joshua hutchinson sent the following letter (response sent from mail@cartalk.com).

I don't get it. Here I am with a 13-year-old impressionable mind looking around the Web site of my role models (tee hee). And there I find, right in front of my eyes, a link telling me to "write Tom and Ray." Tom and Ray--there, I did it. Think of all the millions of little kids like me out here (or there) in cyberspace who think that now that their role models (kids are told by teachers to have role models) or even idols use the term, it's fine for them to use it as well. Well, hmmmph. If I'm wrong and you're right, that it is perfectly acceptable English as well as the Bostonian that you speak, then just forget about my whole, painfully thought out letter. This is painfully thought out because, alas, I am not required to do a whole lot of thinking in any place like school.

In answer to the request for what an educated person really is: In the MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, an English newspaper, you have this question: "We often hear of people described as 'intellectuals'. I would like to be one. Can this be achieved by reading selected books? If so, which?

There were these two answers, both from people in England: "To become an intellectual you must think a lot; read a lot; never, ever do anything," and, "The qualifications for recognition vary from country to country. As a rough guide: in Germany an intellectual is somebody who has written a book about Hegel; in America an intellectual is somebody who has read Hegel; and in England an intellectual is somebody who has heard of Hegel." (Who's Hegel, or is it a joke?)

Just thought you might be interested,

Joshua Hutchinson

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