Marketplace®

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Letters from our listeners

Host Tess Vigeland reads listener comments on a few of our recent stories. This week: A kinder way to deal with a snake, a happy couple where the wife earns more and a movie theater run by the airlines.

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TEXT OF LETTERS SEGMENT

Tess Vigeland: And time now for your letters.

We recently talked to MSN Money columnist Liz Pulliam Weston about odd insurance benefits. Liz told the story of a man who walked into his kitchen and found a snake. He grabbed an axe to get rid of it and in the process got rid of some of his floor. His insurance paid for the damage.

But Pat Murray — who hears us in Durham, North Carolina — had a different tip about dealing with snakes.

Pat Murray: Snakes would gladly be somewhere else when it comes to humans. Snakes can be caught and released fairly easily and that’s at least as safe as swinging an axe.

We got an earful about our recent look at women who make more money than the men they date. Our reporter Sean Cole tested the results of a relationship study.

Diane Barth of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, says we should have tested our approach to the story.

Diane Barth: To interview six women in the Bay Area… what does that tell us? My own husband and I have been happily living together for 31 years. The fact that I make more money than he does does not intimidate him. It’s just a a fact based on differences in our careers.

And finally, Steve Pierce of Ypsilanti, Michigan, heard my interview with Wall Street Journal columnist Scott McCartney about the new airline fees. Scott said the airline industry was like a movie theater: You buy a ticket to watch the movie. If you want popcorn, that’s extra.

Mr. Pierce asks what would a movie theater look like if run by the airlines? I would never know the price of a movie ticket, he says, and while I pay $12, the family next to me paid $4. When I get to the theater, there is a line of 200 people waiting to get in. The movie won’t start on time and the air conditioner doesn’t work. Next week, you go back to the theater and they now charge $25 to park your car.

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