Metalsmithing careers

“Reviving a skill and a town that got left behind,” the article on metalsmithing by Joan Gaylord in the July 8 & 15 Weekly edition, was excellent and rang close to home.

My son has been a busy farrier for many years, shoeing horses in a 200-mile area in southeastern Missouri.

His wife, who is creative and artistic, decided several years ago to pursue her interest in blacksmithing.

This past year she won a folk art scholarship (the first given in Missouri to a woman in this field, I am told) to hone her professional skills with a well-known blacksmith in their area. She started making small gift items like bookends, which she sells at weekend country markets. She is now quite busy filling orders for custom metal products.

You never know what you’ll read and learn in each issue of the Monitor. My wife, born and raised in the Bronx on New York egg creams, had a flashback to her childhood after reading Robert Klose’s July 1 essay “My kingdom for an egg cream.”

Thanks to all you dedicated Monitor writers and staff for each enlightening issue!

John C. Thompson

Chesterfield, Missouri

Egg cream adventure

Robert Klose’s Home Forum essay on egg creams reminded me that, living in Kansas, I had never heard of egg creams either.

Recently I was watching old episodes of “The West Wing.” In one of them the character President Bartlet is sipping on something when another character, Toby Ziegler, happens by and asks what the drink is. Bartlet says that it’s an egg cream, and wonders why he hadn’t heard of this amazing invention sooner.

Toby kindly replies with exactly the description that Mr. Klose includes in the column. That’s when I had to try one, so I did. They are all correct. Egg creams are amazing and delicious and habit forming.

Elizabeth E. Stevens

Manhattan, Kansas

Understanding why

I have loved, subscribed to, and read the Monitor for many decades. The refresh of the Weekly is terrific. Thank you, and I appreciate the addition of “Why we wrote this.” It gives purpose to the article, and we all want to know “why.”

Sally Carlson

Cypress, Texas

Positive thinking

The June 10 Home Forum essay “Why my mother counted only her ‘beauties’” by Deborah Mead was so inspiring! It has lit up all my endeavors with strength and humor.

Jacqueline Cohen

London