Readers write: Pictures of craftsmanship, and pudding
Letters to the editor for the March 29, 2021 weekly magazine. Readers discuss artisan furniture and personal experiences with plum pudding.
Staff
Artisanship
I’m finally getting to back issues of the Monitor, and I was thrilled to find the In Pictures article “Choosing handcraft over machines” by Gareth Henderson in the Dec. 28, 2020, issue. It is so gratifying to see the Monitor bringing attention to the value and worth of craftsmanship and hand-wrought art in pottery and furniture.
I have been to ShackletonThomas, which was the studio featured in the article, and greatly admire their work. Kudos to Mr. Henderson for a thrilling piece to inspire us all.
Margaret E. Powell
Hanover, New Hampshire
Pudding talk
I have been a loyal Monitor reader for over 30 years. I have always appreciated the accuracy and evenhandedness with which each edition is assembled.
But my heart was particularly warmed when I read in the Dec. 21, 2020, issue of the Monitor Weekly, in which the Home Forum essay “Unpacking Great-Aunt Gertrude’s plum pudding” faced Melissa Mohr’s In a Word column “Why the British are firmly set on ‘pudding’” – the reason being that I am also privileged to have English plum pudding as an integral part of my annual holiday experience.
My family’s plum pudding can be traced back to my great-great-grandmother, Eliza Jane Southwell. She was born in England on Dec. 20, 1821, and immigrated with her husband to the United States in 1849. She passed the recipe to my great-grandmother, Lidia Maria Child Southwell Thorndyke, who passed it to my grandmother, Josephine Eva Homer Thorndyke.
My Grandma Thorndyke made the pudding every Christmas until she was in her 80s, and then passed the recipe on to me. I continue the tradition, making the plum pudding every Christmas, and even sending plum puddings to family members around the country. It is a tasty tradition that many of us in my family love and look forward to annually. Our plum pudding is authentic and very similar to, but also distinctively different from, those described in the Monitor’s articles. I am also in possession of a handwritten journal that Eliza Jane Southwell kept from Jan. 6, 1881, to Dec. 31, 1882. It gives fascinating insights into what life was like during those times.
Thank you once again for the plum pudding articles, and the continuing commitment to journalistic excellence.
Craig Ramsey
Milan, Tennessee
Team bonding
Regarding the Q&A article with Sen. Chris Coons, “Can Biden heal a broken Congress? This senator sees a ‘last, best chance’” in the Jan. 18, 2021, Monitor Weekly: You can laugh, but having our senators “standing arm in arm, singing ‘Kumbaya’ on the floor of the Senate” sounds like an excel-lent idea. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!
Dan Ziskind
St. Louis
Positive changes
Thank you for publishing the editorial “When contrition brings truth” in the Feb. 1, 2021, Monitor Weekly. We should have more articles of positive, healing changes going on in the world that uplift the reader and give hope.
Each person in a leadership role that was highlighted, especially North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, responded to an opportunity to demonstrate humility, and that goes a long way. When dictators admit that they’ve learned from “painful lessons,” the world takes notice.
Thank you for choosing to share this hopeful news.
Melissa Gay Bonnette
Lafayette, Colorado