Dear Nick Nerf (of the Boston Nerf's?) (sic)

Congratulations on a superb piece of writing. I'm quite an avid reader and don't recall a better-written article depicting my midwestern idea of the Harvard mind. You certainly hit "the nail on the head," and gave me a chance to laugh at myself and my own attitudes toward the eastern blueblood.

I can only speak for myself, but I have spent a lifetime harboring resentment for the depiction of our natural resources here in northern Minnesota. As a small child, trains thundered past my house day and night, immigrants and sons of immigrants worked around the clock sending iron to the steel mills out East, winning the war, and feeling the pockets of eastern wasp parasites, so they could establish trust funds and send their sons to Harvard.

Here in northern Minnesota we are more ethnically and culturally Canadian than Americans. We have the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and have our hockey. You are obviously a talented young man, Nick, but need to learn that people who feel robbed have no sense of humor, and are too busy worrying about rent payments to worry about your snobbish ideals of culture.

Under the circumstances, "pathetic" was not a good choice of words, but don't feel badly Nick. Marle Antoinette was as native, young and protected as you when she used the word "cake"! Keep writing! Romayne A. Nygaard   Duluth, Minn.