What do you mean by 'sick?'
Thirty-something that I am, I don't think I could have accurately defined the term "sick" until your recent movie countdown ("Our list of the top 5 sickest movies … ever," July 27). But now I know that "sick" means "from the current decade, or maybe the 1990s." Thanks, Texan!
Seriously though, I cheer any list of movies with "Goodfellas" at No. 1 - Forget "sick;" that's one of the best films of all time. But so are "The Godfather," "The Untouchables" and "Once Upon a Time in America." I don't get it. What makes one sick and not the others? Rock 'n' roll instead of jazz on the soundtrack? Is it sick when mobsters wear track suits and gold chains instead of silk suits and fedoras? Or maybe it's the sense of menace in "Goodfellas," the feeling that violence could occur at any moment for no reason, that separates it from classic mob films set in earlier times when the characters - though equally brutal - seemed more elegant and rational in their actions (even Sonny Corleone or James Woods' character "Max in America," wouldn't have shot the bartender for telling them to fuck themselves). By the way, you know who played that bartender? A young Michael Imperioli from "The Sopranos." I just realized that watching cable the other night.
Ben C. Cohen UT staff
A fresh look at Turkey
In response to "Will Turkey join the EU?" July 24: First, I congratulate the author, Wm. Matthew Kennedy, for his courage to think. Second, there are a number of inaccuracies. Asia Minor is Anatolia, the Asian part of Turkey. Gul, who is already the foreign minister, was going to be the presidential candidate, and Turks have ruled more than a millennium in this area.
While Tony Blair is replaced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown without an election in the United Kingdom, and Bush is governing with 26 percent approval rate, the Turks are engaged with each other to produce the best democracy ever and anywhere. Last, Kennedy is right about the women's issue and the military. I congratulate the author for not being a copy at, and for his fresh and new analysis. Thanks.
H. Cullingford Online reader Houston, Texas
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