the long and short

A particluarly lengthy letter to the editor in today's paper reminded me of the letters in the Bangkok Post. In the early 90s, when I was in Thailand, it was my paper of choice (the only English-language alternative being the Hairy Trib, which was far too expensive for my backpacking budget). Commonly, the letters to the editor would run longer than feature articles. I determined to send them a pithy post on the subject, but was stuck between two options: "Shorter letters please." and "Shorter letters, please." While the first was the shorter of the two, there were simply no short letters to please anyone, so I opted for the second, which the Post printed the following week and then reprised at the end of the year.