Reader "Comments" and a PBS Duo-Documentary

     My informal, unscientific study of the "reader comments" that follow many newspaper stories online has concluded that it takes about three comments before the "conversation" reaches gutter level. 
     A case in point is a perfectly non-controversial story at www.al.com about an upcoming commemorative event in Monroeville. The Postal Service is coming out with a stamp honoring To Kill A Mockingbird.
     Two readers comment about the film and book and Monroeville, and then comes a jerk taking shots at Birmingham. 
     Birmingham? 
     Right.
     Newspaper companies have to start removing that TalkRadioesque feature they allowed when papers first migrated to the web. At least do something to keep the conversation civil and on target! 

     Speaking of Harper Lee, Monday night at 8:00pm, PBS will air two back-to-back documentaries, about Lee and perhaps the other best known female Southern Writer, Margaret Mitchell. The Lee bio includes a 1960's radio interview with Lee...the last full interview she gave! She's lived a quiet life in Monroeville all these years except for a handful of public appearances. 
     I kinda doubt she'll attend the stamp dedication on the 13th.