Misplaced offense

Your correspondent in Issue 54 is certainly quick to express offense at alleged malice towards and lack of sensitivity to the large Indian population of the city.  

The offense is entirely misplaced, however, as the term “Indian giver” refers to interactions between Europeans and native American “Indians”, and it has nothing at all to do with Indians of the subcontinent or the Indian Government.

Etymologists disagree on the exact development of the phrase’s usage, but it seems likely the term originated in the Europeans’ misinterpretation of loaned property as gifted property.

That is exactly the sort of detail your story hinged upon and thus it is hard to ascribe malice, rather than succinctness and accuracy, to your usage of the term in the case of the parklands discussed.

Name withheld

Insurance needed

Now that Abby Sunderland has been saved from the Southern Ocean, but not saved from herself or her parents, I think Australia should make it law that anyone taking such a risky voyage in the future should carry insurance against the occurrence of a similar situation.

The insurance should cover the loss of the boat as well as the cost to the Government, authority or individual that saved the person.

What happened here is a 16-year-old girl, described as a “fine sailor” by her father, was put in mortal danger by being pushed out into the Southern Ocean in the middle of winter in an unsuitable yacht (Ocean Racing Open 40).

As sure as night follows day, something was going to fail and everyone should stop thanking god (as if that figment of their imagination exists or has anything to do with it) and start thanking Australia, France and the airmen and seamen who saved her from her fate!

Captain Jeff Gordon
(ocean sailor for 50 years)