My latest LTE was printed in the
Trenton Times (link to Times' site, but LTEs are not online) today:
When Judge Samuel Alito says he cannot remember belonging to Concerned Alumni of Princeton or what CAP stood for, he cannot be telling the truth.
I entered Princeton in 1974, the fifth year women were admitted, and I remember more than enough about CAP -- their magazine, "Prospect", was freely available around campus, where it was widely mocked. Since Alito was a CAP member, he must have been getting the magazine and seen what was in it; Bill Bradley (class of 1955) certainly did, which is why he withdrew from the Prospect Advisory Committee after the first issue.
Arguments about CAP and their views were constant fodder for the letters page of the Princeton Alumni Weekly, leading up to a 1975 report by a special committee (including Bill Frist '75, current Senate Majority Leader) that concluded that CAP had "distorted, narrow and hostile" views and had harmed Princeton's reputation. In 21st-century terms, it was a serious flamewar, and every alumnus not actually under a rock at the time knew about it.
Judge Alito might have forgotten a lot from 30 years ago -- apartments, classes, girlfriends, movies, books, car accidents -- but not Princeton. Princeton alumns are probably the most involved, committed, and obsessed in the US if not the world: we might disagree, but Mama Tiger's cubs don't forget her.
The Trenton Times almost always prints my LTEs; I send one every few months. My formula for LTE success:
- Scrupulously observe the paper's length limit. Shorter is always better, and always increases your chances of being published. Generally, the higher-profile the publication, the shorter the length limit. Time & Newsweek need basically a single sentence; NYT is no more than 150 words; the Trenton Times (circulation 70,000) is 250 words; my local weekly (circulation a couple thousand, I guess) will take up to 500 words.
- Make a single point.
- Try to keep both sentences and paragraphs short for improved readability.
- Spell-check.
- Be timely.