In response to Scott Kimball’s letter “Too little too late,” for the second time, the giant lumbering dragon that is I has been unwittingly poked with the sharp stick that is Scott Kimball’s tone. The first time, months ago, I wrote to the Press commenting on how Kimball undercut his case by indulging in “snarky” asides, a word the Press changed to “testy.” For reasons known only to the most sophisticated psychoanalyst, a man never calls another man testy. Snarky, though, was and is le mot juste. Snarky suggests not so much touchiness or simple irritability as a propensity to gratuitously insult. Someone has said that the last week of a political campaign always comes down to a knife fight in a phone booth. Kimball seems to prefer beginning his community discourse in the phone booth. When he distinguished himself from those “who are not so fortunate to live with the luxury of relying on trust funds, but who actually earn a living” my poor little head tried to wrap itself around that and, once again, Kimball sabotaged whatever point he was about to make. Kimball should come on out of the phone booth and just make his point. And I do hope the few people I know with a trust fund pause from their considerable charitable work and forgive the snarkiness of their neighbor.
John Byler
Madigan Lane
