Readers Respond to the April/May 2022 Issue

It Takes a Village

“Italian Renaissance” (April/May 2022) intrigued me. With the millions of homeless, displaced families around the world desperately longing for a place to call home, why not lease these residences to qualified displaced people who would bring their cultures and home life to these empty places, not only providing them with a home, but enriching the area? —Ellen Kollmar | via email

It makes sense to repopulate small towns in the United States, too. Many people can now work from anywhere, people are interested in getting off the grid—at least for a while—and small towns give people such as artists the quiet and reflective atmosphere needed for innovative expression. —Cynthia L. Schoeppel | Alexandria, Virginia

A Legendary Tree

As an acoustic guitar player, I really enjoyed “The Legend of the Music Tree” (April/May 2022). This wood has been a legend in the guitar enthusiasts’ world. I, unfortunately, have never had the pleasure of seeing it in its finished form of a guitar. Needless to say, most of us can’t afford one. However, a great luthier can make most any wood sound incredible. What he can’t do is make any wood look like “The Tree.”—Paul Waid | Merrill, Wisconsin

Hopefully efforts in many countries will be successful in preventing the destruction of increasingly endangered exotic timber. Nevertheless, I am glad to see that “The Tree” is being treasured as a last and lost wonder. —Bob Wiemer | Houston

Hidden Costs?

“There’s Plenty of Juice on Block Island” (April/May 2022) does not address in any way the problem with the amount of oil products used in the development, creation, transportation and all things involved in the production of wind turbines. —Mark D. Knickerbocker | Meridian, Idaho

Fit to Print

I worked for 36 years at a daily newspaper and made the transition from “hot type,” just as the Saguache Crescent uses, to “cold type” and computers (“Hot Type Makes News,” April/May 2022). There is a mythical wonder about hot type, the clatter where individual pages are composed that you never forget more than 50 years after you first hear the sound. —Dora Ann Reaves | Summerville, South Carolina

The loss of any newspaper is sad but creates an even larger void in a small town. Reading the paper around the kitchen table was a family activity, especially on Sundays. The 24-hour news cycle didn’t yet exist and the paper was often our only window to the wider world. —Randy Bennett | Henderson, North Carolina