The Paper Waste

I hate being this negative, but Counterpunch on Dec. 7 was pretty much a waste of ink. Meredith Day (“ ‘Home Alone 2’ Violence Unsuitable for Kids”) scolds the producers of “Home Alone 2” when she should be scolding herself. She’s the one who took her 10-year-old to see a “violent” movie.

Roseanne Arnold (“What’s Not Funny About ‘Jackie Thomas’?”) surely regretted faxing her childish, nasty words to Howard Rosenberg seconds after that letter left her hands.

And, finally, Jay Pelissier’s diatribe (“ ‘Aladdin’ Review Rubs Reader the Wrong Way”) on how we “lionize our celebrities and artists who die young” is a judgmental response to a simple, truth-filled statement by Kenneth Turan: “(Howard) Ashman’s wickedly clever lyrics are easily told from Tim Rice’s bland, saccharine ones” in “Aladdin.”

Pelissier needs to switch to decaffeinated and then try to understand that Rice’s mediocre talent as a lyricist was not changed for better or worse with the death of the brilliant Ashman. Rice has collected a bevy of lukewarm and bad reviews that have nothing to do with Turan, “Aladdin” or the much-dreaded lionization syndrome.

NICK PACCIONE

Long Beach