Just as they do in the pages of its New York counterpart, the letters to the editor of the Philadelphia Daily News provide the opportunity every Monday through Saturday for readers to enjoy a little idiocy with their morning coffee. Submissions range from public officials responding to the paper’s reporting to thoughtful counsel from concerned citizens living in a city badly in need of new idea to idiotic and bigoted rants from the uneducated masses.

For an example correspondence from the last category, see in today’s Daily News a letter from Anne Mendenhall, Willow Grove, Pa.:

Why is it that people don’t eat meat during Lent?

Is this such a sacrifice? Jesus gave up his life and died on a cross, yet people who follow a religious tradition feel they are being challenged by not eating roast beef? But they can eat fish, which I consider a treat!

What makes not eating red meat but eating a lobster a sacrifice?

A real sacrifice would be to show some true faith by dedicating your religious beliefs not only on the holidays, but throughout the entire year.

Ms. Mendenhall would have done herself -- and Daily News -- readers a favor by investing the time spent scribbling this ignorant rant by performing a little research, perhaps just a simple Google search, that not only would have answered her sniggering inquiry but led her to understand that Lenten sacrifice is intended, in part and among much else, to remind observers of their obligations to God, themselves, and each other every day of the year.

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