I usually do not respond in print to letters to the editor about my columns. People have a right to knock us all they like. It only bothers me when the letter writer misses or ignores a key point, as I suspect to be the case with the writer of a letter appearing in today's print editions:

"Dan Rodricks wants us to celebrate a woman making a financially imprudent decision while deceiving her husband so that a girl who has more than most 17-year-old girls in the rest of the world can get 'cool clothing' ('Uplifting deed means more in down economy,' March 15)? Well at least she saved 10 percent."

The writer is Jason Atkins of Laurel, who must have missed the part about the 17-year-old being a foster child and the 'cool clothing' having been purchased at a Goodwill thrift store.