopted-when-talking-about-your-pets</a>/
As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Cameroon) loved 11D. And for those of you wondering, yes it’s still around. And for those of you saying “I always wanted to do that,” it’s never too late. President Carter’s mother served in India at 68 and the oldest volunteer on record was 88.
@Steve L There is a big difference between leprosy (the disease) and the noun leper. The WHO also advocates that we not use the term leper. Who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/leprosy. I remember having a discussion with my late father (born in 1928) about the use of Native American iconography in sports mascots. His initial reaction was “I don’t know what all the fuss is about”. I responded that we would be mortified if a team had a mascot in Blackface and that it was for Native Americans to decide what is offensive. He said “I get it” The term leper has millennia of opprobrium and stigma attached to it. If people with leprosy find it offensive who are we to judge.
It is past time for the Times to stop using the term leper in crosswords. For people with Hansen’s disease this term is deeply offensive <a href="https://www.leprosymission.org.uk/about/faqs/#:~:text='Leper" target="_blank">https://www.leprosymission.org.uk/about/faqs/#:~:text='Leper</a>'%20is%20an%20offensive%20word,terrible%20treatment%20and%20discriminatory%20laws.
Isn’t pho soup redundant? <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pho" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pho</a>
Technically Lyme disease is named after both Lyme and Old Lyme CT <a href="https://royalsociety.org/blog/2016/04/q-a-lyme-disease" target="_blank">https://royalsociety.org/blog/2016/04/q-a-lyme-disease</a>/ But as this article notes it’s been around much longer than the reports from the 1970s
Beautiful constructor’s note. Happy anniversary. Enjoyed this but I did think “end cut” was a stretch. We have a favorite steakhouse and while they have lots of choices I’ve never seen that on the menu
Perhaps not everyone has seen Frankenstein. That shouldn’t call for thinly -veiled insults. Everyone has different viewing habits. For me, while I’ve seen both Frankenstein and Young Frankenstein (or should I say Fronk-on-steen), the latter is much more top of mind. <a href="https://youtu.be/0VkrUG3OrPc?si=nePm6fbSDUUN4y6c" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/0VkrUG3OrPc?si=nePm6fbSDUUN4y6c</a>
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