Calendar Letters: Thumbs up for Marcia Clark, thumbs down for Stephen Colbert

For the prosecution

How delighted I was to see your excellent piece on Marcia Clark [“Marcia Clark Leaves Her Trials Behind,” Nov. 13]. I’ve been ticked off for more than 20 years regarding the sexist media’s portrayal of her, along with the faulty, biased comments of some of her jealous, smug “peers.” I am pleased that she is getting the acclaim she deserves in her second act as well as a rehabbed, more realistic, view of the odious O.J. Simpson years. I hope she understands that there were many of us who never bought the tainted line and could see — on a daily basis — the preparation and intelligence that yielded her commanding performance. I still have goose bumps when I think of her closing statement.

Susan Radder

Chino

The job: Laughs and ‘truthiness’

I’m sorry, but you really missed the point with this article [“From Satire to Tears,” Nov. 10]. In his improvised closing monologue, Stephen Colbert said too little, too late. For the last year, he abdicated his responsibility to tell the truth (or “truthiness,” as he should have put it) and instead wasted precious time being just another celebrity-promoting chat-show host.

Where was former frequent guest Trevor Potter — you know, the expert on politics who educated us so well during “The Colbert Report” years?

That’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as the lack of credible reporting that led us to Nov. 8. Colbert (and Jon Stewart too) are to blame for the outcome. Just a few more votes in two key states — that’s all that was needed.

I felt that their being MIA was wrong and irresponsible — but now I know, it was calamitous.

Jon Merritt

Los Angeles

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I was a huge Colbert fan for many years, but no more. The night after the election, he was still indulging himself in self-pity at the coming “apocalypse.” His job is to make us laugh. He ignores that half of America is happy with the election, just not the half he thinks counts. I did not realize what an elitist he was. Instead of trying to bring the country together, he now continues to divide it. Man up, Stephen. It happened.

Debra Winkler

Marina del Rey

If POTUS says it’s potable ...

President Obama did not say that the water crisis in Flint, Mich., was over [“He Really Wanted to be Wrong,” Nov. 12]. He emphasized that filtered water in Flint was safe for individuals over age 6, but he also noted that the Environmental Protection Agency recommended bottled water for pregnant women and those under age 6.

Michael Moore was not the only person to anticipate the results of the election. When only half those eligible actually vote, all bets are off.

Rodney K. Boswell

Thousand Oaks

Fostering facts, exposing fibs

Regarding “A Strong Vote for Libraries” [Nov. 13], libraries serve as a collective brain and memory bank for the human species. As humanity has evolved, so has our experience of and interaction with libraries.

Libraries are an essential fabric of our schools, colleges, communities and country. Unfortunately, I suspect that President-elect Trump is a less-than-enthusiastic supporter of libraries. After all, those are the places where people can foster the facts and expose the fibs.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach Library board of trustees

When it rains, it really pours

Chris Barton claims that Nate Silver’s “forecast (and many others) missed wildly” [“Underrated/Overrated,” Nov. 12]. Silver gave Donald Trump a 29% chance of winning, considerably higher than most predictions. To say he missed wildly is comparable to saying that if the weather forecast is a 30% chance of rain, and it rains, the forecast missed wildly. Barton’s assertion demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of statistics.

David C. Johannsen

Torrance

‘Hallelujah,’ holy or broken

Despite being co-opted into pop culture by hundreds of performers, two versions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” remain sublime [“His Raw Truth in ‘Hallelujah,’” Nov. 12]: Jeff Buckley’s and Cohen’s own.

Cohen’s raw, gravelly original stands imperfectly distinct against Buckley’s alluring, delicate rendition, and their juxtaposition insightfully reveals the song’s metaphor: “There’s a blaze of light in every word. It doesn’t matter which you heard, the holy or the broken ‘Hallelujah.’”

Remember, “There’s a crack in everything. It’s how the light gets in.”

Cy Bolton

Rancho Cucamonga

A case of too little, too late?

Agatha French’s conversation with the authors of “How to Win at Feminism” [“Ladies Can Mansplain Too,” Nov. 13] should have been in The Times the Sunday before the election, not the Sunday after. Perhaps then America’s champion of feminism, Hillary Clinton, could be having it all — including a four-year occupancy at the White House.

David Tulanian

Los Angeles