To the editor:

Patrick Nichols’ letter of complaint about Lenore Skenazy’s political satire is way off base. I’m sure I was not alone in smiling over her imaginings of Hillary’s various methods of violent revenge on Bill for his betrayal and stupidity (and her tender reconciliation in return for his expert campaign advice). Skenazy’s rich imagery was in the vein of the black humor of cartoonists Edward Gorey and Charles Addams or film directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino.

Her recent columns on spam, “reality” shows, and the use of heavy metal music and kiddie-show theme songs to psychologically torment Iraqi POWs have been some of the funniest this paper has ever printed. Skenazy’s regular contributions to National Public Radio broadcasts have been bright spots in the otherwise bleak news of recent months.

Personally, I think it would be appropriate for her to write a scenario about Bush being tortured — perhaps with rap music and Rugrats reruns — for lying to the American people about “weapons of mass deception.”

I hope the Journal-World will not reconsider publishing artful satire on the basis of one reader’s obvious lack of humor. Without columns by Lenore Skenazy and Dave Barry, stories such as reports that only 17 percent of Americans knew that none of the 9-11 hijackers were Iraqi would make your paper far too depressing.

John W. Hoopes,

Lawrence