Letters: July 2007

I was disappointed by the profile of Maria Stephanos [“Foxy Lady,” June], which failed to portray the intelligence behind the beauty and the enormous heart she has. Her ongoing support of our group’s efforts over the past six years has allowed us to see the true Maria and learn how much she gives to others. She has made a genuine difference in the lives of people with diabetes, and has created a special bond with all our families. Far from the one-dimensional picture your article gave, Maria is a smart, passionate, dedicated, and, yes, beautiful (inside and out) person we are lucky to have as an integral part of our community.

Heidi Daniels
Executive Director, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, New England Chapter

I don’t think John Gonzalez’s article on Maria Stephanos was insulting (anyone bright enough to understand what he was really saying knows that, somewhere deep beneath his starstruck-little-boy emotions, he gets her), but I feel the need to say it for the record: Maria has got it going on, and I’m talking smarts. I’ve seen her in action in the newsroom, and when the commercials roll, she’s pounding out up-to-the-minute updates on her stories, not checking her mascara. She may look incredible in her gowns at charity events, but she also knows why she is there, and makes it work for the sake of the cause.

I know Maria as a mother who has found a way to balance her tremendous drive with an almost constant visibility in her children’s lives. I envy her as an athlete—say what you want about those legs, but she’s earned them. Most of all, though, I admire her as a friend. She’s accessible, caring, and just plain funny. Her laugh may be hahahahahaha—HA!, but I snort at most of her jokes.

Moira McCarthy
Plymouth

Having just read your “Behind the Scenes” editorial [June], I wanted to tell you why we enjoy the “slow” Denver pace. We have a vacation home in Silverthorne, Colorado, about an hour from Denver International Airport, and we visit every month. The culture differential is so obvious to us, because we are the aggressive drivers, the diners in a hurry at a restaurant, the impatient ones in a grocery store. It’s been good to slow down each month, and take a deep breath, away from the frenetic pace of the Northeast.

Judy Maloney
Spencer

“The Condensed Condensed News” [June], concerning the rivalry between freebie newspapers BostonNow and the Metro, reminds me how lucky we are to be living in a free society, with a wealth of information available for any citizen to access.

Boston and New York, unlike most major U.S. cities, are fortunate to have more than one local daily newspaper; plus, those papers have competition in the surrounding suburbs and from nationally distributed papers like USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. For late-breaking news, we’ve got all-news radio; national network news, along with local and independent news broadcasts; cable news stations; and the Internet. And a growing number of recent immigrants are supporting their own newspapers and radio and television stations.

In the marketplace of ideas, let us hope there continues to be room for everyone.

Larry Penner
Great Neck, NY

As residents of Boxford, arguably one of the wealthiest communities in Massachusetts, and as the parents of three teenagers, we wanted to reassure our back-fence neighbor from Beverly who wrote to say she was “beyond appalled” after reading the article on suburban proms [“Lights, Camera, Prom!” May]. The article illustrated situations that we have neither participated in nor witnessed. Our daughter, a senior at Masconomet Regional High School, wore a dress that came in under $200, including the alterations. Her hair was done at a local salon, but she and her friends did their own makeup and nails. She even wore shoes that she already had. Like most of the other kids, her date borrowed his dad’s car.

The Masconomet class of 2007 lost three members before graduation—none through bad choices, just horrific luck. This group of students has experienced firsthand the fragility of life, the value of friendship, and the importance of having time versus having money. Showing up at prom in the same dress as someone else pales in comparison with losing a childhood friend.

This generation has demonstrated the values we would wish them to have, and designer footwear is not high among them. We’re confident that in the next 20 years, in a picture of people making a positive difference, Massachusetts will be well represented. It’s these kids (and their parents!) we’ll have to thank.

Robert and Christine Cronin
Boxford

As an old Brookline boy who’s been in Iowa for many years, I was a bit surprised to see Joe Keohane, tongue in cheek, wanting to put Iowa’s biggest highway rest stop in...Roxbury [“Copycat City, USA,” May]. Lest anyone take him too literally, we do not travel from Des Moines to eastern Iowa just to ogle the marvelous salad bar and buy a bunch of tchotchkes in the souvenir department. Au contraire (how do you like that French?), midwesterners are much more sophisticated than easterners would like to give them credit for.

Harry I. Wolk
Urbandale, IA

I was upset to see that East Boston was not listed as one of the 20 best places to live in the city of Boston [“If You Lived Here...You’d Never Want to Leave,” May]. And considering you title yourself Boston magazine, I found it alarming that a third of your city listings were not actually in Boston.

East Boston has numerous waterfront developments in excess of 600 units, all designed with direct waterfront access. More important, it is a part of the city of Boston—and not, as some might think, a low-income-housing division of Massport.

John Sinagra
East Boston