The American Spectator

and Ralph R. Reiland’s Making Things Whole : /p>

I apologize for not reading your story more carefully.

But if you knew that Murphy was a child at the time of the accident, why does the case upset you? There is no way to anticipate the boorish future behavior of people. If there were, many professional athletes would never sign the big contracts they have.

I suppose that your story just hit a sore point with me. Every few months the internet circulates “factual” accounts of mind-boggling legal settlements. Few, if any, of these tales bear any relationship to reality. I know because I routinely check them out, using my resources as an attorney. So when I saw yet another story about an “unfair” lawsuit, by a writer I respect, I was disappointed.

In my own defense though, I am a fairly careful reader, and if I missed your reference to Murphy’s age at the time of the incident, I suspect that many other TAS readers did the same. The piece came across as “teenage burglar gets unjust reward.”

p>Again, I apologize for a rash, and probably overlong, reply. br> — Bob /p> p> Ralph R. Reiland replies: br> All’s ok … and today’s law thing to be mad about is the N.Y. jury finding the guilty terrorists only 32% to blame for the first World Trade Center bombing (and the deeper pocketed building owner 68% at fault). /p> p> CHARLIE CHOPPED br> Re: Debra Poore’s letter (under “Charlie Brown Remembers”) in Reader Mail’s A Charlie Brown Holiday and Lisa Fabrizio’s The Ghosts of Christmas Presence : /p> p>In Debra Poore’s December 1 letter about “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” she wonders if the old TV special has been chopped up for more commercials. Actually, it has. Towards the end, where Charlie Brown is leaving the auditorium and going out into the night with his little Christmas tree, there is now a brief commercial. This has been going on for many years now. But in the earliest broadcasts, there was no commercial interruption. He simply leaves and walks to Snoopy’s heavily decorated doghouse — no interruptions. br> — John Lockwood br> Washington, D.C. br> /p>