Sandy Nissenberg (“Someone’s in the kitchen with Sandy,” Oct. 8) may make healthy, delicious meals and write well-received cookbooks, but I lost my appetite looking at the picture of her and daughter Heather leaning on their elbows planted on the table like hungry farmhands.
Why bother with good food if you don’t use basic table manners? To me, the two naturally go together. Look it up in any etiquette book.
— Mary Kane, Cyberspace
AN INCOMPLETE PICTURE
I read the story called “Missing Dad: Study finds lack of father affects self-esteem of black youths” (Oct. 8) about how the lack of a father figure in the home affected the self-esteem of young black men. Being a young black male, I think the story has some merit, but I also thought it lacked balance. What I kept wondering while reading the story was whether or not the lack of a father in the home affected young white males also, or are blacks the only ones affected by this?
Being an aspiring journalist, I was very disappointed in the choice to run that story since it didn’t represent the other side of the coin. Even a simple note in the story saying that similar studies about young white males didn’t present the same findings would have sufficed. This, I think, is why a lot of blacks have a negative image of the media and always think it is out to portray them in a negative light. And after reading today’s story, I can’t help but agree.
— Ricardo Bernard, Evanston
IN SEARCH OF SUPPORT
I was very excited when I read your article called “Searching out the deadbeats: For a price, collection firms go after parents who duck child support” (Sept. 24). The State of Illinois has been “working” on my child support case for well over two years. Almost a year ago, I found my ex-husband via a people search on the Internet. Why they haven’t been able to locate him, I don’t know. I gave them the address but nothing has ever happened with it. (Now they say they are waiting for the state of Arizona, where he has since moved, to find out where he works.)
My daughter recently turned 19. She hasn’t heard from her dad in over eight years. He hasn’t paid child support for all those years either. It sure would be nice to get the money. And 65 percent of something is much better than 100 percent of nothing.
— Pamela Brosh, Cyberspace
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UP NEXT: Do you think it’s acceptable for parents to use genetic testing in order to have baby whose tissue can be used to help cure an ailing sibling?
BACKGROUND: Two-month-old Adam Nash of Colorado is the first test-tube baby from an embryo screened and selected for implantation in order to be a tissue donor. Adam will provide matching tissue for his 6-year-old sister, Molly, whose only hope for survival is a bone-marrow transplant, preferably from a genetically matched sibling.
Send your response to Chicago Tribune Family section, 5th Floor Features, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611, or e-mail us at ctc-family@tribune.com.
