Reader Response

I found a copy of Calvin Trillin's With All Disrespect in the library - a compilation of his columns from The Nation in the 1980s - and in one chapter ("Moral Suasion for Grownups"), he writes:

I figure what the State Department needs is a series of commercials with Patti LuPone, in her strapless "Evita" gown. They could run on one of those blue-movie cable channels, to reach the diplomatic crowd. "I like strong men," Patti would say. "Also strongmen." She is, of course, smiling her knowing smile. ... "I met a strongman I thought I was going to like," Patti says. "I liked his cars. I liked his Swiss bank account." Patti suddenly looks very serious. "Then I heard that he closes newspapers and runs torture chambers and makes people disappear," she says. She shakes her head sadly. "And to think," she says, "for a moment there, I thought he was a cool guy."

And just where it says "torture chambers", a previous reader has written, in neat blue capitals, AT TANGLIN POLICE STATION.