Letters & Opinions

To the editor: I agree that those who participated in the assault on the U.S. Capitol deserve to be charged under federal sedition statutes. But I’m a little puzzled by columnist Harry Litman’s reference to seditious conspiracy only. (“Was the Capitol attack sedition? Pay attention to what the statute says,” Opinion, March 25)

The United States is making and distributing COVID-19 vaccines so fast that production will soon outstrip demand, leading officials to ask: What should we do with the extra doses? Most answers have focused on the home front: Dozens of states, including California, are rapidly opening vaccination eligibility to all adults, and President Biden has doubled the speed of his initial rollout calendar, now calling for 200 million Americans to be vaccinated by the end of April.

In vast stretches of this country, it’s now legal for an adult to buy and use marijuana. But that perfectly legitimate activity can still get you fired from your job. A few White House staffers learned that the hard way recently.

Every now and then I wonder about the cultural historians who will have to — presumably straight-faced — write a history of the past few years in America. A little over a year ago, I wrote a column for this very website about the death of Mr. Peanut: the monocle-sporting Planter’s Peanuts mascot (his death, it turned out, was greatly exaggerated). I thought at the time we’d reached the nadir of late modernity. I was wrong. The latest cultural outcry concerns Mr. Potato Head. T

While I was away from the paper for a couple of weeks, several people came up to me at the Destination, my favorite coffee shop where my friends and I meet every morning. They ask why there was nothing written by me for the paper recently. Good question.