I sat down on New Year’s Day to flip through the Sunday ads, as usual. This time, however, the cover of the Chicago Tribune Magazine caught my eye. It’s not very often that I read an entire article, but Dave Barry’s review of the year (“We’ll Always Have Paris,” Dec. 31) had me laughing out loud the entire time I read it! I felt like I was watching Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. It was a great way to finish one disaster of a year.
ALAINA BERES / Tinley Park
Cost conscious
The article on the high cost of attending Southern Illinois University (“Can SIU Stay in the Game?” Dec. 3) brought back memories of my undergraduate days there. I earned a scholarship for one year, worked in Morris Library, and took out two loans totaling under $7,000. I received no other financial assistance, and my lifestyle reflected a necessarily strict budget.
Do I remember those aspects of my undergraduate days fondly? Mostly not, but it never occurred to me to leave SIU because of the cost. Attending college is a privilege. Thanks to the assistance of my current school district, I have earned my graduate degree from Western Illinois University, and you’d better believe I pocket the stray pennies I find in public.
ANN DREYER / Bushnell, Ill.
THE READER WHO had a bad impression of SIU (In-Box, Dec. 31) should have looked past the well-worn buildings and researched the quality of the science staff. He would have found an outstanding group of professors on the cutting edge of their professions. SIU has one of the finest science departments in the Midwest and is recognized as such by peer institutions.
Regarding another reader’s comments about research interfering with professors’ teaching duties, I am confident that research at any university is a core aspect of teaching and of challenging professors and students in today’s world.
SIU has been doing this since its birth and will continue to do so. I went to SIU when there were many old barracks-type buildings, but I was challenged to be a critical thinker, and that has served me well in my profession for over 35 years.
BILL MCGRAW / xxxx
Syne language
In her Home on the Range column (Dec. 31) Leah Eskin writes: “Though small and far and cold, may you never be forgot.” Correct grammar would be, “. . . may you never be forgotten.” Does she need a proofreader? I am available.
JUDY KOHLRUS / Springfield, Ill.
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LEAH ESKIN REPLIES: Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got terrific editors. They never confuse a common allusion with a grammatical error. Who would mess with “Auld Lang Syne?”
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