What Did You Say?

Photo: Aztech New Media

It's difficult enough that "gay" doesn't mean "happy" anymore, and "straight" doesn't mean "honest", but now "bad" can mean "bad", or it can mean "good." So, if a kid says a CD is "bad" does he want it or not? Limit conversations with kids to questions that can be answered yes or no, or, more likely, uh-huh or nah. (Andrew Frothingham and Tripp Evans, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, 23 June)

My comment on the above. If your child says to you, "Mom and dad I want to be straight with you. I think it would be bad to go out with my gay friends on Saturday night." What should you reply? "Honestly we'd feel bad if you weren't happy. Have a nice time."

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Yesterday about 5:00 p.m. there was a terrible subway accident here on the inbound Red line. One train was stopped waiting for a train to clear the Fort Totten station. Another train, coming up behind, from the Takoma station ran into the back of the stopped train and then climbed on top of the last car of the train that was stopped. At least seven were killed and more than seventy were sent to area hospitals. Our daughter, Cyndi, used the Red line for four days last week to go to work while her car was in the shop. We are grateful that one of the mechanics came in to finish the work on Saturday so she would have her car again on the day of the accident. I predict that the accident investigation will reveal two causes for the accident. First, they will say that the train operator was talking or texting on her cellphone. Then they will admit that the train was running on the automatic control system and that there might be a very slight, unproven, possibility that the control system failed. If I am right, maybe I should try to get a consulting job with the NTSB.


Mr. Dickie