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A letter, a comment, The New York Times

December 14, 2011 By pia

Around nine years ago I wrote a fast letter to the New York Times ironically supporting a psychologist I would end up blogging with at Psychology Today It was the first letter I had ever written and actually sent–by email which makes everything easier. I forgot about it until later that day when I was in my brother-in-law’s car. I assume we were going to dinner at some truly good Long Island restaurant. I missed the phone call but began screaming when I heard the voice mail.

OK I easily impress myself. An editor wanted to know if it was alright to print it. No, I wrote it to fill up bandwidth 🙂 Several days later, very coincidentally, I was offered a reporting job, not for The Times.

Yesterday I was reading an article on NYTimes.com about Facebook and just had to comment. I knew it was too late to make “readers recommendations” and sent it off without editing or editing some more, In all five comments I have submitted in the past several years I only checked one and that made “readers recommendations.” For some reason I checked and it was an “editor’s pick.”

1177 Comments
NYT Pick
Dec. 13, 2011 at 4:54 p.m.

last week I was the object of derision on a Facebook group for people with an invisible disability. But without Facebook I would have never met so many people who share the same disability
For the first time in my over 50 years on this earth I’m learning to accept me for me thanks to Facebook
My family is closer than ever thanks to Facebook. I’m in touch with people from my entire life span. Seeing myself through their eyes was eye opening, humbling and wonderful.
A lot of people on Facebook are dedicated to being real. You just don’t have to tell what you had for lunch or who you had sex with when. Facebook is there for you to make your own experience with.

Damn I should have edited it. I should have edited it!
Yes I didn’t use my name nor did I link to a blog as many people do but….This means goods things are around the corner. The whole year has been great. Overwhelming but life affirming; filled with writing recognition and family old and new!!!

The sad but adorable irony wasn’t lost on me that I then went on Facebook and updated my status–even before calling my sister or best friend.

I will be back with a Chanukah post–The Miracle of the Ipad–an absolutely true story about how my Ipad might have saved my life. It’s more exciting than this post and never once mentions a newspaper. My sister called my Ipad story, “a sign from God.” She wasn’t sure about what!

Filed Under: me-me-me, new york times

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My last post of the year for Psychology Today »

Comments

  1. Bone says

    December 15, 2011 at 6:31 am

    I have a feeling the excitement you feel/felt is similar to what I would feel should I ever make the Letterman top ten contest.

    Congratulations! And what a year!

  2. pia says

    December 15, 2011 at 7:13 am

    @Bone
    Thanks. I have to keep telling myself all these things happened as it doesn’t feel like I accomplished much!

  3. Doug says

    December 15, 2011 at 10:50 am

    Yow! My first celeblog friend.

  4. pia says

    December 15, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    @Doug
    I would hardly say that. More like your first blogger friend to constantly shameless self promote but not when it counts!

  5. Robin says

    December 16, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    Congratulations 😀 You made an excellent point that needed to be stated, and there are lots of people who will read it and realize how you said exactly what was inaccessible in their hearts.

    See, even unedited, you still win the Internet. 🙂

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About Me

I live in the South, not South Florida, a few blocks from the ocean, and two blocks from the main street. It's called Main Street. Amazes me too.

I'm from New York. I mostly lived in the Mid-Upper East Side, and the heart of the Upper West Side. It amazes me when people talk about how scared they were of Times Square in the 1970's and 1980's.

As my mother said: "know the streets, look out and you'll be fine."

What was scary was the invasion of the crack dens into "good buildings in good 'hoods." And the greedy landlords who did everything they could to get good tenants out of buildings.

I'm a Long Island girl, and proud of it now.
Then I hated everything about the suburbs. Yet somehow I lived in a few great Long Island Sound towns after high school.

Go to archives "August 2004" if you want to begin with the first posts.

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