Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with letters

Prison Correspondence

daboo — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:18:39 -0800

How can people in the U.S. prison system communicate with the outside world? I understand that this varies depending on the type of prison, and possibly the state, but I have found no information. I have no experience with the U.S. penitentiary system, but I understand that prisoners are allowed to write letters. Do they have to pay for postage? Are prisoners allowed to make phone calls? At what frequency? Are there any prisons allowing emails?

Similarly, what ways are available for the outside world to contact prisoners?

Any information or links regarding prisoners' means of communication with the outside world is appreciated.

Bill Gates in The Economist?

disillusioned — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:20:35 -0800

Bill Gates wrote a letter to the editor that was published in The Economist within the past year or two. Can you track down what issue it was in? I think he was discussing his work on malaria with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and it's absolutely vexing me that I cannot find it, even as a subscriber using their archive search options.

Any insight? (I'm pretty sure he signed as Chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, so this was since he stepped down. And a straight up Letter, not a special report or The World piece or guest column.)

Thanks!

Books on cover letters geared to new college grads?

cymru_j — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:30:39 -0800

Books on cover letters and resumes geared to new college graduates? I know there are some fabulous resources online, but I'm looking specifically for books here, since I'm trying to build a small library in our college writing center.

Thanks in advance!

Yet another movie ID question.

jocelmeow — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:17:27 -0800

Movie ID help please: 18th century England, noblewoman looking for husband, writes letters with rich American who made fortune in slave trade, she befriends a slave who works in the house, they fall in love, later there is a childbirth scene. Movie made in the early 90s, low-budget look, could be made-for-TV. I've been looking for a movie I saw years ago, but I don't know the title or any of the actors. Had this great childbirth scene - very realistic but not at all graphic. I've done subject and keyword searches in the usual places, but can't find it.

Filmed in the 90s, low-budget look to it. Could be made-for-TV.

Set in 18th century England. There's a penniless noblewoman looking for a husband. She's put in touch with an American who's rich but has no social standing, and through letters they decide to help each other out.

He's just awful, of course. Alcoholic, brutal, complains that she's not helping him, but doesn't take her advice. Still, she does her best to help him improve his reputation. He made his fortune in the slave trade, which she finds a bit unsavory, but she doesn't give it much thought.

Until the first "shipment" arrives, that is. She's horrified by what she sees. He keeps a few for the house, and sells the rest in the typical charming fashion. She befriends one of those in the house, a young man who speaks English. The man was upper class himself, before his capture, is well-traveled, well-educated, and an all-around great guy. They hit it off and...well, later on there's this childbirth scene.

Anyone seen this? Thanks for your help.

Looking for more details of Salem-as-Arkham

robocop is bleeding — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:37:38 -0800

I'm looking for details about H.P. Lovecraft's visits to Salem, MA. Thanks to Google Books and Scholar, I know HPL visited the Salem area pretty routinely (1923, 1929), basing his fictional towns of Arkham and Kingsport off of Salem and Marblehead respectively. I'm looking for details of his visits - where he went, where he stayed, etc. Being a true 'man of letters' I'm pretty sure he would have written about his visits in some of his correspondence.

However, the sheer volume of correspondence (and surprisingly high cost of bound editions of his selected letters) is pretty daunting. So before I unleash the dogs of ILL, I was hoping that there was some sort of online guide or resource I could consult first in order to better target my interlibrary loans.

An Index to the Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft by Joshi seems like a place to start, but my best source for the volume is prying it from Harvard's cold, dark vaults and I'm a'feared of the hound, so I'm looking for other options.

The eventual goal is to produce a pamphlet and/or podcast walking tour of Salem-as-Arkham, sort of a ghost walk through a bit of Lovecraft country. It would combine details from his fiction ("Here's where Carter sat in The Unnamable, watch out for shoggoths."), his life ("Lovecraft slept here."), and city sites that are evocative of the Mythos ("This building is not Arkham Asylum - that's in Danvers - but it is architecturally similar." or "The Peabody-Essex has a vast collection of items imported from the Orient by Salem merchants. What dread stone idols lie moldering in its basement, whispering their secrets to the empty air?").

I've got all the references from his tales that I need (although more are always welcome) and my fertile imagination can produce enough eldritch symmetry between the Mythos and Salem. It's the hard biographical data that I need a leg up on.

Why can't I count the Fs?

doublehappy — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:52:25 -0800

I have lots of questions about an email FW: I have received many, many times. How many times does the letter F appear in the following sentence?

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

This is ridiculous. There are 6. Even when I know there are 6, I struggle to recount them. The email suggests that only the super-intelligent will count 6, and the rest of us are idiots. I am of, perhaps, slightly above average intelligence, at best, so this may be true.

Being of only slightly above average intelligence, I have lots of questions. Why? Why does our (forgive the simplification, for I don't know how brains work) language brain override our shape recognition brain? (When did language become more important to survival than shape recognition? Are they in fact the same thing?) Wouldn't this also mean that the more intelligent you are, the less Fs you will count, (if we accept language skills are a good measure of intelligence). I take it that this obviously doesn't work in languages where the pronunciation of F and V differs from English, among others (a couple of google searches suggest that the brain perceives'of' as 'ov'). The text is often presented with non-standard line breaks, and I haven't seen this online with different sentences. Is this a phenomenon that can be seen in other texts, or is specific to this particular sentence? Does this phenomenon have a name?

What is the best way to pluralise letters? It seems common to use an apostrophe, and according to a lecturer I had four years ago, this is okay with decades, for example, the 1980's, but it just feels wrong next to a single letter. It's a proper noun, right? So the pluralisation should just be a simple 's'.

Is language even the best tool to talk about language? (See how I accidentally used the word 'talk' in there, presupposing that the only way to have discourse about language is to use language? What's that, post-structuralism?) It seems strange to me that we would, as a species, have reached the best form of communication so early in our existence. Is language the killer app for Humans, alongside thought? (Are they the same thing in some ways?) You can talk about dancing, but you can't dance about it. You can think about talking, and you can talk about thinking.

Sorry - got a bit carried away there... I'll settle for an answer to 'Why can't I identify the Fs in 'OF'?

Help me put together a lettter writing kit!

newtux — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:33:03 -0800

Help me put together a unique letter writing kit for a friend going away to college! Details appreciated. My friend is going away, and I have decided to make a letter writing kit with cool paper, pens, stamps, etc(?). However I have no idea where to look. Where can I find interesting letter writing paper/envelopes? What are some interesting pens I could get? Is there anything else I should include? Specifics would be appreciated.

Dear Congressman, Not Snoopy FOIA Person

Leezie — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:09:12 -0800

I want to write my U.S. Congressman on at least one delicate topic. But, I'm kind of paranoid that my letter will become public record that is subject to a FOIA request. I have a very distinctive name that when Googled, I pop up immediately in the form of my professional profile. I don't want what I write to my Congressman to be available to anyone to read and who then pops my name into a search engine and they find me on the internet. Am I disenfranchised from making my opinion known or can I write without fear? FYI - there is nothing I can do about my name or my profile being on the internet.

Epistolary Songs?

rabbitrabbit — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:52:29 -0800

Epistolary songs? Helping a friend write a paper. Can you think of songs which are in the form of a letter?

A few examples to get you started:

"Famous Blue Raincoat" by Leonard Cohen
"Stan" by Eminem
"Letter to Elise" by the Cure
"Dear God" by XTC

What else?

It was like a game of Scrabble with hundreds of players all going at the same time.

Cool Papa Bell — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:33:08 -0800

Help me find this cool site! Site was an example of crowd dynamics. The site presented a shared space and a random assortment of letters, like Scrabble tiles, that could be dragged around the screen to spell out words. Multiple people could interact with the board simultaneously, either helping each other spell words or swiping letters from other people's words.

Do these letters even mean anything?

Petrot — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:41:24 -0800

I really like this girl. I don't see her regularly, but we write letters to each other, which I thought might have been the start of something more than just friendship. Then she gets into a relationship with some guy, and the letters stop for a while. Then I get another letter. Now what? We've been friends for a few years now and get on really well together, but I don't see her regularly. However, for the last year, -since I moved out of town- we've been writing letters to each other (old fashioned snail-mail).

Apart from the usual day-to-day stuff, we'd plan what we wanted to do when we met up (typical going-on-a-date stuff, but never calling it a date), and she would always start her letters with "My dearest..." and finish them with "Much love...". These are long multi-page handwritten letters which are pretty rare in this day and age.

I figured if I was merited more than just a hastily typed Facebook message every now and then, I took these letters to mean that she was interested in me as more than just a friend. (Mistake?!)

A short while back, whilst we were still writing letters, I traveled several hundred miles to attend her birthday party. I expressed my feelings that night to her, but she just laughed them off. Since then, her letters have continued the same, and because of her response at the party, and because I lived so far away I didn't let my affections known again.

The letters continued, and we worked out that we would have several weeks when we would both be in the same area with time off. We planned to go out - movies, walks, shopping, even camping. Not plans set in stone, but she texts me to say that she'll let me know asap days when she's free. I plan to tell her my feelings for her again.

Then - nothing. I don't hear from her. No conversations, texts, letters, for weeks. I find out that in that time, she gets a boyfriend. I get pretty upset, but figure that it's not like she knew how much I liked her, and decide to let it be, and try and forget the whole episode.

Until a few days ago, and I get another letter from her. No different from her other letters, and full of plans for what we should do when we meet up again. And still with the "My dearest..." and "much love..."

So I'd like some help in understanding this girl. Do these letters even mean anything? Does she see me as just a friend? Do I reply to this latest letter? If so, what do I write?

I'm well aware that I could have massively got the wrong idea, and thought too much into the letters - but she has confused me. Thanks in advance for your advice.

Please make me a better letter writer!

SkylitDrawl — Sat, 16 May 2009 20:02:04 -0800

My partner and I have broken up because of a move but have decided to correspond with one another through handwritten letters. Please help me be a better letter writer! For the first time in my life, I am sending handwritten letters through the mail. My partner is graduating from the school we attend together and is moving across the state from me for work. Neither of us really dig the idea of committed long distance relationships, so we have decided to break up. In a year, I may move to join him in the city he will be working in, but I don't really know for sure. I feel like a year is a really long time, and I know that a lot could change in that time. However, in the year between now and then, we intend to correspond with each other via handwritten letters. Neither of us are fans of the phone, IMing seems very ordinary and like what simple friends would do. We both love to receive mail but never get letters and it seems like a very romantic idea, so we've gone for it wholeheartedly.

Despite the break up and the move, I still really care very deeply for this man. I think he cares similarly for me. These letters are the main way that I communicate with him now, so making sure they are of high quality is important to me. I tend to send him a letter per week and letter writing has been very fun for me so far. However, I can't help but think that I could make these letters and packages a little... better? More interesting? His letters come with fantastic doodles in the margins. I can't draw anything beyond stick figures, so similar doodling is out. What sort of fun items can I include in my letters and packages that would make them feel more heartfelt or interesting? What I'm thinking of is along the lines of suggestions of fun, simple items that I could find in the course of my weekly life, or really cheap things that I could buy over the Internet (little things off etsy could work here - vintage postcards, maybe?) that I could include in my letters to make him smile and perhaps keep me in his memory throughout the day. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Also, I have heard that it is possible to create a wax seal out of crayons. I have lots of old crayons in almost every color imaginable and I know he would get a real kick out of a handmade crayon wax seal. Does anyone know how to do this? Help would be much appreciated.

Translate a line of Hebrew pertaining to a pomegranate?

Tufa — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:19:57 -0800

Would someone translate the text around this pomegranate, please? I'd appreciate if you could provide the names of the individual letters as well.

The best of genius at work, in their own words and pictures?

fire&wings — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:25:56 -0800

I'm looking for books featuring (first hand) the creative processes, influences, daily routines and preparatory works of creative people - visual artists, film makers, novelists, poets etc. It dawned on me recently that I often enjoy insight into the creative process of great minds even more than I do their completed, published works. The letters of Samuel Beckett, the manuscript facsimile of 1984 by Orwell, the theories of Robert Bresson, to name a few.

I'm looking for the best books - diaries, letters, collected preliminary designs or sketches, written manifestos - by great creative minds. Preferably behind the scenes of their great works or their career, rather than especially notable works in their own right. They needn't be direct documentary insights into the creation of certain works, I'm also interested in reading diaries and letters relating generally to the formative experiences/periods of these lives. I am only interested in "primary evidence" - actual documents transcribed or reproduced, rather than biography or speculation.

Wait a minute, Mr. Postman...

cloudsandstars — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:48:36 -0800

What specific measures should I take to ensure that important people actually receive and read my letters? I often get an urge to send a letter to someone important. Sometimes for positive reasons (such as a thank you for a great service experience), and other times for not-so-positive reasons (such as a rebuke for a member of Congress who voted for something ridiculous). However, I usually decide not to go to the trouble because I suspect my letter will probably never get to the person who needs to see it, for whatever reason (safety concerns, apathetic assistants, etc.).

Do you all know of some tips or tactics I could use to increase the likelihood that the addressee will actually receive and read my letter?

Dear Prudence, or whoever you are...

crazylegs — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:36:13 -0800

Whose name do I use when writing a cover letter for a job? I'm sending out a pile of resumes to private secondary schools in an attempt to find a teaching job. I have a directory of private schools with descriptions of hundreds of schools, each of which gives a contact name, but these people are all directors of admissions, as the book is geared towards potential students and their parents. I've checked out a few web sites and most of them don't list a specific person for human resources, job seekers, or employment. To whom should I address my cover letter? Should it just say "Dear [school name]- ? I can't just say "Hello", and really don't want to write "to whom it may concern".
What to do?

Can you help out with some (easy) wordplay?

BorgLove — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:44:02 -0800

Can you help out with some (easy) wordplay? We're working on a new ad campaign for a client over here (small, local, not Big Business or anything) and we need some groupthink help: I'm looking for words that I can modify with the letter W. For example, I could substitute a W to make 'sin' into 'win'. Or I could add a W to make 'here' into 'where'. Ponder/Wonder, Binding/Winding, and so forth. The quirkier the better! Also, the W can be flipped, so things where we sub or add 'M' are just as helpful.

Please note, I'm not trying to avoid doing work - we've got a bunch too, but they all seem kind of obvious (as my weak examples suggest) and this seems like the kind of problem where the more minds, the better. And you guys are always clever at this kinda stuff. So if you have suggestions, please help! Thanks!

Reference me that recommendation, please.

ElectricBlue — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:43:54 -0800

How should I approach my professors for recommendation/reference letters for a job that doesn't yet exist? I'm trying to wrap my mind around the situation, but I can't quite figure out how to work everything out in a tidy manner. So... Hivemind to the rescue! :)

I'm a current senior in college. I'm spending my last semester abroad. My study abroad lasts from March until August. So while my friends are graduating and "hitting the pavement," I'll have a very late start in hunting for a job.

Alas, I don't know what job I'll go into after college. It'll hopefully be something creative--writing, graphic design, etc.--but that's all I know.

I've been staying on-campus for the past six weeks. But I'll be kicked out of the dorms on Sunday. (Literally: someone's moving in my room that following Monday!)

My problems:

1) I'm leaving campus this Sunday. This week could be the last time I ever see my professors.
2) I'd love some recommendation/reference letters for future jobs from my professors while I'm still fresh in their minds. The problem is, how can they write a letter without knowing what job I want?
2b) Should I ask for them to emphasize my character? Traits that are in both fields of graphic design and writing?
3) There's no way that they can complete a letter in the next few days. I was thinking of giving my professors a SASE addressed to my parents' house so that they can send the rec letters at their leisure. But is that the best idea?
4) Am I overthinking this? ;)

So, to summarize: I think that it would be a great idea to go ahead and get some rec/ref letters from my professors before I leave for a study abroad. That way, when I get back from Europe, I can immediately hunt for a job. But I'm leaving for Europe soon, and I have no idea what job I'll be hunting for.

If you have any advice, that'd be awesome. Thanks in advance!

New Years Resolution: Send a letter every day.

thebrokenmuse — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:03:35 -0800

New Years Resolution: Write a letter every day. Dilemma (in two parts):

1. The list so far includes a list of authors, classic actors, icons a la Hugh Hefner and the occasional lesser known celebrity. Where should I send these letters? Is there some sort of listing online for places to send fan mail?

2. Once my list runs out, do you have any suggestions for lesser known interesting people that I should write to? I am open to write to almost anyone, but if you know of a really interesting person in your field that I might not come across on my own, I would love to hear about them.

How to safely get an endorsement?

CollectiveMind — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:06:21 -0800

OK, I've posted on this subject before. Each time, I'm a little further along. Here is where I am right now. I've been working on a book since March. The idea upon which the book is based has been getting a lot of attention recently and has consistently been in the news for about four years. After a recent post about some impending national publicity, it was suggested that I create a proposal and find an agent to help distribute the book. The agent I found says that the marketing portion of the proposal needs to have endorsements about the book from authors a publisher would recognize. This is to prove that the agent isn't the only one who thinks the idea is viable.

So, I've searched the Internet for the email addresses of all of the authors of the books I compared to my own in the proposal. Agents want this done to show a publisher that few or many books on a subject might show market potential. Anyway, I've found the email addresses for the authors of about half of the books in my proposal.

Should I have any hesitation of explaining this possibly novel concept to established authors who write books on parallel concepts in hopes of getting their endorsement? Are their endorsements likely?

How to write a fan letter

LiquidKarma — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:19:16 -0800

How do you write a fan letter pretending to be Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana? My co workers has a daughter with Down Syndrome who is in love with Hannah Montana. She recently told me about a bunch of fan letters that her daughter wrote to Hannah that she was hanging onto. I offered to write a letter back to her daughter pretending to be Miley Cyrus. Due to her illegible writing I'm not even sure of the questions she asked. Where can I find some good information that isn't just stuff you would find on her official site? Also, I've never written a fan letter to anyone before so I have no idea of the response one would get. Any thoughts?

I have some letters; will you trade me for words?

47triple2 — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:56:15 -0800

What's it called where you take a group of letters and make words out of them? (Not anagram!) Okay, this has been bugging me forever. I want to take a group of letters, and using the letters, make words. For example:

abcdefg

Gives me: Cab, Face, Cede, Fag, deaf, bee...

What's it called when you do this? Is there an online program to do this for you? (I run Mac if you have an OSX program to do this.)

Thanks!

Dear Grandma!

nomnomnom — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:17:26 -0800

A list of ways to show Nanna she is loved? My Nanna lives on a farm several hours away from me and I am unable to visit very often due to study, work and inability to drive.

I'm after some ways to regularly remind her she is loved and an awesome person. The rest of her family is useless (!) and she has been lonely since her husband died.

What, apart from letters with updates about my life, can I do to show her I care?

I always think of sending her presents, but my grandparents have always been the type of people to accumulate so much crap that they will actually not open a Christmas present for years.

Nonetheless, ideas for gifts are welcome.

I'm looking to compile the Ultimate Nanna Loving Compendium here! My aim is to have enough surprises for the rest of her life. She is so wonderful and funny.

Change drive letters on XP

edbyford — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:14:12 -0800

I need to change nearly all the drive letters on XP, including the system partition. How do I do this? I have two hard drives, both split into two partitions. I recently reinstalled Windows, and my drive letters are all changed round! The partition which I store my documents on is now C:, while my system partition is K:.

I found this, but I've heard that it can seriously mess up your computer. How do I change the letters around?

How can I create a macro to capitalize sentences in Word?

perpetualstroll — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:51:55 -0800

How do I make a macro for Microsoft Word to capitalize lines in an interview? I'm working with interview transcripts in which I am manually selecting text and selecting "all caps" to capitalize sentences from the interviewer. Needless to say, this is time-consuming and I'm pretty sure there's a faster way to do it, but I don't know where to start.

Oh great hive mind, how do I get from the sample input to the desired output below?

I: Hello, my name is John.

P: Hello, my name is Mary.

(they both laugh)

I: Hello, my name is John again.

P: That's very interesting. Please, tell me more.

I: Hi, my name--

P: Mary.

I: Don't interrupt.

---

Desired output:
I: HELLO, MY NAME IS JOHN.

P: Hello, my name is Mary.

(they both laugh)

I: HELLO, MY NAME IS JOHN AGAIN.

P: That's very interesting. Please, tell me more.

I: HI, MY NAME--

P: Mary.

I: DON'T INTERRUPT.