DOCTOR WHO?
Doctor Who?
A True Story by Izzy Sommers, MD
About ten years ago, here in Welland, I started writing letters to the editor. Most of them were certainly pet peeves but some of them were complimentary to the city fathers regarding their sprucing up of the city and making it safer. After perhaps 10 letters published in as many weeks, including a Longfellow type, 50 line poem about a Sunday walk in one of our parks one Sunday morning, some of my acquaintances in town started calling me Joseph. They were somewhat disbelieving when I said, “No, my real name is Izzy, really.”
After about a year of this, I noticed that a frequent letter writer to the editor in the Welland Tribune was Joseph Somers. Joseph called me one morning and laughed. “I think I’m getting blamed for what you wrote and I’m sure you’re getting blamed for what I wrote.” Joseph and I have become good email friends in the meantime. About 3 years ago, I was getting little response from my letters and mentioned this to Joseph. He was very complimentary about my ideas and writing, and said it would be a great loss to him and the community, if I stopped. I still get little response except from Joseph, but now I also get little or no response from The Washington Post, The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Toronto Sun and the Toronto Globe and Mail, as well. It’s actually a lot of fun.
One of the reporters for the Washington Post did send me an email in response to some comments about Obama. It simply said, “well said!” It made my day, my week and my whole career as a letter writer. The most fun is the open Question and Answer forum on Canadian Yahoo! The feedback is often instantaneous and very funny. I have the unreasonable distinction of having had about 60 letters published in the Welland Tribune, over a hundred posts on Yahoo’s Q&A service and over a hundred letters posted in various electronic newspaper services, especially the Washington Post, which makes it most convenient to post one’s comments directly under the articles of the reporters, some of whom are very well known, like George Will and Armin Specter. I even have a published letter about zebras in the Canadian Reader’s Digest.
THE END
© Izzy Sommers, MD, retired, Welland, Canada, June 13, 2009
A True Story by Izzy Sommers, MD
About ten years ago, here in Welland, I started writing letters to the editor. Most of them were certainly pet peeves but some of them were complimentary to the city fathers regarding their sprucing up of the city and making it safer. After perhaps 10 letters published in as many weeks, including a Longfellow type, 50 line poem about a Sunday walk in one of our parks one Sunday morning, some of my acquaintances in town started calling me Joseph. They were somewhat disbelieving when I said, “No, my real name is Izzy, really.”
After about a year of this, I noticed that a frequent letter writer to the editor in the Welland Tribune was Joseph Somers. Joseph called me one morning and laughed. “I think I’m getting blamed for what you wrote and I’m sure you’re getting blamed for what I wrote.” Joseph and I have become good email friends in the meantime. About 3 years ago, I was getting little response from my letters and mentioned this to Joseph. He was very complimentary about my ideas and writing, and said it would be a great loss to him and the community, if I stopped. I still get little response except from Joseph, but now I also get little or no response from The Washington Post, The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Toronto Sun and the Toronto Globe and Mail, as well. It’s actually a lot of fun.
One of the reporters for the Washington Post did send me an email in response to some comments about Obama. It simply said, “well said!” It made my day, my week and my whole career as a letter writer. The most fun is the open Question and Answer forum on Canadian Yahoo! The feedback is often instantaneous and very funny. I have the unreasonable distinction of having had about 60 letters published in the Welland Tribune, over a hundred posts on Yahoo’s Q&A service and over a hundred letters posted in various electronic newspaper services, especially the Washington Post, which makes it most convenient to post one’s comments directly under the articles of the reporters, some of whom are very well known, like George Will and Armin Specter. I even have a published letter about zebras in the Canadian Reader’s Digest.
THE END
© Izzy Sommers, MD, retired, Welland, Canada, June 13, 2009
Labels: TRUE STORY
posted by izzy sommers at 2:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home