Letters to the Magazine editor

Our November 30 cover story on regular folks erecting their own wind turbines got readers talking about Cape Wind -- and there is still no agreement on the controversial wind farm. We also heard about website favorites, Facebook gripes, beloved names, and rude callers.

Windy Reception

Regarding author Keith O'Brien's assertion that "rich people with summer homes have spent the better part of the last decade fighting Cape Wind" ("Higher Power," November 30), it may interest him to discover that a number of ordinary people who reside on the Cape and Islands year-round have also spent the better part of the last decade fighting Cape Wind. Although we all desire clean energy, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about producing it. A wind facility where proposed by Cape Wind is the wrong way.

Tom Kenny

Falmouth

We are retired working-class people and our year-round home is not overlooking the ocean. One of my favorite activities is walking the beach, which can be almost spiritual because it is so beautiful. The last thing I want to look at is a field of windmills that might help other people off-Cape get lower electric bills. There must be some other place for Cape Wind to build its wind farm.

Barbara A. Hansen

Osterville

My son in Washington state has a view to his southwest of a sparse forest of wind turbines that march for 20 miles across hills. The turbines are beautiful and, from his vantage point, are an eighth of an inch high. My son's utility bills for a heat-pumped, 2,500-square-foot house that he keeps at 72 degrees year-round total $100 a month. Yes, his renewable wind power coupled with his renewable hydro-electric power enjoys favorable governmental treatment. As do all varieties of the energy industries.

I have yet to see any valid science or unbiased study in opposition to the renewable energy installation that has been proposed by Cape Wind (and thoroughly vetted by a multiplicity of public, quasi-public, and private entities). It's time to build Cape Wind. It's time to build many Cape Winds.

Bruce J. Jones

Barnstable

Facebook for Gen-Xers

Author Neil Swidey fails to mention the privacy settings Facebook offers (Perspective, November 30). For example, if you don't want to read status updates from random former high school classmates, you can change your settings. Swidey also mentions former colleagues whom he "de-friended" because they did not answer his generic courtesy messages. If someone fails to write back, it shouldn't be viewed as a social slight. Most younger Gen-Xers and Millennials have a mutual understanding that what happens on Facebook stays on Facebook and that each Facebook interaction is superficial. The website only leads us to the possibility of actually reconnecting with someone from the past, and this happens quite often as phone numbers are exchanged and plans to meet up are formulated. In this respect, Facebook makes a positive impact on the social lives of its users.

Evie Ullman

Somerville

I am 67 and was recently introduced to Facebook by a younger cousin. With it I have found two cousins and an old friend, so I am glad about that. However, having been around since the inception of the dial phone, I would put Facebook way down at the bottom of a communications list, as far as any contact of more than a line or two.

Linda Kidder

Essex

An Unforgettable Name

Regarding Karen Cummings's Coupling essay (November 30): In an attempt to get poor Charlie off the MTA and out of her thoughts, may I suggest she concentrate on the dark side of the name? Think presidential assassin Charles Guiteau; gangsters Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd and Charles "Lucky" Luciano; killers Charles Starkweather, Charles Whitman, Charles Manson, and Charles "Tex" Watson; and Boston's own Charles Stuart, who murdered his pregnant wife in 1989. That should help.

Arnie Reisman

South Natick

Years ago, when my son was born, my wife and I were trying to think of a name for him. We both liked Keith but my last name is Richard, so that wouldn't do. We finally decided on Kevin. Months later, after a million college kids had invaded the Boston area to attend school, a reporter asked one of them what she most noticed about Boston. She said, "Mostly that every other boy is named Kevin." Oh, well, we still like the name.

Ray Richard

Holbrook

Crossed Lines

I agree with Robin Abrahams's advice the vast majority of the time. However, I was disappointed in her response to M.S. in Somerville (Miss Conduct, November 30). It is important for people calling homes to identify themselves at the onset of the conversation, unless the caller is a member of the immediate family. This is not only basic courtesy, it is also important for safety. If a caller does not respond to my "Hello" with "Hello, this is __," I ask, "To whom am I speaking?" or "Who is calling, please?" before conversing, giving my own name, or handing the phone to someone else.

Laurel Abusamra

Brentwood, New Hampshire

I completely disagree with Abrahams's answer to M.S. She implies that he has a problem by asking him "What's your motive?" when he wants to know if it's appropriate to inform the caller of a lapse in phone etiquette. If M.S.'s motive is to show the caller she has no phone etiquette, I'm 100 percent with him. When someone behaves rudely, it is our business as members of a civilized society to point it out to the culprit.

Maria A. Russell

Durham, New Hampshire

The Gift of Giving

Scott Wolfe of Mashpee missed the point of the Giving Issue (Letters, November 30). There are no truly altruistic acts. People give their time and talents to others because of the great joy and satisfaction they feel in return. Everyone wants to feel needed and useful. For many people, especially notoriously self-sufficient New Englanders, it can be extremely difficult to ask for help. If Wolfe is feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, he should ask for a little help now and then. It would be an extremely generous thing for him to do.

Jamy Sugar

Norton