My 15 Seconds

Printed below is an excerpt from an article that appears on the New York Times website. It is written by the Editor of the New York Times letters page.

In the original article (paywall), after many erudite statements from the most frequent contributors, you will find a statement by me, which I included in the excerpt below. It is, I believe, some of my finest writing. I hope you agree.

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An excerpt of 'Meet the Regulars' 

By Thomas Feyer

Every day, hundreds of thousands of readers make their way through The New York Times, in print or online. Hundreds of them — outraged, amused or touched in some way — like to write back and give us a piece of their mind.

Then there are those I call the Regulars. They write a lot — some almost every day, some several times a day. Their letters are especially clear and cogent, bettering their odds of being selected for publication in the highly subjective winnowing process.

I thought I would bring some of the frequently published letter writers into the discussion, so I asked them to address — preferably in 100 words or less, shorter than the typical letter we run — one of these questions:

▪ What do you get out of writing so frequently?
▪ What are your main interests?
▪ What are your secrets to getting published?

**Here is my response, which made the cut for publication:**

To the Editor:

Question: What do you get out of writing so frequently?

Answer: Insomnia.

—ROBERT S. NUSSBAUM, Fort Lee, N.J.
The writer is a lawyer.