To the Editor:
Re “Electrical Automobiles Are Boring,” by Ezra Dyer (Opinion visitor essay, April 13):
If E.V.s are boring, I suppose I’m OK with being bored. As an E.V. proprietor, I now not must cease on the gasoline station to refill in all types of (Chicago) climate. No extra oil adjustments, no extra antifreeze considerations, no muffler or gasoline pump issues. Boring is sweet.
No key or fob to hold, and I can preheat or precool my E.V. in varied varieties of inclement climate.
Now for full disclosure. I purchased my first E.V. 10 years in the past once I was 73. I’m now on the age the place easier (boring) is best. I nonetheless drive my grandson’s stick shift sometimes, however discover it requires an excessive amount of effort.
I used to be questioning if Mr. Dyer want to return to the horse and buggy. Simply consider the highway noise and the sound of actual horses.
Ron Thomas
Glencoe, Sick.
To the Editor:
The slowdown in E.V. gross sales just isn’t as a result of they’re boring. It’s as a result of they’re 1) too costly; 2) take too lengthy to cost; 3) don’t go far sufficient on a single cost.
I’ll fortunately purchase a medium-size S.U.V. E.V. when it goes 500 miles on a five-minute cost and prices about the identical because the hybrid model. Till then I’ll accept the Toyota RAV4 hybrid.
John Aitken
Salt Lake Metropolis
To the Editor:
Sitting on the again deck of my home, I can hear the faint roar of visitors from the city middle, a couple of mile away. I console myself that when extra persons are driving E.V.s, quiet and the candy cacophony of fowl tune will prevail.
Now, Ezra Dyer tells us that E.V. producers are designing speaker programs that may mimic the sound of “loud exhaust” as a result of E.V.s are too boring.
What’s subsequent, E.V.s geared up to spew the nostalgia-inducing “not fully disagreeable” odor of gasoline, oil and diesel?
The genius of human invention by no means fails to amaze and horrify.
Janet Buchwald
Sudbury, Mass.
To the Editor:
What an sudden and extremely refreshing shock to see the essay on electrical vehicles by Ezra Dyer, a Automobile and Driver columnist. As a longtime Automobile and Driver subscriber and previous and current proprietor of three Alfa Romeos, I agree wholeheartedly along with his observations.
And given the truth that the Porsche 911 GT3 is among the most coveted vehicles by my 25-year-old son, there’s hope for the following technology. We simply want the automobile producers to take heed to the roar.
Allan M. Tepper
Philadelphia
Dwelling With Roommates in School
To the Editor:
Re “Dwelling With a Stranger Is Arduous. School College students Ought to Attempt It,” by Pamela Paul (column, April 23):
I had the distinctive privilege of getting roommates for my first two years of school who had been radically totally different from me. I realized an terrible lot due to the expertise. However there was lots I want I hadn’t too.
The transfer to varsity is difficult sufficient — academically, socially, mentally — that sharing that with one other individual locations a useless burden on new college students.
Ms. Paul is sort of proper that college students profit from studying from these round them, and faculties ought to emphasize this within the classroom. But when there’s one place that must be sacred and free from the trials of beginning faculty, it ought to be one’s room.
James J. Bernstein
New York
To the Editor:
Once I arrived on the College of Alaska Fairbanks as a freshman in 1972 as a Jewish New Yorker in a distant land, I met my new roommate, a Muslim from the Philippines. Two individuals couldn’t have been extra totally different. And it labored out magically.
Whereas we now have misplaced contact over time, I nonetheless bear in mind his glowing smile and heat and am glad we had been chosen as roommates. It helped me to develop and recognize individuals from vastly totally different backgrounds.
Randomness in roommate choice can generate development and studying, which is what I at all times thought faculty is meant to do.
Paul Neuman
New York
Tech within the Classroom
To the Editor:
Re “Tech in Faculties Wants ‘a Arduous Reset,’” by Jessica Grose (Opinion, April 28):
Over the previous 15 years of getting school-age children, I’ve been deeply pissed off by how our faculties have adopted expertise with out sufficient scrutiny. It’s miserable to comprehend what number of hours my children are required to spend in entrance of the pc display each day — and all with none physique of proof pointing to its constructive impact on studying.
How I dreamed about working the iPad over with my van after 4 years of my excessive schooler studying all the things — even novels! — on his machine.
Although I’ve heard noble rationales for tech within the lecture rooms — “It’ll save the timber!” — I agree with Ms. Grose that faculties must re-evaluate what tech corporations determine the faculties want.
Not solely are standardized assessments at each stage revealing faltering studying outcomes, however the human-to-human interplay can also be clearly struggling probably the most. Out with Google Slides; in with educating!
Amanda Bonagura
Floral Park, N.Y.
‘Disagreeable Truths’ About Russia
To the Editor:
Re “How Do I Discuss to My Son A couple of Battle I Don’t Perceive?,” by Sasha Vasilyuk (Opinion visitor essay, April 28):
The battle in Ukraine just isn’t “Russia’s betrayal,” as Ms. Vasilyuk writes, however Russia’s enterprise as common. For generations, Moscow has violently suppressed the freedoms of surrounding nations.
Reasonably than withhold disagreeable truths, Russian mother and father should train their kids what Ukrainian, Polish or Latvian kids study from theirs: Traditionally Russia is an aggressor.
Russia’s imperialism depends on the unquestioned perception amongst numerous odd Russians that their state has a virtuous proper to dominate its neighbors. With out a lot laborious work by mother and father and lecturers, Russia’s noxious document will proceed unchallenged.
John Connelly
Kensington, Calif.
The author is a professor of historical past on the College of California, Berkeley.
Water and Politics
To the Editor:
Re “Democrats See Water as Concern to Win Over Rural Arizona Voters” (information article, April 24):
This text factors out the issue that Democrats face in successful over conservative voters. For these desert communities, water is a life and demise concern. However despite the fact that they admit that Republican insurance policies damage them and Democratic insurance policies assist them, these individuals will vote for Donald Trump.
And it’s not as in the event that they don’t understand which facet is which. They could agree that on this significant concern the Democrats are proper and are serving to them, and the Republicans are incorrect and are hurting them, however it doesn’t matter. They’ll nonetheless vote for Mr. Trump. There may very well be no clearer instance of individuals voting straight towards their very own pursuits.
If nothing else, this discouraging story exhibits how a lot stronger is the worry of migrants, of change, of massive authorities — all summary fears actually — than the drastic actuality staring these individuals within the face.
Tim Shaw
Cambridge, Mass.
