Dear X

[mwmnpa]

Dear Welsh Rugby Fans,

Alain Rolland has refereed 54 international matches, including games which involved France and has never been accused of bias.

The fact he is Irish and has a French father was well known and well documented before the game and the IRB were sufficiently convinced of his impartiality to award the game to him.

According to Law 10.4J of the game, Sam Warburton's tackle was dangerous and Rolland interpreted the law correctly. Sanctions for this type of tackle were a yellow or red card.

In previous games during the competition, players have received yellow cards for this type of tackle. HOWEVER, the IRB have subsequently cited these players, banned them and told them they should have received a RED card during the game.

Sam Warburton had a choice not to lift the player off the ground in the manner he did. Alain Rolland had no choice but to issue a red card for an illegal tackle.

Whilst you were the better team on the day, you lost the game - starting facebook campaigns to ban the referee and get the game replayed makes you look bitter, foolish and laughable.

Yours in sympathy (but still chuckling at the absurdity of it all),

LM
x

Dear Alain Rolland,

Warburton let up at the last moment and did not pile drive the ball carrier as hard as he could have.

Dear Touch Judges,

You couldn't both have missed it, could you? One of you could have spoken up and mitigated the call. Terrible, just terrible in a semifinal match.

Dear France Rugby Team,

Way to play not lose. It took some missed kicks for you to eke out a one point win against a short handed team. See how that works for you in the final.

Dear Australia and New Zealand Rugby Teams,

Congratulations. Your semifinal match turned out to be the real final.

Finally, Dear Welsh Rugby Team,

Congratulations on a great tournament, too bad your goal kickers couldn't make just one of those.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Dear X

I'm going to become obsessed, just thought you'd like to know. You've been warned, accept it and move on with your life, as I follow you.

~ Red

 

[sunshinegirl05]

Dear Michigan Football Team,

What the hell is up with the tackling today?! Get a grip...........seriously.

Signed a pissed off Michigan fan......who's saying lots and lots of cuss words.

p.s. Stop making Denard pass. He sucks at it.

 

[Goodgirl4him]

Dear x :

Everytime I see one of your posts, it melts my insides. Please keep those beautiful words rolling on these threads. Purr

 

[lovemonster]

Dear Alain Rolland,

Warburton let up at the last moment and did not pile drive the ball carrier as hard as he could have.

Dear Touch Judges,

You couldn't both have missed it, could you? One of you could have spoken up and mitigated the call. Terrible, just terrible in a semifinal match.

Dear France Rugby Team,

Way to play not lose. It took some missed kicks for you to eke out a one point win against a short handed team. See how that works for you in the final.

Dear Australia and New Zealand Rugby Teams,

Congratulations. Your semifinal match turned out to be the real final.

Finally, Dear Welsh Rugby Team,

Congratulations on a great tournament, too bad your goal kickers couldn't make just one of those.

Dear Sam Warburton,

I'm sure Vincent Clerc would have appreciated the sentiment of you 'letting up' at the last moment had his neck been broken in that tackle.

Regardless of intent, the tackle was dangerous and ALL referees had been instructed by the IRB to 'start at red' with this kind of foul play.

The fact that they cited players previously given yellows for this offence just means that Alain Rolland - standing right in front of the offence as opposed to the touch judges who either had a blocked view or were the other side of the pitch - was the one official brave enough to make the decision ON the pitch rather than leaving it to the officials off the pitch.

At the end of the day, you did not need to make the tackle, you knew the rules and the sanctions that the IRB had said they would enforce against players committing such offences and whilst I have no doubt you are a good player and there was no malice intended, at the end of the day you could have caused a serious injury as you had no control over how the player hit the ground.

It matters not whether it was a first round game or a semi-final game - foul and dangerous play is just that and should be punished as such, whether it 'spoils' the game or not and as players it is your responsibility to ensure you abide by the laws of the game or risk being hit by such a punishment. The laws were brought in to avoid serious injury and at the end of the day, had a serious injury been caused today, I'm sure you'd be feeling much worse than you are now having lost the semi-final.

Having said that, the worst team went through and it was not down to you being sent off, but by the inability of the rest of your team to convert the points opportunities that they were presented with.

Yours,

LM
x

 

[removed021712]

Better Man - Pearl Jam

 

[Goodgirl4him]

Dear X:

Thank you so much for your supportive ear. Your kind words of encouragement helped more than you could ever imagine. You have a wonderful soul.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Dear X


I wish I were able to travel your way, spend time with you, believe what you believe and have it not go against everything I've ever learned. I wish that I could capture the peace and tranquility you seem to be surrounded by. To have that would be a joy.



~ Red

 

[mwmnpa]

Dear Sam Warburton,

I'm sure Vincent Clerc would have appreciated the sentiment of you 'letting up' at the last moment had his neck been broken in that tackle.

Regardless of intent, the tackle was dangerous and ALL referees had been instructed by the IRB to 'start at red' with this kind of foul play.

The fact that they cited players previously given yellows for this offence just means that Alain Rolland - standing right in front of the offence as opposed to the touch judges who either had a blocked view or were the other side of the pitch - was the one official brave enough to make the decision ON the pitch rather than leaving it to the officials off the pitch.

At the end of the day, you did not need to make the tackle, you knew the rules and the sanctions that the IRB had said they would enforce against players committing such offences and whilst I have no doubt you are a good player and there was no malice intended, at the end of the day you could have caused a serious injury as you had no control over how the player hit the ground.

It matters not whether it was a first round game or a semi-final game - foul and dangerous play is just that and should be punished as such, whether it 'spoils' the game or not and as players it is your responsibility to ensure you abide by the laws of the game or risk being hit by such a punishment. The laws were brought in to avoid serious injury and at the end of the day, had a serious injury been caused today, I'm sure you'd be feeling much worse than you are now having lost the semi-final.

Having said that, the worst team went through and it was not down to you being sent off, but by the inability of the rest of your team to convert the points opportunities that they were presented with.

Yours,

LM
x

Dear LM,

The way SW dropped him had him in no danger. However, you are correct. I did check the law, allows for no referee discretion. Plus, he was given a 3 week suspension.

I disagree as to "not having to make the tackle." It was the heat of the moment, and Sam was going on instinct. Monsieur Clerc, the pretty boy wing, did not have to choose to run inside where the real men were lurking with intent. The risk of serious injury comes with the decision to lace up your boots and play. I was taught, and later coached, how to protect oneself in the tackle situation. Clerc did not.

That said, I'm still not sure it should be a red card 100% of the time. Probably close to it though. And every one of the yellow carded players received suspensions. So, I'm well aware it's a play that could put someone in a wheel chair for the rest of their life. So is the IRB.

And 100% agree, Wales still should have one. France will get destroyed bt the ABs.

Me

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Dear daughter,

I love you and you are beautiful, even if you don't see it right now. I hope someday you will. I know how you feel, I've been there and you don't believe me, and I know this, because I wouldn't believe me either if I were 17.

You are exceptional.

Love your Mom.

 

[EnglishRoseFox]

Dear daughter,

I love you and you are beautiful, even if you don't see it right now. I hope someday you will. I know how you feel, I've been there and you don't believe me, and I know this, because I wouldn't believe me either if I were 17.

You are exceptional.

Love your Mom.

I love this. My daughter is 14 and stunning, but can she see it? No. But as you said, neither could I at that age.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

I love this. My daughter is 14 and stunning, but can she see it? No. But as you said, neither could I at that age.

We just came back from the photographer and viewed her Senior pictures. She doesn't see the beauty, she only sees the flaws she believes she has.

I hate to admit my age has made me more acceptable of my own flaws, because that means I have to admit I'm older and wiser.

 

[EnglishRoseFox]

We just came back from the photographer and viewed her Senior pictures. She doesn't see the beauty, she only sees the flaws she believes she has.

I hate to admit my age has made me more acceptable of my own flaws, because that means I have to admit I'm older and wiser.

I hear you totally, mine would be the same, although I notice more and more how she is changing and embracing it slightly.

I am happy to be older and wiser. I would hate to be this age and be full of self doubt and self condemnation. What a waste of life worrying about all those things you did as a teenager.

Flaws madam, what flaws?

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

I hear you totally, mine would be the same, although I notice more and more how she is changing and embracing it slightly.

I am happy to be older and wiser. I would hate to be this age and be full of self doubt and self condemnation. What a waste of life worrying about all those things you did as a teenager.

Flaws madam, what flaws?

She told me the other day that she was accepted herself more and I believe too she is, but it is another story when a photo captures what you think is a negative. After a while we sifted through them and were able to pick out eight that she found herself liking more and more as we studied them. The trick with her is to not analyze every detail, but to find that "it's okay" one and really embrace it, so it becomes "the one".

I am so glad I'm not a teen any more either. I hated it. Being a redheaded teenager was horrible, but my mother wouldn't let me color my hair brown, no matter how much I wanted to.

I could start a thread and list all my flaws, but Lit. doesn't have enough memory capacity.

 

[someoneyouknow]

Dear Retailers,

You make it exceedingly difficult for me to give you my money. When I walk into your store, I am there for a reason. I'm looking for something to buy. On occasion I will window shop, just to get ideas, but as a rule, when I walk through your door, I'm ready to spend money.

I realize that the deck is stacked against me, being a guy and all, so the places I can shop are much more limited compared to those of the fairer sex. Strike one.

The fact that I am not the typical American male with a gut that hangs over their belt, who plods along sucking air like they're making an ascent on Mt Everest is also another strike against me. I'm sorry I'm athletic and can eat what I want without fear of gaining weight.

Finally, the fact that I'm somewhat vertically challenged is my third strike. I am most certainly not elf-like, but neither am I towering over those around me. I fall at the left end of the male height scale and apparently that is the all you need to know as trying to find anything remotely close to my size is about as futile as Liz Taylor staying single longer than a week.

Given all that, when you ask me if you can help me find something and I tell EXACTLY what I need, telling me "We don't carry things in that size" does nothing to encourage me to return to your store. You're in the service industry. It is your job to provide me the goods or service I need when I need it. At the very least, when you have someone in your store who knows what they want and is ready to pay for it, the bare minimum you should do is make an effort to place an order for said item so the person who is ready to give you their money can do so. Unless staying in business and customer service are out of your realm in which case my apologies.

As a side note, if you find out who thought button down shirts were a good idea, let me know so I can disembowel them with a my grapefruit spoon. They are hideous and the moron who does your ordering should be smacked with a #10 cast iron skillet every time they order a lot of them. Do you people not understand what simple elegance means?

In closing, apparently you feel that alienating anywhere from 5 to 10% of your potential clientele is a good thing. If it were up to me, if I could get an increase of traffic to my stores of 5%, in these times, I would be heralded as a hero. Apparently your goal of increasing sales differs from the common sense goal of getting as many people in your stores as possible in that you seem to go out of your way to give people an excuse not to shop at your locations. Let me know how that works out.

Sincerely,

One who has money to burn but no where to burn it


Dear Meguire's,

Your Gold Class Carnuba Plus car wax is outstanding! It looks like butter, it goes on like butter (softened) and comes off almost as easily as butter. The word lugubrious comes to mind to describe how easy it was to apply the wax. I even finished my car in a 1/3 less time today thanks to you.

Keep up the good work.

A very happy car waxing dude


Dear Window,

Why don't you like me? I try to keep you clean, I wash you on occasion and give you a very nice blow dry racing down the highway. Yet you persist in looking like a Saint Bernard has been trying to stick its head out the window while the window is still up.

I spray you, I wipe you, I caress you, yet nothing seems to help. Why? If you prefer I use something else to clean you, please let me know. You know how much I care for the car you ride along with so asking me to use something else to get you clean is not a problem.

It's disconcerting to have one, and only one, window to be smutzed, especially as it's the window that is right next to the passenger who, I presume, would like to be able to see the world go by as we drive along.

Sincerely,

The one who tries his best to protect you and keep you clean from the vicious elements

 

[lovemonster]

Dear LM,

The way SW dropped him had him in no danger. However, you are correct. I did check the law, allows for no referee discretion. Plus, he was given a 3 week suspension.

I disagree as to "not having to make the tackle." It was the heat of the moment, and Sam was going on instinct. Monsieur Clerc, the pretty boy wing, did not have to choose to run inside where the real men were lurking with intent. The risk of serious injury comes with the decision to lace up your boots and play. I was taught, and later coached, how to protect oneself in the tackle situation. Clerc did not.

That said, I'm still not sure it should be a red card 100% of the time. Probably close to it though. And every one of the yellow carded players received suspensions. So, I'm well aware it's a play that could put someone in a wheel chair for the rest of their life. So is the IRB.

And 100% agree, Wales still should have one. France will get destroyed bt the ABs.

Me

Dear mwmpna,

No danger? SW had no control over how he landed, he could not place him on his back and therefore he landed on his head, neck and the top of his shoulders with his feet straight up in the air, I would have said that was the place that would have put him in maximum danger of serious injury!

SW did not have to lift and turn him in the way he did, given how big a man he is and how much smaller Clerc is in comparison, he must have known that he was at risk of doing exactly what happened - and yes, rugby players take the field knowing they are at risk of getting hurt, but they also trust in the professionalism of their opponents not to put them an unecessary risk. And I'm not entirely sure what Clerc could have done to protect himself having been lifted that high off the floor and turned upside down?

And it is not always a red card offence, there are three degrees of seriousness in a tackle of that nature, the way that Clerc was dropped put that tackle in category 2 which is definitely a red rather than a yellow. But isn't it better to have a tackle which can cause that serious an injury punishable by that serious a ban? The rules were put in place to discourage this kind of tackle for a reason and ALL teams, coaches and referees were aware of the sanctions for it. After all, a 3 week ban is hardly any justice to a man who has to spend a lifetime in a wheelchair...

But hey, Wales were apparently robbed by an Irishman with a French father who apparently was biased and prejudiced against them in favour of France, having shown no indication of any such bias in any of the previous 50+ international games he'd refereed, what do I know?

Yours,

LM
x

 

[kendra1980]

Dear People of the US who keep voting for Chaz Bono...

STOP!





Dear Warden,

I'd not do that to you. I don't understand why you are doing it. You aren't hurting me, I have stopped giving you that ability...oh, you get reaction, and then an immediate "oh brother" from me.

My hope is that you find someone that loves you so much it hurts...and that you go away.

Me

 

[EbersMoll]

Dear mwmpna,

No danger? SW had no control over how he landed, he could not place him on his back and therefore he landed on his head, neck and the top of his shoulders with his feet straight up in the air, I would have said that was the place that would have put him in maximum danger of serious injury!

SW did not have to lift and turn him in the way he did, given how big a man he is and how much smaller Clerc is in comparison, he must have known that he was at risk of doing exactly what happened - and yes, rugby players take the field knowing they are at risk of getting hurt, but they also trust in the professionalism of their opponents not to put them an unecessary risk. And I'm not entirely sure what Clerc could have done to protect himself having been lifted that high off the floor and turned upside down?

And it is not always a red card offence, there are three degrees of seriousness in a tackle of that nature, the way that Clerc was dropped put that tackle in category 2 which is definitely a red rather than a yellow. But isn't it better to have a tackle which can cause that serious an injury punishable by that serious a ban? The rules were put in place to discourage this kind of tackle for a reason and ALL teams, coaches and referees were aware of the sanctions for it. After all, a 3 week ban is hardly any justice to a man who has to spend a lifetime in a wheelchair...

But hey, Wales were apparently robbed by an Irishman with a French father who apparently was biased and prejudiced against them in favour of France, having shown no indication of any such bias in any of the previous 50+ international games he'd refereed, what do I know?

Yours,

LM
x

Dear LM,

Spot on! The spear tackle is one of the most dangerous events in sport. The laws are clear. Those calling for 'latitude' because of the occasion should think what the effects of this would be at club and school level where the degree of ability and control is not as it is in the elite game.

Also, Those who support Wales should consider that the game wasn't lost because the captain was red carded, but arguably because they failed to kick penalties/conversions.

Whilst the game was really, really close, the decision was clear and correct. I speak as a player of Rugby Union for over 30 years and someone with a soft spot for Welsh Rugby.

Yours,

EM.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Dear Brownies on the tray, under the cover,

I love you, but we have to part. You are so tasty, and this is not a good relationship for us to be in.

I want you more and more with every bite. Your chocolaty goodness melts in my mouth and rolls down my throat like liquid satin. I yearn for more as soon as I pick up the first square, and I've not even eaten you. As I hold you in my hand, my other hand reaches out to caress another one of your dark, moist companions.

Right now, if I were alone with you, I'd lick every little crumb on the counter. I'd pop one morsel in, then another, moaning and whimpering with every taste bud put on alert.

A part of me wants to share your creamy goodness with the others of Lit. that love chocolate, but another part of me says "no... you are all mine".

*sigh*

Perhaps I should toss the recipe away.

Love,

Me, your forever devoted redheaded lover and friend

~ Red

 

[Spicy Southern Belle]

Dear Brownies on the tray, under the cover,

I love you, but we have to part. You are so tasty, and this is not a good relationship for us to be in.

I want you more and more with every bite. Your chocolaty goodness melts in my mouth and rolls down my throat like liquid satin. I yearn for more as soon as I pick up the first square, and I've not even eaten you. As I hold you in my hand, my other hand reaches out to caress another one of your dark, moist companions.

Right now, if I were alone with you, I'd lick every little crumb on the counter. I'd pop one morsel in, then another, moaning and whimpering with every taste bud put on alert.

A part of me wants to share your creamy goodness with the others of Lit. that love chocolate, but another part of me says "no... you are all mine".

*sigh*

Perhaps I should toss the recipe away.

Love,

Me, your forever devoted redheaded lover and friend

~ Red

Dear Red,

Now I want to go make out with a pan of brownies. *Sighs*

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Dear Red,

Now I want to go make out with a pan of brownies. *Sighs*

Dear Spicy,

I'm sorry. They are really good brownies.

 

[StilettosNSpurs]

Dear Personal Trainer,

While I do appreciate your taking time out of your day to train me to become leaner and more fit, can we not work my ass to exhaustion on my first visit?

I also do not have the same faith as you that in a couple months I'll be ready for boxing. I have no interest in boxing. Must I really learn it?

Signed,
A Tired and Sore Trainee

Dear Red,

Please send me the recipe for brownies immediately if not sooner.

Signed,
A Chocoholic that needs another reason for said personal trainer

 

[Spicy Southern Belle]

Dear Spicy,

I'm sorry. They are really good brownies.

Dear Red,

It's alright. I will resist the urge to make some.

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Dear Red,

Please send me the recipe for brownies immediately if not sooner.

Signed,
A Chocoholic that needs another reason for said personal trainer

Dear StilettosNSpurs,

Give me some time and I'll send you a PM, with recipe in tow. Feel free to make a brownie for the trainer.

Dear Red,

It's alright. I will resist the urge to make some.

Dear Spicy,

I have sworn not to make them for a while. I believe I have to take church snacks on the first Sunday of Nov.; that's far enough away.

 

[StilettosNSpurs]

Dear

Don't ever resist the urge to make chocolate oooie goodness.

It can solve most of life's problems in a double batch!

Signed
Send me some too please