After I read Larry Gross’ “Looking for the Joy” column (issue of Dec. 10), I ended up shaking my head as tears came streaming down my face. He has this way of pushing my buttons.  

Having seen the big Andy Warhol Retrospective show in Los Angeles in 2002, I had thought I was Warholed out. I had seen plenty of his invigorating, breakthrough pop art of the early 1960s. But enough.  

Thanks for Tom Hayden's "Dreams of Obama" essay (issue of Aug. 20). I'd like to add something for people who either don't intend to vote or are thinking of voting for John McCain. The  

On a cloudy day in the early spring, Austino Lewis sits at a table in a sleepy Arby's in South Fairmount before taking two busses to cover his shift as a cook at a local nursing home.  

If the words lirone, pardessus and viola da gamba make you quiv ery, you already consider Annalisa Pappano the coolest number in the Classical rolodex.