Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

The essay suggests that the best method to induce employees to lose weight is to start them with $42 in an account each month and deduct $1.40 each day they do not meet the goal. The logic is that people hate to lose what they are given.

I tried a similar method on my undergraduate students, some of whom were always late for class. I tried giving them bonus points on their grades for coming on time and found that it had little effect. When I tried a loss aversion tactic, I gave them 10 points at the beginning of the semester, and they lost one of those points each time that they were late.

I found that they were more likely to get to class on time but that they were furious at me. They felt entitled to the 10-point bonus, and each time they lost a point for being late, they complained that it wasn’t fair and that I was being sadistic.

So companies may succeed in getting their employees to lose weight using this method, but they may also lose employees and lower morale by doing so.

ROBERTA SATOW

New York

The writer is professor emerita of sociology at Brooklyn College, CUNY.

This is precisely why Donald Trump is doing so well in the Republican primaries. Until this year, Republican elites chose the nominee and expected the rest of us to vote accordingly, which we meekly did. Not this year. This year, after decades of disdain, we the people choose the nominee and expect the elites to vote accordingly. I call it the "One-Romney-Too-Many" theory.

Before Antonin Scalia died, the United States Supreme Court was composed of six Catholics (Scalia, Alito, Roberts, Thomas, Kennedy, and Sotomayor) and three Jews (Breyer, Kagan, and Ginsburg). President Barack Obama has nominated Merrick Garland, a Jew, to replace Scalia, which would make it five Catholics and four Jews. (Jews make up 2.2% of the population of the United States, but would have 44.4% of the Supreme Court seats.) Five of the justices would be graduates of Harvard Law School, three of Yale Law School, and one (Ginsburg) of Columbia Law School. All are Ivy League schools. Isn't it time we had a Protestant and someone from a non-Ivy?

Addendum: Here is Ed Whelan's take at Bench Memos (National Review Online).

Addendum 2: Here is the New York Times report.

The Republican establishment continues to beclown itself.

One of the most annoying traits of young people is their pronunciation of contractions containing the word "not." For example, "didn't" is pronounced "did-ENT" and "wouldn't" "would-ENT." Have you heard this? Any theories about its origin? Here is a video showing proper pronunciation of contractions with "not."

Here is the exciting finish of this year's Tirreno-Adriatico.

Here.

Here.

Kettle, meet pot.