Letter of the day: Come up with coupons, or delay transition to digital TV

After reading Monday's Fixit item about the government's plan to issue $40 coupons to help the public pay for TV converter boxes, I recalled that I had signed up for a couple of those coupons. Had they been lost in the mail? Here's the message I got on the project's website: "Your coupon application has been approved. However, because program funding is not currently available, you will not receive coupons unless more funding becomes available ..." Interesting. There was no public clamor for the conversion from analog to digital in the first place. Even with the coupons, the converter boxes were still going to cost money. And new antennas might also be needed. But OK, people said, if the government was ready to help. ... And now the government is backing off, guaranteeing that millions of TV sets will become obsolete on Feb. 17. Let 'em eat cable! But a lot of folks can't afford cable. Advice to the Obama administration: Extend analog's life another year or make good on the original offer. DAN SULLIVAN, MINNEAPOLIS