Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with letters

MUNI naming scheme

scission — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:25:14 -0800

Why does MUNI sometimes call a train N and sometimes N N? Where can I learn more about their naming schemes? I've taken the occasional light rail in SF without really understanding the announcer in subway stations. I didn't notice a connection between the double letters and whether a train has multiple cars, or whether it's inbound or outbound, but maybe I've missed something obvious.

What does it mean, and where can I read about MUNI? For example, I've also been wondering why my station announces "Embarcadero" and "Mission Bay" for inbound trains but specifies the letter for outbound trains.

What is she saying about me?

cincinnatus c — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:24:32 -0800

Simple question: help me translate this sentence from Swedish to English. Last line in a handwritten letter, mostly written in English, from Swedish girl to me. Help me work out what it means.

Thing is, it could be read two ways. One way is this:

"jag är tom kär i dig"

However, there is a bit of a gap between the "to" and the "m", so it might also be:

"jag är to m kär i dig".

The first version translates, word for word, as "I am empty in love with you". Is this grammatically correct though? Is it a common phrase? And what the hell would it mean?

If it is "to m" rather than "tom", though, I'm stumped. I can't find a way to translate it. My best guess is that it's short for "too much" in English, with the "too" misspelt (plausible - her English isn't perfect). But does anyone ever shorten "much" to "m"? Any other ideas?

Sub-question: are there any nuances in the ways the word "kär" can be used? Is it "in love" as in English, i.e. a serious statement, or can it be lighter, as in just fancying someone or having a crush on them?

Thank you for your help!

Stories about WWI/WWII home fronts

booksandlibretti — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:30:21 -0800

Please recommend me some great books about the home front during WWI or WWII. I'm really interested in stories, not academic histories or anything. Novels, diaries, collected letters, and memoirs would all qualify -- basically, I like stories, fictional or not.

Again, I'm looking for a home front setting, not for soldiers' stories. England, Canada, and America would all be obvious choices, but stuff about noncombatant residents in contested areas (like A Woman in Berlin) is also fair game.

I'm especially interested in the London Blitz and the evacuated schoolchildren, so bonus points for books including those elements. Other examples of what I've enjoyed are The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters, and L. M. Montgomery's Rilla of Ingleside. Heck, even the Chronicles of Narnia qualify around the edges.

Thanks in advance!

I'm looking for free-standing letters

Cranialtorque — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:30:28 -0800

I'm looking for 3-dimensional letters that can stand freely and be photographed. I remember seeing some that were sold to aspiring film makers during the super-8 era for creating titles. Does anybody know anything about these, or where I can get something like them? I cannot remember the exact era when these were available, or a manufacturer, but I do think they were an American product. I remember them being a condensed sans-serif, similar to Univers condensed, in white. (But my memory is hazy.) eBay searches are unsuccessful, and I'm having no luck with Google either. (A Blondie album entitled Plastic Letters is throwing me off.)

My goal is to take text-based photographs, with the type standing freely in different environments. Think Jenny Holtzer meets Andy Goldsworthy. Small, say 1" - 3" tall, is ideal. Most plastic type I have found is designed to stick to one surface or another - these need enough depth to stand freely.

I'm hoping someone knows the exact product I'm thinking of, but any helpful ideas are welcome. Thanks in advance.

What are these things?

aburd — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:33:18 -0800

What are these things? And what do they say? I bought these 2 pictures (1 and alternate 1, 2 and alternate 2 ) at an estate sale / yard sale about a month ago. The people who sold them knew nothing about their origins. My translation attempts have gotten bogged down trying to interpret what the symbols actually are.

So does anyone know what type of art/lettering/whatever this is? What they are saying? Why they have page numbers at the top? What the deal is with the apparently faked aging process?

I'll write a tipsy letter to a real good friend of mine

numinous — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:39:13 -0800

Darling-Letter-Filter: Where can I purchase attractive, design-inspired paper goods online? I am planning on hand-writing some letters in order to re-connect with people in my life (and to update them on my current whereabouts/endeavors, etc.). Thus, I am looking specifically for sheets of paper + envelopes for letter-writing. I really enjoy the design sensibility of current independent designers, so I'd like something that reflects this.

I'm well-acquainted with designers on Etsy, but I'm not finding what I'm after. Most of my other leads are from places like Creature Comforts and Oh Joy! (taking a look at those, you'll get a good feel for what I'm looking for). However, as with Etsy, most of the suggested designers are primarily invested in creating folded note-cards, and not singular sheets for letter-writing.

Can you suggest somewhere online where I might be able to find such stationary? I want links! Lot of links!

If there is a designer or online storefront that doesn't offer such stationary, but you feel shouldn't be missed, please feel free to post those links, too! I might find use for those later on. :)

Do you have any cool suggestions for renaming a website?

cjorgensen — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:04:45 -0800

I've launched a website less than a month ago, but all the domain names I think best fit what I am doing are taken, so I took a name I don't like. I would like your help renaming it. I posted here before asking for suggestions for a rename for the site, but since I included the current site URL, it was seen as through I was trying to promote the domain I want to get rid of, and the post appropriately deleted. But I still have the problem, still hate the name.

To add a bit of fuel to the fire, I included part of another company's trademark in my name. It would probably stand up to any kind of challenge, I just would rather avoid such, since I lack the funds to mount any kind of fight.

The site consists of me sending questions, concerns, observations, or plain old ink soaked stupidity to companies, individuals, institutions, and luminaries of various sorts, then posting my original letter, the reply (and image of), and commentary on both.

This is not a new idea, nor am I pretending it is. I'm running with the premise from the Lazlo Toth books, the "Letters from an Idiot" books, with a bit of "Thanks for the Memos" and "The Yes Men" thrown in.

I would like help renaming the site. I prefer a .com site, but will consider others. The domain has to be available (obviously). Due to self-imposed constraints it can only be one of the following TLDs: .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, or .us, since these are the only ones the place I intend to use as a registrar handles. Ok, so they also do .cn and .ws, but since I am neither Chinese nor Western Samoan I think these would be kinda crappy.

Ideas would be great. Addresses posted here might be snapped up by anyone, but unless you have a better way to do this, I guess I will live with the risk. I plan to rename the site on June 30th.

What to do about an anonymous letter

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:46:23 -0800

What do I do with an anonymous letter about one of my employees? I run a small business (14 employees) in a small, rural town. Today in the mail there was a letter that accused one of my (married) female employees of being an "internet whore", among other similar things. There were three photographs with the letter that appeared to be screen shots of a web site - she was pictured. The short letter contained stuff like "I thought you should know what kind of disgusting person worked for you", etc. etc.

No one else has seen the letter (generally, as today, I'm the one who goes to the post office and opens the mail - although not always. Whoever sent the letter had no way of knowing for certain I'd be the one who opened it. The letter wasn't addressed to me by name, but to "The boss of xyz company").

She's on vacation this week with her (notoriously jealous) husband.

What should I do? At this point I'm thinking that when she gets back I should hand the envelope to her, tell her that it appears she has a problem to deal with, and that I don't want to discuss it further (that's true - I wish I had never seen it or had to think about it).

Further complicating things, her role at the business involves dealing with the public - she's in sales. Her (semi-?) private behavior, if truly objectionable, could, I suppose negatively affect the business.

I'd just as soon pretend I never got the letter and pictures, but I'm afraid that if I don't address it, the thing will just escalate further.

the lost art of letter writing

xo — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:56:30 -0800

Suppose one friend was to send another a letter by mail. What makes for an especially great letter? What elements make a letter newsy enough to be interesting, without seeming to be a catalog of fabulous adventures? What elements make a letter feel emotionally true and personal, without seeming to be the writer's self-important inner monologue? What elements best invite a response? What elements encourage a feeling of connection in the reader?

Wyh can't I produce coherent speech any more?

jacalata — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 04:50:01 -0800

Why do I seem to be increasingly mixing up my words/letters in writing and speech? I seem to be noticing a growing tendency in myself to switch around words and letters when speaking or writing. I've always made regular typos (teh, frist, etc), and last year I noticed that I would often get the space in the wrong spot while typing as well (eg; th espace). That seems pretty straightforward typing-faster-than-thinking stuff. However, last year I also noticed that I would occasionally do the same thing (rearrange both letters and spaces) when handwriting, which doesn't seem equivalent - I have to consciously shape the letters, not just time the speed of my fingertips. I attributed this to the complete lack of handwriting in my everyday life, and moved on. However, I began to notice that very infrequently, I would switch around the position of words in a sentence when writing as well. I've also begun confusing homophones (I actually wrote their for they're!) and then a few weeks ago, I heard myself saying words in the wrong order (it was something like 'until work I get to' for 'until I get to work'). What's with this? Do other people do this as well? Should this be anonymous so nobody finds out about my fatal brain tumour this way? Or is it possible that I've always done these things and never noticed until now? (seems unlikely, it would have been noticed at school).

Background: 22, native English speaker, good at foreign languages as well, normally very articulate, excellent speller, never even the shadow of a previous problem reading/writing.

Where can I get rubber letters, and how do I order them?

Kickstart70 — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 09:43:48 -0800

If I wanted some pre-cut letter shapes made for me out of a material similar to a tire inner tube, what sort of request would I make? What would I call the material so that the manufacturer understood? What, if anyone has ordered similar, is a decent place to order from? Thanks!

How technical/specific should my grad school personal statement be?

christy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:10:46 -0800

Grad School Filter: How technical and specific should my statement of purpose for my Computer Science PhD application be? I'm applying to PhD programs in computer science. The prompts for the statement or purpose say include things like:

- How I became interested in doing cs research
- Current projects or experience that demonstrate I know what I'm doing
- Future plans

My question is:

Given that I don't have a huge amount of space for all this (usually between 1 and 2 thousand words), how technical and department specific should I make my essay?

I could easily spend 1000 words explaining how I became interested in the field, but I also have like 1500 in my technical current experience document. I'm trying to pull it all together and I don't know how much of each flavor to mix in.

Thanks for any and all help!

Where can I find information about the history and usage of letter-endings?

electric water kettle — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:56:15 -0800

Where can I find information about the history and usage of letter-endings (e.g., "love," "yours," "sincerely")? (Is there a technical term for these?) I'm looking for more in-depth treatments than what I've found in etiquette books and letter-writing handbooks, although if anyone knows of any particularly good ones I'd like to hear about them. I'd be especially interested in academic papers or monographs on the subject, either in general or on (a) particular letter-ending(s).

Wanted: Friendly postal correspondence with smart, sane, sincere individuals

susiepie — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:22:27 -0800

How do I go about finding a pen pal with whom I have a lot in common, one who will also be loyal in writing letters on a regular basis? I would simply love to find a few sincere people who would be interested in pursuing friendship through the long-lost art of letter writing. I realize it would be impractical to expect an instant lifelong buddy, but surely there is some way to utilize the great www to locate nice, normal folks who are also inspired to share regular genuine correspondence through the more traditional means of pen and paper.

I've visited several online pen pal sites, and most of them just seem mediocre and somewhat simplistic ("plz write 2 me, i <3 catz, ok thx bai").

So where can an almost-30, happily married, reasonably intelligent female go to find like-minded pen pals who are not:

1) currently (or formerly, for that matter) in prison
2) asking for money
3) looking for romance
4) someone who will write only one or two letters
5) extreme (not too dull, not too dramatic)

Bonus points for creativity and originality, but all suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks so much, everyone!

What to write to a military pen pal I don't know?

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:54:09 -0800

What sort of things should I write about to my soldier pen pal? I signed up to be a pen pal for a soldier overseas with a volunteer organization, but I'm having a hard time keeping up with my correspondence. This isn't someone I know, so I can't write about familiar subjects (because I don't know what they are!), and they don't regularly write to me (which is part of the deal, so I understand that). I've been writing about my life, but it feels so awful - "Hi I'm having a great comfortable spoiled life here with my friends and family! Hope life alone in a warzone isn't too awful!" What sort of things can I talk to this person about that will provide the most comfort and support?

I am a woman, and so is my soldier.

Where to find old commercial

electric_counterpoint — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:15:17 -0800

What happens to letters from demolished buildings? What happens to old lettering on commercial buildings in general? Of course, the real question is, can I get my hands on them? Just occurred to me as I was changing my desktop wallpaper and saw several good looking images I'd snatched off Flickr from people who went on Tobias Frere-Jones' typography tour of New York a few months ago. Wouldn't it be cool to have a few old specimens up on a wall or something? Well, I thought it would.

So, what's the line on something like this? I'm not interested in buying some new letters custom-made, and my budget for the next few years will probably rule this out no matter what the cost. But on the off chance that the market for old signage is small, well, that would be good to know.

I should clarify that I'm not particularly thinking about actual signs or displays or marquees or .... I'm just thinking about actual letters, like so.

How Much is Too Much for Holiday Cards

ThePinkSuperhero — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:29:59 -0800

What's the etiquette for photos on holiday cards? I'm thinking of doing one of the Shutterfly photo collage cards for this year's holiday card, because I have a lot of fun pictures from my year. But is that weird? Would it be weird if most/all of the pictures included me- or would it be weird if they didn't? If the card has 9 picture slots, what is the most number of pictures that should include my dog? Is it boastful to include pictures of my beach vacation? One great picture from my year is me on my birthday with a drag queen- is that too much for my grandparents to handle? Are there any rules to guide me on any of these issues, or am I on my own?

This movie no title.

mkb — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:18:02 -0800

I saw a preview for this movie, but I can't remember the name. A mother lives alone with her son, who sends letters to his absent father who his aboard either a navy ship or a cargo ship. the replies he receives are actually written by his mother to make her son believe that he actually has a father. When the fictitious father's ship is to return home, the mother has to find a suitable replacement. What is the name? Unfortunately searching for the topic finds a host of completely generic results.

How to make the best impression on graduate advisors in earth sciences?

cortisol — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:24:50 -0800

Help me compose the perfect letter of introduction and get over my fear of contacting potential Ph.D. advisors. I've read previous AskMes on related topics, but I didn't feel like they answered all my questions. Also, the best approach to take seems to vary by field, so many of them don't necessarily apply to the physical sciences.

I'm currently in the process of applying to graduate school, having been inspired by the International Polar Year to investigate the possibilities of geophysics and polar modeling. All the schools, books, AskMe threads, and so forth strongly suggest contacting professors whose research interests me. However, I'm having a great deal of difficulty composing the requisite emails. I've always been anxious about initiating interactions with other people, and the stakes in this case seem paralyzingly high. I feel like one sufficiently-dumb question about their research could sink my application, and I don't know how to ensure that I've read enough of their work to get it right (particularly since I don't have easy access to the full text of publications behind pay walls.) Most of the professors' personal "what I'm working on" websites are either nonexistent or 2-5 years out of date.

How can I evaluate the strength of my introduction emails? Is there a good rule of thumb for asking intelligent (or even intelligent-sounding) questions about a fairly technical research paper? Will I look unprepared if that question happens to have been answered in another published paper that I haven't found, or haven't read because it's behind a pay wall? Should I explicitly say "I would like you to consider me as a potential advisee" or just discuss their research? Will they be annoyed if I ask for advice on writing a letter of intent?

I guess it all boils down to: how can I calm down and reassure myself that pressing "send" isn't a potential death sentence for my application?

Help me see what I'm typing!

Andrhia — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 08:28:55 -0800

How can I get letters back onto my iBook keyboard? So I have this iBook G4. Something about my skin chemistry makes the paint on the letters flake right off in a matter of weeks. No, it is not hand lotion. Apple's replaced the keyboard and a bunch of keycaps a number of times, but I'm frankly tired of dragging the thing in to the Apple store, and now that my warranty is expired, I'm not sure they'll help me anymore anyway. I can touch-type, but the five-year-old who also uses this machine? Not so much.

What home-brew solution is there for putting letters back on the blank keys?

I have tried: Sharpie, but it rubs right off. I've used an iSkin to preserve the original letters, but frankly I found it extremely unpleasant to type upon. I've looked for lettered stickers but haven't found anything that looks, well, not shady.

What else should I try?

Correspondence Courses for an Australian

divabat — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:45:59 -0800

What are some good, simple, affordable correspondence courses I can do from Australia? (The courses don't have to be based in Australia.) Ever since my mum did a correspondence course in interior decoration in the early 90s, I've been intrigued by the concept of learning by mail. I am trying to find some good and simple correnspondence courses, but I can't really tell what's worth the money.

A lot of the Australian ones are distance certificates or diplomas - things you need to be certified in. This makes them a lot more heavy-duty and consequently a lot more expensive. I don't really need a certificate in anything specific; I just want to learn something for the sake of learning. Also, there isn't a simple way of looking up reputations.

Which companies are reputable? They don't have to be Australian but since I'm there I need to be able to receive the material! I prefer something short-to-medium term rather than long-term, and something not so in-depth (I'm in university).

I'm interested in creativity, human services, communities, and anything weird and unusual. I don't need to do a creative writing course, though, as I'm already doing that at uni. I'd prefer post-based courses. Where else can I go?

I need more mail in my life.

divabat — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:07:29 -0800

How can I, a college student, get more mail? I love receiving mail. Letters, packages, even brochures. It's such a thrill to open my mailbox in college and see letters for me.

No one I know writes letters by hand, though. I send postcards through PostCrossing occasionally, and do swaps once in a while. I used to order college/university brochures just so I'd get mail. And there's only such much I can buy on eBay (it's fun though!).

I'm in Australia. How else can I get mail? Are there any other websites that do mail projects, or send out mail? I'm fine with sending mail out too. Junk mail is iffy but I don't think I'd mind much (catalogues are fun!).

Looking for epistolary novels

reenum — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 06:06:15 -0800

BookFilter: I've recently gotten done with Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger (link here). I'm looking for more books like it. More specifically, I'm looking for epistolary novels. They are basically novels written entirely as a series of letters, magazine articles, telegrams, etc. My Googling has failed to unearth a comprehensive list of such novels. So, I come to AskMeFi for your great suggestions as to some great epistolary novels I can read to feed my newfound jones for the genre.

This is supposed to be the easy part . . .

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:14:35 -0800

Who should write my letters of reference two years out of university? I am applying for an internship in a field related to my university studies. The catch is that I finished my studies two years ago, I've since moved, and I've lost contact with the professors I worked closely with while in school.

The application requires two letters of reference. I haven't worked any job even remotely related to the internship or my studies since then. I have no idea who I should approach to write these letters of reference, or whether these letters should come from people who know academically, professionally, or personally.

I can't approach my employers as references as doing so would place my employment in jeopardy (they wouldn't look kindly on my seeking another position, even if it would be the best thing for me). My last contact with the head of my (small) program was leaving an email unanswered when she asked why I hadn't pursued graduate work as I'd formerly planned (I was too embarassed to get into my lame, lame reasons).

I am working with a few friends/acquaintances on a project related to the internship I'm interested in, but I don't know if having one of them write a letter would be acceptable or somehow going against the rules.

So what do I do? Can I apply for an internship with personal references rather than academic and professional references? Do I cross my fingers, contact former profs and hope they don't think I'm too much of a fuck-up or gadabout to write a good reference for? I don't even feel like I have people in my life who know me well-enough to write a personal reference letter for me!

So what do I do? Who do I approach and who will I be expected to approach? I really want and need an internship -- if not this one, then another -- and I don't want my lack of people who will vouch for me to ruin my chances.

Decent Letters-to-the-Editor pages?

UbuRoivas — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:12:04 -0800

Any recommendations for decent Letters-to-the-Editor pages? Before MetaFilter was invented, the best way I knew of to get my daily fix of what the more intelligent or humourous members of the general public thought about stuff was by reading the Letters to the Editor page of any quality newspaper.

The Times' letters page is probably the venerable grandfather of all, but for parochial & cost reasons I would normally stick to the Herald, if anybody needs any guidance to the kind of thing I am looking for.

My question is this: can anybody point me towards similar sites from American newspapers? Last time I checked the only two I know of that are worth reading (NYT & WaPo), the letters pages seemed very meagre indeed, and quite undemocratic: it seemed that you already had to be a senator, ambassador, hospital director etc to be chosen as worthy for publication.

If anybody knows of any particularly insightful, witty & well-edited letters pages from elsewhere in the world, I would also like to hear your recommendations.