Send Mary McNamara’s column to Congress and the Supremes

Mary McNamara’s column [“If Men Birthed Babies? Case Closed,” May 12] was superb and could not have been better. It had me in stitches, especially the comparison of men making proclamations about pregnancy to a group of dogs discussing “feline healthcare.”

Thank you for your thoughts, so very true. We certainly should not remain in the Middle Ages and that is where the powers that be in the Supreme Court would like to push women.

Christine Peterson

Woodland Hills

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After reading Mary McNamara’s thoughts on what the outcomes of birthing fathers would look like, I cut out the article, laminated it and [brought] it to the May 14 Planned Parenthood March in Carlsbad, just in case there were any men (or women) who don’t understand the complexity of pregnancy and women’s right to choose.

Susan Kogan

Oceanside

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Mary McNamara writes about women’s lives with the same passion male columnists reserve for playoff games. Nuff said.

Paula Rudnick

Los Angeles

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McNamara’s column should be read into the Congressional Record.

Larry Edwards

San Diego

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Mary McNamara’s column should be required reading for the five Supreme Court judges who seem to have signed on to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Helen Lotos

Corona del Mar

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Kudos to Mary McNamara for writing a column that affects all of our population. My only complaint is that it was relegated to the Calendar section of The Times when it deserved the front page.

The Calendar section is for entertainment. This brilliant column deserves better than that.

Carole Foran

Beverly Hills

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Thanks to Mary McNamara for her scathing and well-written column on the trials and tribulations of pregnancy and childbirth, and the apparent lack of consideration that certain Supreme Court justices and Republican politicians give to the risks of that multimonth process and to all those developing fetuses, once they actually leave the womb and become babies.

McNamara quoted Gloria Steinem for coining the well-known sardonic observation, “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” Just to set the record straight, and according to what I personally heard from Steinem herself during an interview last year, she was riding in a cab with a fellow activist many years ago when the cabbie, a middle-aged Irish woman who overheard them conversing on the subject of abortion, interjected that wry comment. Steinem and her companion loved it and repeated it to others. Needless to say, it caught on in a very big way.

During the interview, Steinem said that she wished she had asked the cab driver for her name, so she could give her the credit she deserved.

Marcia Goodman

Long Beach

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A copy of this column should be mailed to every member of Congress — and the sooner the better.

Carol Clark

Los Feliz

CSI: Ancient Britain

Clearly theater critic Charles McNulty and I were at the same crime scene in Beverly Hills, and his review [“Updated ‘Lear’ Mocks the King,” May 17] is brilliant.

Thanks for putting into words the disastrous, scandalous trashing of Shakespeare’s brilliant drama, and for preventing others from walking into that “bloody mess.”

Our favorite moment was during the Tempest tug-of-war. The two elder sisters walked calmly across the stage and tossed up glitter. Were we supposed to laugh out loud?

Nina Girvetz

Santa Monica

Still stirring the post

Regarding Lorraine Ali’s column “Tucker Carlson Hits a Dangerous Low in Talk of Shooting” [May 17]: If “replacement theory “ includes replacing people like Tucker Carlson, it can’t happen soon enough.

Patrick Parish

Torrance

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The sooner Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, et al., are replaced the better.

There are certainly any number of immigrants, Muslims, Jews, Blacks who are more intelligent and better qualified to govern than these clowns.

Our country was built on the efforts of people who came here to have a better life for themselves, and a better future for their children.

Jon Tower

Pacific Palisades

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I do not watch Fox News, let alone “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” However, if The Times’ reporting on his Monday evening telecast is accurate, then I have one question for the Fox News Network: How, why, by what excuse is this guy still on the air?

Bob Warnock

Los Angeles

“If it’s not too dear…”

Regarding “Still Love Him, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” [May 16]: I would have attended the Paul McCartney concert that your music critic adored but I couldn’t afford it. Ticket prices started at over $200 for nosebleed seats, factoring in taxes, fees and parking. Perhaps the “guy with more money than he could ever spend” could play two concerts next time at more reasonable prices.

Ralph Tropf

Los Angeles

Return to the Happiest Place on Earth

I found Todd Martens’ article about returning to Disneyland [“Checking the Magic Meter,” May 15] especially interesting, since I just recently returned from that magical kingdom. But what is surprising is that, while being aware of its appeal it could be so crowded post-pandemic.

After all, it was on a Monday, requiring reservations, and yet the density level was incredibly high. How do I rate Disneyland?

“The happiest place on Earth” and the most crowded.

Isadora Johnson

Seal Beach

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Absolutely the “Lightning Lane” has increased standby wait times.

Our recent experience in February was the most annoying trip to Disneyland I’ve ever had in over 40 years. We watched a parade of Lightning Lane people entering the Big Thunder Mountain ride while we waited in the standby line. They would let in 45 from the Lightning Lane and then eight standby, then 38 Lightning and eight standby, and so on. I counted.

And if you saw the Lightning Lane line — it was nonstop people coming in. Nonstop. There appeared to be no control on how many people were allowed through that program during the period we were there.

They kept saying over the loudspeaker that “due to circumstances beyond their control,” wait times were higher than stated.

What was beyond their control - a fire or an earthquake? No, just a lot of people who paid $20 extra. I challenge Todd Martens to go back to Disneyland and do it via the standby lines and see how much he enjoys himself. Not much on those rides.

Anita Roglich

Santa Monica

A wartime story retold

In Emily Zemler’s article [“A Novel Idea in Wartime,” May 10] on the new Netflix film “Operation Mincemeat,” no mention is made of the 1955 British film “The Man Who Never Was,” directed by Ronald Neame and starring Clifton Webb, which has the same plot as “Operation Mincemeat.” Both films are based on the 1953 novel “The Man Who Never Was,” which Zemler does mention.

Bruce Cowan

Pasadena

Editor’s note: The online version of Emily Zemler’s article did mention the 1956 film “The Man Who Never Was,” which was adapted from the 1953 book of the same name. The 2022 movie “Operation Mincemeat” is adapted from the 2010 book “Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story That Changed the Course of World War II,” which is based on the same incident.