Readers write: Copacetic colloquialisms, and profit over lives
Copacetic colloquialisms
Regarding 鈥淔lappers said 鈥榖aloney!鈥� to idea that slang was for men鈥� in the Dec. 14, 2020, Monitor Weekly:聽Oh, what fun memories Melissa Mohr鈥檚 column stirred up for me.聽I was born in the late 1920s, so I grew up hearing my folks and their friends use 鈥渇lapper slang.鈥� I figured it was just normal English.聽
I鈥檓 now living in a large retirement building and will occasionally use 鈥渢he cat鈥檚 pajamas鈥� or 鈥渢he bee鈥檚 knees鈥� or 鈥渢he cat鈥檚 meow鈥� 鈥� which always makes someone say with delight, 鈥淥h, I haven鈥檛 heard that for years!鈥澛�
In 1922, there was even 鈥淎 Flapper鈥檚 Dictionary,鈥� and that鈥檚 not 鈥渂aloney!鈥� Flapper slang is fun and refreshingly different from today鈥檚 colloquialisms. Right? Right.
Carolyn Hill
Portland, Oregon
Profit over lives
The article 鈥淩omanian documentary chases Oscar, and the truth鈥� by Kit Gillet in the Dec. 14, 2020, Monitor Weekly keeps flashing through my mind as I read about ambulances lined up 鈥� sometimes for hours 鈥撀爋utside Los Angeles hospitals.聽
The failings of the Romanian health care system become painfully clear in 鈥淐ollective,鈥� which focused on the aftermath of a nightclub fire that killed 64 people in October 2015.
In another Romanian film, 鈥淭he Death of Mr. Lazarescu鈥� (reviewed by Peter Rainer in the Monitor in 2006), an elderly man near death is taken from hospital to hospital as he searches for one that will admit him. The story illustrates that people in power are callously unwilling to improve health care systems.
That these two films were made more than a decade apart reinforces what Romanian health minister and 鈥淐ollective鈥� subject Vlad Voiculescu avers in his interview with the Monitor: How 鈥渟o little has changed鈥� and that 鈥渆very minute spent to change this is a minute well spent, an investment in the things that really matter.鈥�
It is a cautionary tale not only for Romania, but also the United States and any other countries that would prioritize profit and politics above the health of their population.聽
Colleen McGovern
Englewood, Colorado
