Calendar Feedback: This is not the time for luxury TV picks

TV recommendations completely tone-deaf

When I saw your article [“Best 15 Shows to Watch Right Now,” May 30] I was hoping to find something new to enjoy.

However, it quickly became apparent that all but four of the recommendations were on services you have to pay extra for: Disney+, HBO, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, Paramount+, Starz.

You get the picture.

Did it ever occur to you that many viewers are financially strapped right now, worrying about paying for things like food and rent? The whole article seemed completely tone-deaf to me.

Peggy Jo Abraham
Santa Monica

The debt owed to moms

Mary McNamara is correct when she points out that our governmental and societal policies do not support parents, especially mothers [“Moms Need Some Help in Return,” May 27].

When my American daughter and her dual-citizen husband lived in Canada, they were sent funds to pay for diapers, etc., for their Canadian-born children. Lowering our birth rate is a good and necessary thing.

Even so, parents, mothers and fathers need flexibility and support in order to provide quality parenting while being good workers.

Low-wage workers in particular need policies that allow them to attend school events or to stay home with a sick child without the fear of losing their job.

Sarah E. Adams
Rancho Palos Verdes

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Right on. Mary McNamara hit all the points. This country has its head under a baby blanket over the issue of family well-being. In our society, women and children are a low priority, and that makes me angry.

It really makes me wonder about the “progress” women have made. My daughter can’t afford to step away from her career as I was able to. Fortunately, I can step in to help her. Many mothers don’t have that support. It is just so much harder for this generation.

Daycare, healthcare, affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, quality schools and good parenting are not women’s issues. They belong to everyone.

Until we embrace that ownership, our community is failing families and ultimately, the future of our nation.

Roza Besser
Calabasas

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Any economist can tell you that when women joined the workforce in major numbers in the ‘70s and ‘80s, capitalists jumped for joy. The labor pool nearly doubled, pushing wages down. Consumerism went up as every new gadget and product became a “necessity” and families “enjoyed” more “disposable income.”

Meanwhile, moms are run ragged wearing all their hats. And dads are hustling too. There’s no law that says that one parent can’t stay at home and take care of the kids for a time. My wife and I managed to do it. We just didn’t have the latest car or any fancy vacations. We didn’t eat out much. We made our coffee at home.

It’s the greatest news in a long time that the birth rate is falling. Never thought I would live to see the day. Like electric cars and buses and environmental activists winning board seats, it shows that perhaps there is a slim chance for humans.

And the fact that having children is a choice instead of a presumption is also a good thing. Maybe all the drugs, counterculture, open-mindedness and alternate modes of living and thinking of the ‘60s is finally paying off. And not a moment too soon.

Andrew Tilles
Studio City

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Why has an article, researched and written by a clearly intelligent and articulate and well-educated person regarding a significant matter of national concern, been relegated to the Calendar section of today’s newspaper?

Is it because this person is a woman and a mother that her opinion has been somehow downgraded by some L.A. Times policy or the decision of some L.A. Times individual?

Joseph Murphy
Venice

Refusing this dance

Regarding “Concerts are back, which means one thing: The return of L.A.’s one-and-only ‘Dancing Man’, by Randall Roberts [May 26]: I wish you had provided contact information for the Dancing Man so that I could call him before I purchase any concert tickets to make sure that I am sitting nowhere near him.

Audience members like him are highly annoying and feel they are entitled to enjoy themselves at the expense of others. If he must dance, why can’t he go to the side or the back? Why must he impose himself on others?

I hope at least the documentary filmmakers interviewed the people sitting behind this jerk.

And no, there’s no nicer word for someone like him.

Barbara Lieberman
West Hills

No simple conflict

Lorraine Ali’s commentary on the HBO movie “Oslo” complains about the imbalance of the movie by showing “only” the burning of the Israeli flag and the violence perpetrated by the Palestinians [“‘Oslo’ Revisits a Brief Flicker of Hope,” June 1].

Ali makes no mention of hundreds, indeed thousands, of rocket bombardments not against the Israeli military but targeting citizens.

She complains about the “simplicity” of the factual context of “Oslo,” but never sees fit to mention Hamas, which is destroying the Palestinian people whom it purports to represent.

Ali is entitled to her opinion, and your readers are entitled to exactly what Ali complains about, balanced reporting.

Louis Lipofsky
Beverly Hills

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Lorraine Ali got it right. “Oslo” lacked all context. It was as subtle as a sledgehammer and as balanced as a congressional budget.

John Zavesky
Riverside

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Instead of learning the history of the Mideast from Instagram, I strongly suggest Lorraine Ali start reading some history books.

One more “woke,” biased, very offensive and grossly misinformed “review” like this one and the Los Angeles Times will definitely have fewer subscribers, including myself.

Jerzy Kromolowski
Los Angeles

Who’s your favorite ‘Jeopardy!’ guest host?

Regarding: “What’s on TV Friday: ‘Lavell Crawford: The Comedy Vaccine’ on Showtime; ‘Jeopardy!’ on ABC” [May 28]: “Jeopardy!” has a clear front-runner for its new permanent host: Buzzy Cohen, who guest-hosted the “Tournament of Champions.”

Cohen — who won the 2017 Tournament of Champions — is likable, enthusiastic and keeps the show lively without overshadowing the contestants.

While LeVar Burton and Mayim Bialik, among others, have yet to have their turns, Cohen has vaulted ahead of his guest-host predecessors.

Stephen A. Silver
San Francisco

Editor’s note: Bialik’s two-week run as “Jeopardy!” guest host began May 31.

Where has Van Gogh gone?

Regarding “Enter a Dreamscape of Van Gogh’s Famed Art” by Julia Barajas [Feb. 21]: The Los Angeles exhibit of “Immersive Van Gogh” has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in advance sales through the end of the year and is still selling tickets.

This exhibit was scheduled to open on May 27 but has canceled an unknown number of shows because they apparently have no venue.

How about a warning added to your online story about the show?

Or is it a scam? We don’t know because you aren’t reporting on it.

Bob Gossom
Chatsworth

One culture’s trash is an artist’s treasure

Regarding Ismail Muhammad’s article about Noah Purifoy, “No More Discards In L.A.” [May 28]: His greatness was, in part, that he saw beyond the circumstances of the here and now and to a potential for beauty.

As for his move to the desert, he needed space to put up his vision and had a benefactor to give it to him. Amazing what he produced in those 15 years.

Was he “discarded” by L.A., as the headline writer [of the question “What if L.A. didn’t throw people away?” for the digital version of the story] implies? Not so sure about that aspect. His vision was of greater things.

Peter Yates
Culver City