Article and Photo by Si Dunn
The New York Times says it typically receives up to 1,000 letters a day from readers, and only a smattering of them make it into print. Recently, I decided to leap into that raging stream and see if I could get a letter published in the Times.
Over the course of two weeks, I crafted three letters in response to articles in various sections of the newspaper and emailed them to [email protected], and ...
Bupkis.
I'm guessing my missives were almost immediately swept away in the surging flood of other people's opinions. Long ago in my writing career, I used to get an occasional rejection slip or returned manuscript in the mail bearing a penciled note saying "Try again" or "Good but not quite for us." Those days are almost totally gone now. Anyway, who can blame the letters-to-the-editors folks at the New York Times for not responding in a similar fashion? They have to wade through hundreds of letters daily while hoping to just find a couple of diamonds in the roughed-up English.
In case you (and everyone else on Planet Earth) missed them, here are the three letters I composed and sent to the Letters editor:
1. In response to "Maybe We Don't Need to Learn to Code" by Farhad Manjoo in the Opinion section (June 4, 2023).
Dear Editor,
I feel vindicated. I took action two weeks ahead of Farhad Manjoo’s thoughtful, well-written column “Maybe We Don’t Need to Learn to Code.”
I had spent years learning to work with several computer languages as a side income source, hobby, and holding action (I hoped) against mental decline. After all, I'm nearly 80 now and have tinkered with computers and programming since the heady days of COBOL, BASIC, and magnetic tape backups.
Recently, I started playing online with ChatGPT, hoping it could be a new tool to help with research in some of my freelance writing projects. When I also learned AI could create code, I knew I was beyond obsolete. Without hesitation, I gave up—completely--the ghost of programming past.
Quitting may be one of my best life choices ever. Now I have one fewer way to avoid finishing the books, screenplays, and poems I’ve started over the decades but pushed aside when writer’s block and a hot, new programming language popped up.
“Hello, world!”? Already I'm forgetting what comes next in the languages I labored to learn. And it doesn’t matter. AI can take it from here.
Si Dunn
Austin, Texas
2. Responding to "Thousands of Bylines to His Name, and One That’s Not," a Times Insider article (June 11, 2023) signaling the correction of a writer's name 32 years after it was misspelled when his first story appeared in the newspaper. Sportswriter Christopher Clarey's name incorrectly had been spelled "Clary," but the article itself helped launch his distinguished career.
Dear Editor,
My name was spelled correctly when my first (and only?) byline appeared in the May 22, 1977, New York Times. But it was a pen name I had appropriated from my father. He also had written as "Si Dunn." He shortened his full name, Silas Theron Dunn, Jr., to that sobriquet when he began reporting for Arkansas newspapers after World War II. I shortened my name, Silas Theron Dunn III, to "Si Dunn" in junior high school because of teasing.
After I came home from the Vietnam War, Dad and I briefly worked at the same newspaper. We were “Big Si” and “Little Si.” He edited copy; I wrote obits. But when I went off to journalism school, I took the "Si Dunn" byline with me and began using it on freelance articles and as a newspaper reporter. Dad put away his unpublished novels and never complained, at least to me, for taking over "Si Dunn."
It's impossible now to apologize to him, but I will continue to wish that I had had the sensitivity and guts to pick “Si Dunn III” as my byline.
Si Dunn (III)
Austin, Texas
3. Father's Day Drive-By (June 18, 2023)
Dear Editor,
The first person to wish me a "Happy Father's Day" today was the woman who drives by my house early each Sunday morning and delivers the New York Times print edition to my driveway in Austin, Texas.
I happened to be outside in my front yard, picking a few container-grown tomatoes and enjoying the early quietness and 82-degree "coolness" of a day that is expected to soar above 100 degrees F. by the late afternoon.
I heard her car coming down the street and looked up just in time to see the young man riding with her tossing the paper to the spot where it almost always lands.
When she saw me holding a nearly ripened Cherokee Purple tomato, she slowed her car almost to a stop just long enough to shout the wish and then sped off again to go to her next delivery. I wish I could have gifted her the fresh tomato, but I only had time to grin, wave, and shout back "Thank you!" in return.
Si Dunn
So, yes or no--more letters to the editor? Writing and sending them beats venting into a paper bag or throwing dirt clods at clouds. Plus, I'm still full of opinions and fully capable of jacking up the volume on my crankiness machine. I'd say definitely maybe. Definitely, we'll see. The next edition of the New York Times should be arriving soon.
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