UNLISTED

What, please, is “a not unironic yes” (“Lying in Bed” July 9) Don’t the semantics work out to be just a plain “yes?” Was the reviewer paying attention the day her English teacher instructed the class not to tell what something isn’t but rather to tell what it is? Did the reviewer consult a dictionary to check whether or not there even were such a word as “unironic?” (Webster’s Unabridged lists “unironical” but no “unironic.”) I’m afraid the answer to both of these questions is a not unironic “uh-uh.”

LEONORA HOLDER, LONG BEACH