July/August 2004

Weapons in Space
Thank you for Paul Webster’s “The Ultimate High Ground” (June). It chronicles Canada’s policy ambivalence in simultaneously supporting disarmament through the United Nations and co-operating in a plan to arm space. It also shows we are much closer to arming space than I had supposed. Do we want Canada to contribute to a trillion-dollar investment that benefits only the aerospace and arms industries? Do we have to start the arms race all over again — only, this time, in space?
Gordon Spafford
Winnipeg

The Barbarian Invasion
Clive Thompson’s article about the inner workings of the Internet gaming world (“Game Theories,” June) was fascinating, not just as an economic study, but as a social study as well. How I wish Marshall McLuhan were alive to witness the extension of people’s lives through technology in ways that I doubt even he, the prophet of a new socio-technological world, would have thought possible. The chance to watch the evolution of a new social order is a thrilling opportunity. I hope The Walrus will offer further glimpses of life in this virtual petri dish.
Brock Holowachuk
Winnipeg

Sticklering It To Us
I read Paul Wilson’s thoughts on the importance of proper punctuation (“For Want of a Comma,” April/May) with delight. And it was nice to learn of another stickler, Lynne Truss, who advocates near-guerrilla tactics in her battle against carelessness and ignorance.

So imagine my dismay when, in my usual fashion, I was flipping through the pages, reading each entry for the Outlook calendar, and I reached April 30, Day of Witches in the Czech Republic. There, for all to behold, was a classic comma splice: “The Soviet era restricted many of the celebrations, however the day has recently made a comeback.”

Now, I’m not suggesting that this lapse will actually “undermine a civilization,” as Wilson suggests, but I am disappointed that your magazine, which I enjoy and which I hope thrives as a part of a vital Canadian culture, would allow such a slip.
Richard F. Giles
Alma, Ontario

I am, without a doubt, a stickler (though some might, erroneously, refer to me as a pedant) when it comes to the comma. For the record, the correct punctuation of “A woman without her man is nothing” is as follows: “A woman without? Her man is nothing.”