I won't be long, I promise. I just want to address a couple of things, thank you all for your support, and clarify some things where I may have left a wrong impression.
First, the Thanks. I've received a lot of e-mails and public comments on the original article. More of it, in fact, than I have for anything else I've written. Nearly all of it has been kind, and most of it has been to agree with me. Even those who took issue with something I said did it in a considerate way. Thank you all. It was a pleasant surprise.
Secondly, I may have opened the door for something I didn't intend. I understand that English is not everyone's first language. When I see a story with a title like, "My Mother Lost Her Sari," or "Mama-san Steps Out," or if the author is someone whose name I can't easily pronounce, I suspect that the author may not be used to English sentence structure, punctuation, slang, regional idioms and so on. I try to take that into account, and if I choose to read it, I realize that I have to allow for these things. I'm the one who's taking the risk when I do so. I have read some of those stories and there are some that I really liked. Different cultures have different ways of looking at things. No, I take issue when the author is Bill or Mary Somebody, the story is set in Hometown, USA, and I still find the kinds of things I spoke of in my first note.
I also know that we're not all English Lit. professors. I'm not, and I don't expect that many of you are either, though there may be some. My talent, if I have any, has always been in science and mathematics, not grammar. I do have a computer though, and it has a word processor with a spell checker and a grammar checker. If you're on the internet, and can submit things to a site like Literotica, you probably do, too.
I hope I didn't give the impression that I think I'm superior to anyone, because that's not the case. I am as fallible as anyone out there and I know it. A couple of people pointed out mistakes in my own writing and I'm now a better, and somewhat humbler, writer for it.