You are, as always, exactly right, Ms. Litlove.

Have you read John Lanchester’s reviewof Turin and Sanchez’s book? If you haven’t, it’s worth a look just for the title.

U-Dad, I’m thinking this morning that the thing to take away from both the VQR and Perfumes: the Guide is that it is good to try for a light touch in discussing things about which people might be touchy.

Smugness aside, I’ve never really had much of an interest in perfumes but I could certainly work up some enthusiasm for a book of writing like that.

I’m baffled by the VQR situation. Surely at some time or another, all of us have read something which caused us to shriek in amazed amusement or horrified frustration, and subsequently perhaps we said something unkind and also unhelpful about it. Because of course some snarky criticism is actually helpful, if it has valid content. But to post the abusive cleverisms of editors is tantamount to recording a group of people sitting around making fun of the overweight and fashion-challenged, and then wondering why people are offended.

Marie — I’d say hoping for a little beauty and to not be asphyxiated is what we’re all looking for, not only in our smells but also in our reading. And yes, I’m with you, both on the much ado, and on the difficulty of trying to entertain and having that misfire.

An additional reason why those snarky comments couldn’t possibly have been about your work or anyone else’s is that each and every one of them was about mine.

Poor Waldo. I read the original posts and thought, oh dear, no good can possibly come of this. I guess some days, the impulse to write an entertaining post can lead one astray. I can see both/all sides, but really, like most brouhaha’s, it’s much ado etc.

Of course, I’ve never been rejected by VQR, and hence have no suspicion that those snarky remarks were about my submission…