- From Irene at UCSC: "I happen to know Leslea Newman, the
author of the real Heather Has Two Mommies quite well, and I
know the publisher of the original book. What kind of copyright
permission do you have for this spoof story you have done? I don't
think either of them would be amused by what you have done."
Response from philg: "As a result of Congressional shortsight, lack of
amusement is not actionable under current copyright statutes."
- From Benjamin at U. Texas: "I haven't seen Heather Has Two
Mommies, but I can attest to the fact that it represents an
alternative lifestyle to children, and, as such, is a useful tool in
modern classrooms where there are likely to be, for example, kids with
two mommies. ... The book is an attempt to embrace the large number
of children out there who aren't coming from the perspective of a
Cleaver family.
You have confused all of the above with political correctness, which
is something else altogether. Aside from that, I don't find your
effort particularly interesting or creative. You seem to have
digitized a lot of pictures."
- From Chris at csun.edu: "In the worst possible taste! I loved it,
especially the picture of the Republican. Very lifelike..."
- From anonymous people at Harvard University: "Not very funny.";
"It was very unpleasant coming upon this story. I feel sorry for
people so filled with hatred that they have to write things like this.
Also very hurtful for people to read, expecially women."
(Note: Some of you may recall Harvard as the PC-nexus where they
embarked on a multi-week witchhunt for the wag who crossed out
"colored paper" on a recycling bin and wrote in "paper of color.")
- From Angela in Cupertino, California: "This is truly tasteless. I've added it to my hotlist. O:-)"
- From ottar@indirect.com: What a shallow excuse to get us to look
at your animal pictures. (Some are quite nice). The reactions you
have received to this little needle remind me of a cartoon I think I
saw in The New Yorker. It was in a Women's Bookstore and the
proprietess was replying to a male customer's query: "This is a WOMEN'S
bookstore - There is no humor section!" There certainly seem to be a
lot of thinskinned among us.
- From Eric at DEC: "This is GREAT!! When I saw the reference, I
thought, 'Oh, no, this stuff is making it on the network now ...' but
then I clicked on it and laughed my head off!
It's about time someone pointed out this silliness ...
A good job, beautiful pix, and thanks 1e+06!"
- Anonymous MIT Athena user: "gross disrespect..."
- From Alan at Intel: "While I think political correctness has gone
way too far, I think that not-so-subtle homophobia is not an
appropriate way to express that opinion."
- From Paul at MicroServe: "I wholeheartedly split my side reading & viewing your layout."
- From Michael at JPL: "Nice photos. Pretty stale humor."
- From Tim in Buffalo: "I think it's phenominal [sic] how scared
some people get. This little thing was petty and humorless. Try
harder next time."
- Richard Stallman wrote a
much more thoughtful reaction
than my product of a few late-nite hours deserved.
- From Paul Morris : many of the readers comments
were more entertaining than your book. I especially enjoyed reading Richard
Stallman's response. (It's funny how some people will preach against one movement on the
basis that it is oppressive, and then proceed to give instructions on
how to go about oppressing it...)