I was with great interest that I read David Margolick's "V.C. for Vendetta" [Holiday 2016/2017]. One of my proudest accomplishments has been showing L.G.B.T. youth that one can be "out" and have a happy, successful, and fulfilling life. I might be less sympathetic toward Nick Denton if I had been the subject of any Gawker revelations about my sexuality, but I have no sympathy for Peter Thiel. The "greater philanthropic" things Thiel has done—the "blow for privacy rights" victory claim and being Hogan's sugar daddy—ring hollow.

WILLIAM T. GULLETTE Escondido, California

Margolick escribes both Nick Denton and Peter Thiel as "libertarians," yet Denton seems to have engaged in some dangerously un-libertarian thought by exposing Peter Thiel's sexual orientation. Libertarian thought privileges the individual over the collective and attributes to the individual a set of rights—including the right to personal privacy. It seems challenges to freedom can arise just as easily from the private sector as from nation-states.

F. K. PLOUS Chicago, Illinois

SWEET STUFF

Thanks to Rich Cohen for his article "Sticky Business" [Holiday 2016/2017]. His laughter-inducing portrayal of the Canadian cartel was second only to the utter charm conveyed in his description of the chaste Quebec forests.

RACHEL HATCH Normal, Illinois

Spotless highways where no one tailgates." "Old men in berets eating croissants at McDonald's." I have lived in Quebec for 52 years. Tailgating is effectively the national sport, and I have never encountered anyone wearing a beret and eating a croissant at a McDonald's. But I enjoyed the story!

HUGH W. NUGENTVide Lorraine, Quebec

CORRECTION: The portion of the sale price of a barrel of maple syrup kept by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers was originally misstated. It is $54.

BACK TO BRIDESHEAD

greatly enjoyed Michael Lindsay-Hogg's memoir of our tune making Brideshead Revisited ["Brideshead Reunited," December 2016]. Michael Roberts's splendid photo also captures with superb justice the lavishly intimate interior of Castle Howard. Might I point out a very small error. I believe the face contained in the photograph on the far right of the main picture is that of a young John Gielgud rather than a budding Laurence Olivier.

DEREK GRANGERLondon, England

YOU'LL SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT

I was fortunate to interview a disgruntled Jean Shepherd around 1990. I asked him about the real meaning of A Christmas Story ["Santa Gets His Claws," by Sam Kashner, Holiday 2016/2017]. He looked at me as though I were daft and stated that it was an anti-war story. He urged me to look closer at the clues: the striped bandits with vs on their eyes, the blimp, the blue ball, and especially the rifle.

NATALIE HILLCary, North Carolina

Thank you for the story behind A Christmas Story. The anecdote about bully Scut Farkus was enlightening and was made even more effective with the Peter and the Wolf music. "Farkas" in Hungarian means "wolf," and Ralphie was Peter (Billingsley). Did the director do that on purpose? I hope so.

KAREN COOKSONSharon Springs, New York

Letters to the editor should be sent electronically with the writer's name, address, and daytime phone number to letters@vf.com. All requests for back issues should be sent to subscriptions@vf.com. All other queries should be sent to vfmail@vf.com. The magazine reserves the right to edit submissions, which may be published or otherwise used in any medium. All submissions become the property of Vanity Fair.

More from the

V.F. MAILBAG

Odds are there are more of you reading this—these letters, this issue, this magazine—than ever before. To which we can only say: Thank you, President-at-Press-Time Trump. Because you may recall there was a little kerfuffle in December in which the then president-elect, possibly reacting to V.F.'s review of the Trump Grill, or possibly by sheer coincidence, tweeted that V.F. had "really poor numbers" and was in "big trouble, dead!" Whereupon V.F. broke Conde Nasfs record for most new subscriptions in a single day and, within two weeks, sold a further 75,000 subscriptions. So in a purely drcumstantial spirit, we present a selection of mail we received just after the episode, and leave you to draw your own conclusions: "Just expressing my support of your publication in light of Mr. Trump's unseemly screeds directed at you-all. I'm buying multiple copies to distribute to friends" ... "I heard your magazine was experiencing 'really poor numbers,' so I subscribed for two years" ... "If Vanity Fair is the magazine Trump doesn't want me to read, please renew my subscription for the next 30 years!" ... "Thank you for standing up to Trump. I just subscribed and sent gift subscriptions" ... "Never more proud to be a Vanity Fairsubscriber!" ... "As long as Mr. Carter, a charter member of Mr. Trump's enemies list,' is editor, I will be a very happy subscriber" ... "For the first time since the election, I no longer feel alone."