Letters - Letter to the Editor

--Kudos to Richard Lowry for his article on airport security ("Profiles in Cowardice," Jan. 28). My husband and I, both 67, both white, both dressed "to the nines" for first class, were recently about to board a Delta flight in Atlanta for a trip to London when we were pulled out of line and searched. We were annoyed, not because the search held us up, but because those doing the search were wasting their time. What terrorist profile did we fit? None, of course. We were singled out to show how very fair and politically correct the airlines are. This egregious waste of time and resources did not make our flight safer. Mr. Lowry hit the nail on the head.

Nan C. Haugland

Anderson, S.C.

--It was with piercing sadness that I read of the death of Warren Steibel (The Week, Jan. 28). He was one of the most cantankerous fellows I ever met, yet he was warm, kind, humorous, and charming.

He called me one night about a Firing Line debate that Hillsdale College was sponsoring and screamed at me every vile epithet known in back alleys. When he came to campus, I reacted in self-defense, needling him to the point that he threw a full plate of food across the cafeteria.

We subsequently had lunch together, and he was as warm and as soft as any human being could be. The lunch was pure fun. Then we went to the debate site, and I never knew when he would be Jekyll and when he would be Hyde. But when he was offensive, it was because he wanted Firing Line to go well.

The fact that I have a heavy heart about his death shows that the warm Warren easily triumphs over the other one. His veneer was tough, but it was just that, a veneer. He was a good man, with a big heart.

Ron Trowbridge

Durham, Me.

--In the Dec. 31 issue, Rob Long ("Free to Go Bad") jokes that "a shrink's kid is always nuts." Lots of shrinks' kids are nuts, and even more are liberal-but I can assure you that you've got at least one shrink's kid among your subscribers. And I pass my issues along to my dad when I'm through with them.

J. Ryan Gilfoil

San Francisco, Calif.

--A word that Florence King has used twice recently has me defeated. I have checked two dictionaries and even a slang dictionary, all to no avail.

Please tell me, what is a "phartling"?

Eleanor Hazzard

Wallingford, Pa.

--Florence King replies: Once more unto the breach I go to answer this question, which has cropped up seven times in my mail so far. Nobody can find "phartling" in the dictionary because I made it up. It's my word for children. I took the vulgarism for anal flatulence, added "ling" to establish the diminutive, and changed "f" to "ph" because it's more ladylike that way. This is what is known as a "portmanteau word": one that merges the sounds and meanings of two different words. (Example: "wiggle" plus "writhe" equals "wriggle.") I feel free to do this sort of thing because, as a member of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, I'm one of the people who get to rule on what is a word and what isn't. Thus, as our fighting men 'n' wimmin say every single time somebody interviews one of them, "I'm just doing my job." It isn't the first time that something like this has popped into my head, and it won't be the last. I was going to change "your loved ones" to "your loathed ones," but the late Quentin Crisp beat me to it. Since I consider plagiarism a worse sin than drowning your phartlings in the bathtub, I will duly cite him if I ever use it.