Letter of the week

Each week we'll feature a choice for the best letter that we see (175 words or less, with the emphasis on less. Tweets qualify. Anonymous comments don't).

What we're looking for is good writing, no matter what the subject, politics or point of view. We're looking for passion, eloquence, sharp wit and laughter.

Laughter is what we feature this week, with Shawn McDonald's letter on Kikkan Randall and kissing athletes.

"The whole thing was to try and poke the bees' nest," McDonald said last week by phone from Moose Pass, where he sculpts bronze basins. He said he wanted to get people not to take things so seriously.

He got us laughing here. And judging by the responses to his letter, he stirred up the bees too.

Here's the letter, which first ran on Jan. 19:

"Just a few days ago the ADN published a picture of two women kissing. To many people this was highly offensive, and now you've done it again.

On the front page of the Jan. 16 Sports section you published a huge picture of two young, blond, attractive, spandex-clad, lissome young women, rubbing their supple, athletic bodies together, then a picture of them kissing. Turn the page and there it is again - another kiss. First Chandra Crawford is kissing Kikkan Randall, then on Page B-3 Kikkan Randall is kissing Jessica Diggins.

Kissing does not belong in the sports section; did you ever see Mike Tyson kiss another boxer? What kind of message is this sending to our daughters? Do you want them all to turn out like this Randall woman, who seems to be in the paper every other day now?"

"This Randall woman" is brilliant, suggesting that Kikkan has been wearing a scarlet letter instead of a ski-racing bib. Shawn McDonald had fun.

So did Dick Griffith of Anchorage, who wins an honorable mention with this letter, which appeared Saturday:

"There have been many letters to the editors commenting on girls kissing girls. I used to kiss my favorite saddle horse after a long hard ride on the open range in Wyoming. I was a teenager then; the often repeated event was not worthy of a photograph or further comment."

Thanks to all of you who take the time to write. Let's raise the bar. Make that letter sing. Just don't seal it with a kiss.

-- Frank Gerjevic