DUMBING DOWN

Perhaps I’ve come a bit late to the whole Susan Groothuis affair, but as a native of Schenectady, N.Y., my feathers have been ruffled.

I. R. Stern (whose inspired doggerel rhymed synecdoche with Schenectady) is clever and a real wit to boot, but does he or she know anyone from Schenectady? Has he or she ever been to Schenectady? Stern’s generalization wounds me; 67,000 angry Schenectadians and I demand an apology.

P.S. Oh, what the heck, I’m mad. Here’s a response to Stern’s response:

Who is this wordy I.R. Stern,

whose verbiage makes my earlobes burn?

Schenectady is my home town.

Why must he go and put it down?

Methinks had he a truthful pate,

he’d want to set the record straight:

Schenectady has no such folks

as dull as those from Sherman Oaks.

JARED B. STAMM

BROOKLYN, N.Y.