Northwood News ♦ February 2007

Letters to the Editor

Editor’s Note:  The following letter was sent in response to Jacquie Bokow’s article, “A Plea for Community:  The Case of the Purloined Paper,” in the December 2006 issue of the newsletter.

Read Original Article

Dear Ms. Bokow:

I am writing to you regarding your article, “The Case of the Purloined Paper,” in the December 2006 edition of Northwood News.  As a dog owner and a subscriber to the Sunday edition of The Washington Post, I was both disheartened and appalled by your words, suggesting that a dog owner stole your newspaper for the sole purpose of using the delivery bag for the removal of pet waste.

By your own count, the Northwood-Four Corners Civic Association represents just shy of 1,500 households.  According to their website, The Washington Post delivers upwards of five million newspapers per day.  And as for dog owners in the neighborhood, all you have to do is look around, and it’s a veritable kennel.

Why all the number crunching?  Your attempt to smoke-out the culprit who you are accusing of stealing your paper is insanely impossible, if not laughably ridiculous.  I would venture to guess that a large percentage of homeowners in the neighborhood who receive The Washington Post and own a dog, use the delivery bag to pick up waste from time to time.  To accuse people based on some elaborate, ill-conceived, CSI-like detective drudgery is as repugnant as the editor of the neighborhood newsletter using said outlet for a personal issue, which could surely be addressed in a more appropriate setting.  May I make a suggestion?  Perhaps you could stay up all night and catch the bandit in action, instead of agitating the community with your dilemma.

Your article, in no uncertain terms, calls for our fellow neighbors to engage in Gestapo-like spy-tactics, in an attempt to reveal the brigand who is stealing your Sunday paper.  This is simply terrifying, and as a dog owner and Washington Post subscriber, I am offended.  Is it inconceivable that your paper simply isn’t being delivered?  Perhaps your subscription ran out due to overdue subscription fees.  There are countless possibilities other than your “suspect pet owners” hypothesis.

Next time, please contact The Washington Post circulation department to report missing papers, instead of pretending you are Nancy Drew.

Happy Holidays.

Your friendly neighbors, dog owners, and Washington Post subscribers,

Andrew Brill
Kinsman View Circle

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Editor’s Response:

You’re not the first person to raise this.  You are completely right.  I was a week behind schedule, short on stories, and did both stories on that page up quickly to fill the space (I received two other emails concerning both stories, whose authors declined permission to print their letters).

I was not, however, suggesting the dog owner stole my paper to use the bag.  I was suggesting she used the dogs as “cover” for her theft.  I’m sorry that was not clear.  I do call the Post each time, and they have redelivered my paper.

I guess my real purpose was to let the thief know that she’d been spotted and to alert others that someone in our own neighborhood was committing this petty theft regularly.

I appreciate your feedback, and the fact that you didn’t ask me to remove your name from the distribution list as one woman did!   ■