I'll take a moment and tell you this is one of the more interesting news articles I've seen recently. It's unusual that you address readers so directly, and I liked it.

Thanks. Keep it coming.

I agree...I read your column every week, and totally enjoy it.

Even if I don't comment.

Thank you for taking the time to write this. It makes me feel better about the last AS article - which I did comment on also. I believe laughter is important, but so is the tone you set in this one.

I was only aware of the original article through a discussion regarding the ignorance of it in relation to AS and as such, that is how I have come to learn of this pseudo response to reader comments. It was an uneducated column to say the least, but I did not comment, as I know all too well the challenges of comprehending an illness as complicated as AS. However, with this response article, I felt truly compelled to comment. Stating the disease is known mostly due to Norman Cousins and then a few lines later stating the author does not know of the disease are disconcerting contradictions for writer. Sadly, the boat was missed yet again on the opportunity to educate people, while yet also entertaining them, which in my opinion, is the mark of a talented writer.

I am returning to comment again on your follow up article. I would like to thank you for your follow up and for at least acknowledging the comments that were received. Sadly, I also feel that it was an opportunity, that you didn't fully embrace, to put right the damage that was done with the first article.

May I humbly suggest that you actually do a further follow up article at some point once you have had the opportunity and time to read up further on Ankylosing Spondylitis and maybe even consulted patient groups.

I am sure many of us on the Spondylitis Association of America forum would be glad to help you with any information that you would need and you would be doing us sufferers a great service in helping to raise awareness of the disease and help counteract the many misconceptions there are which sadly your first article only reinforced.

To sum up; congratulations on returning to the issue and at least acknowledging the response some of your readers gave you. A further, more thoroughly researched article on Ankylosing Spondylitis would be VERY welcome.

How did I miss this article in the first place as a person w/AS. It is so infrequently cited and is such a challenge to live with and maintain a job. Nice of you to acknowledge your error but agree it would have been easy to include some facts and resources to help Utahns w/AS.

I have to admit that I did see the first article and was so hurt and incensed because I have seen my father live with AS for 50 years in great pain and courage. He worked in a difficult manual labor type job in to put 9 kids through college, missions, braces and such, and to have it minimized to a few flippant lines in an article seems senseless. His heroism to all of us in his family is belittled by those who know nothing of the disease of the devastating effects of it. His multiple surgeries and hospitalizations only make me admire him more (as have his 3 missions he has served) through excruciating pain. Please learn more about the disease before citing it in print. I'd love to have the author interview some of these heroic, uncomplaining people who live with this pain day after day, year after year and do it with such class.