Defending the ‘G-Word’

At the risk of being targeted by the Gray Panthers, let me just put in a good word for the embattled Kenneth Turan (Saturday Letters, March 14).

I remember a time in this town when you could take a good-natured jab at someone without prompting the word “pejorative.” When I read the “g-word” I laughed, and intended to add it to my vocabulary. This does not mean that I have put my mom away in Shady Acres or that I trip old guys as they walk down the street.

For a country that is supposedly so committed to free speech, we certainly are afraid of words. Lighten up, Los Angeles.

PAULA RUGGIRELLO

Canoga Park

It was such a joy to watch old pros with a few wrinkles do their stuff in “Twilight” when so much attention these days is placed upon baby-faced “heartthrobs” whose life experiences may just extend beyond getting a driver’s license. Why not chuckle about being “over the hill”--because you can then ask, “What hill?”

JOANNE KAISER

Valley Village