Digging Bigfoot Digging Bigfoot INTOM MODERN’S ...

Digging Bigfoot

INTOM MODERN'S article ("Trashquatch!" 4/30) my name is noted and my research is mentioned liberally. Needless to say, Mr. Modern, in reading my new book, Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America, found fertile ground for his funny and interesting essay on Staten Island's Bigfoot. From Stone Giants to an understanding of my quest, I appreciate Tom Modern's trek.

Of course, since my book is an overview of the last 350 years of the cryptozoology of these beasts, I tended to concentrate on general cultural overviews, traditions and evidence, which are centered in the Pacific Northwest, with excursions into the Northeast, Midwest and South. You might be interested to know that in another recent book of mine, Mysterious America: The Revised Edition, I detail the "chimpanzee" reports from around Boonton, NJ, in 1926. Maybe this was an earlier version of your article? Glad to be instrumental in your fun column.

Loren Coleman, Portland, Maine

Taibbi's Nuts

I JUST finished reading Matt Taibbi's article ("Cage Match," 4/30). Being familiar with neither Taibbi nor Neil Lewis, I read the first several paragraphs hoping desperately that the author was not writing from my perspective. I was dismayed to realize that Taibbi and I indeed share the same opinion of the Guantanamo detainees.

I am not a journalist, but I can understand the value of informed, rational critiques of others' writing. Taibbi doesn't seem to share this understanding. His article began with a fantasy of violently kidnapping Lewis and chaining him to a tree for a few days and went on to suggest "[punching] him in the balls" and "[feeding] him his own testicles."

Taibbi is entitled to disagree with Lewis. He is also entitled to suggest such violent acts toward him, but this simply undermines his otherwise constructive argument. There has been much furor circulating recently around the comments of MSNBC's Michael Savage, and this article draws a striking similarity in my opinion. I hope Taibbi uses more discretion in the future.

Erich Heckscher, Houston

Bad Behavior, Rewarded

MATTTAIBBI: I never respond to articles I read ("Cage Match," 4/30), but I feel I must to yours. I found it absolutely brilliant, and full of the courage and insight so incredibly absent nearly everywhere else. Bravo.

Anna Liza Gavieres, Brooklyn

He's in Line

MATTTAIBBI: I laughed so hard that Thai curry almost came out of my nose! Thank you for taking on the Times ("Cage Match," 4/30). I've had enough of their pseudo-deep journalism, and now I resort to blogs that mostly derive their news from foreign services. So, when are you going to take on Ari Fleischer? Thanks for the laughs.

Tim Spence, Gainesville, FL

God's Love, Delivered

MIKESIGNORILE: You have reached new levels of deceit and depravity ("The Gist," 4/30). Complaining about Sen. Santorum and his family saying goodbye to their deceased baby as though that's unnatural, while fags use every dead or dying fag in the world to promote anal copulation and similar abnormal behavior! Unbelievable! It definitely draws to mind the passage in the scriptures on homosexuals at Jude 8: "Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities." That fits you and those you favor to a T.

Have you been to a fag parade lately? Have you seen the bizarre vulgarities that make up their outfits and behavior? Have you listened to the sewage spewing out of their mouths? It's like you've suddenly been transported to a parallel universe where everyone in it is an angry, violent, raging, pitiful, filth-mongering freak. I know?I've picketed scores of them. These people are riddled with every manner of mental, physical, emotional and moral deformity?and nothing is sacred with them.

What kind of a distorted lens do you look through, my friends? Where you would mock a man for letting his family say goodbye to a dead loved one, while promoting sex with feces and semen-drinking? You have truly lost all contact with reality. You and your readers are in desperate need of about five dozen readings of Romans 1?quickly.

Margie Phelps, Topeka, KS

Defending City Walls

C.J. SULLIVAN'S backhanded praise of Co-op City ("Bronx Stroll," 4/23) is off base. It is clear that he never left his car to take a "Co-op City Stroll," for he asserts that the "only major problem I saw was a lack of parks." In the middle of the first four sections of Co-op City, there is an enormous greenway where people jog, ride their bikes, play baseball in well-groomed fields or just stroll on a nice summer day. In the other part of Co-op City, Section 5, there is another huge green area where all kinds of outdoor activities occur on a daily basis. Along the Hutchinson River, which is to the east of Co-op City, there are little league fields and walk areas. To the north, there is a new park recently dedicated by the city named "Given's Creek Woods." Surrounding Co-op City are the magnificent open areas of Pelham Bay Park and the Bartow-Pell wildlife refuge. On a clear day, you can see a spectacular view of Manhattan's skyline.

Co-op City did not drain people from other areas of the Bronx; it kept them from moving to the suburbs. The first occupants moved to Co-op City to escape run-down tenements or old walk-up buildings where services were rare. They followed their dream to new housing surrounded by open spaces, nice apartments and 24-hour services. The buildings are maintained, the apartments are spacious, the lobbies are cleaned, there is hot water all day and the elevators work. Today, in springtime, the grounds are awash with different colored blooming flowers planted by the residents or management. The cooperators can walk to a major shopping mall with a Barnes and Noble bookstore conveniently located between the first four sections and Section 5.

You cannot replicate anywhere in this country what was built here 30 years ago: the largest housing development in the world with six schools, a firehouse, its own security police and a large staff maintaining the premises. The middle class that flocked to Co-op City and continues to move there can proudly say that they live comfortably and safely in a corner of the Northeast Bronx that offers every convenience in the midst of enormous swaths of greenery.

Stephen B. Kaufman, Member of Assembly, Bronx

2 for 1

WILLIAMBRYK ("Old Smoke," 4/30) thinks it's time we recognized the greatness of Edward MacDowell, and he thinks that the "freakish originality" and "unlistenable" works of Charles Ives will suffer by comparison. But I've got a better idea. This time, instead of changing the one we call great and ignoring the other, why don't we appreciate both? Then we could have two great composers to listen to instead of one.

Harvey Cormier, Stony Brook, NY

Bangs Lives!

WHATIF Village Voice Media's cease-and-desist letters were written by the Voice's music critics? I think it would go a little something like this:

Dear Podunk Valley Voice,

Well, shiver our collective timbers. As Dick Cheney's Halliburton chicanery and the bloody misdeeds of Bush's gang of GOP gallumphers get lost in the media maelstrom, the most nefarious act of piracy on the scene today presents itself. Our lawyerz brought to our attention that you've been biting our style, son. That, plainly, ain't right. It's as if Kelly Osbourne showed up to the VMAs in a red button-down with a cream-white blazer and tie and plunked her chunky butt (you go, girl! Show that tele-cellulite! The last time she got any exercise was when the Osbournes jumped the shark!) right next to Jack White and his comely drummer-sister-ex!

Our logo's horizontal and vertical interplay is as inimitable as Interpol. (The band that understands: Why divide joy when you can increase it exponentially by making aping?and aching?blatant?) We rock to the beat of a different drummer (Meg White, natch), and therefore cannot stand for your pale imitation of our idiosyncratic vibe. To quote the 80s' greatest rock-turned-comedy duo, you're out of touch, out of time.

Whatchoo thinkin'? Why do you persist in not being from New York? Don't you know mullet-chic went out with Joe Dirt? (You might say the mullet's grave was dug with a Spade. Can you dig it?) I read in the Times that there's a rockin' scene happening out in Omaha. Maybe you want to go rip off the leading Omaha alternative weekly. (I hear it's called Om-a-ha, in a nod to 80s retro.) But stay off our playground, y'hear, you rat-tailed rubes?

Keep in mind, we may like the Flaming Lips (Yoshimi, c'est moi!), but this ain't no soft bulletin. Besides, our lips ain't flaming, they're flecked?with angry spittle. Our lawyers have more important issues to attend to, like helping us subvert the cabaret laws by roping off corners of Williamsburg bars where cool kids like us can dance. (We couldn't find velvet ropes, except in the jukeboxes of your sketchier Williamsburg watering holes. But we found burly bouncers.) If you persist in distracting them with your plagiaristic piffle, we'll put the hurt on you, for real.

Our advice: Change the name and logo. Or else. And if you think this letter is cleverly and acerbically worded, don't miss our second missive. It'll be really logorrheic. Pun intended. Motherfucker.

Much love,

Village Voice Music Staff

Benjamin Kessler, Brooklyn

Redneck Manifesto

I AGREE, the Times is selectively self righteous in its own hideous way (MUGGER, 4/30). How could that redneck refugee Raines (I can call him that because I, too, am from the Alabama where kissing cousins is never, ever, close enough on the family tree) get away with what he sanctions unless he is being cut some slack because his Momma married her brother, producing him in the process. Also why is it always "moderate" Republicans rather than "liberal" or "left wing"?it's because a deviant doesn't believe in his own deviancy, that's why. I mean, c'mon.

Pete Wright, Dallas

Media Hoar

YOUDISAPPEARED into the ether, J.R. Taylor! I'm sorry you feel let down ("B-Listers," 4/23), but did you have to say all those nasty (and patently untrue) things about my website and parties?

For the record: mediabistro parties are not networking parties. Those went out with the internet boom. Instead, my parties create more unique connections between media people. In the 10 years I've been running them, the parties have generated five marriages, two babies (one out of wedlock), thousands of one-night stands and countless friendships. This website is not dedicated to "journalists looking for jobs." Take a gander. It's got media news, events, panel discussions, adult education classes for journos, media personals and a lot more than just jobs.

Laurel Touby, founder, mediabistro.com, Manhattan

See? God Loves Fags

MIKESIGNORILE: I truly speak with all the Christian goodwill I have when I propose to you that there is nothing objectively wrong with anything Rick Santorum said about homosexuality ("The Gist," 4/30). We might quibble over whether incest and polygamy are "worse" than homosexuality or not, but Santorum is proceeding from the unfashionable Biblical point of view, and in that context there is no argument.

The little-known truth is that you and your Bible-hating intellectual friends have never proven the Bible significantly "wrong" about anything (see books and places like The Case for Christ, When Critics Ask, the online Catholic Encyclopedia, Darwin's Black Box and many others). There is therefore no reason to doubt its proscriptions against homosexual conduct and heterosexual immorality alike.

Christ Himself makes clear that marriage is for one man and one woman (Matthew, 19:4) and this certainly excludes homosexual or any other illicit sex. Single heterosexuals are not allowed to do much of anything either if they don't find a spouse. Santorum is simply being true to his religious faith?not to some atavistic bigotry against someone's skin color like Trent Lott allegedly was?and for that he's supposed to "apologize"? You correctly give him credit for his honesty. Then give him also the dignity of sparing him a cloying "apology" campaign that, being unusually honest, he should not bow to.

If you and yours want to ignore God's Word, you have the (God-given) freedom to do so at your own soul's peril. Or you can live slightly less dangerously and "take your chances" relying solely on God's abundant mercy?mercy that is certainly not available to you under the Old Testament law but which is there for you and for all of us in Christ. As far as I'm concerned, that's ultimately you and your soul's business and it is solely between you and the Creator.

I also would agree that the anti-homosexual sodomy laws should be dropped, as I am uncomfortable with government prosecution of otherwise law-abiding people simply for practicing homosexuality, and as I am uncomfortable with the appearance of any kind of bullying of anyone at all.

However, kindly don't proceed as though two thousand years of Christian standards?the standards that have given you the civilization that you fully enjoy?must suddenly conform to your thinking, as you and your wealthy and influential allies turn those of us who dare to disagree into the new outcasts of polite society.

And it's amazing, in a way, that you oppose George W. Bush on Iraq, because his illicit foreign-war doctrine is as much a part of the pagan Roman Empire that America is regressing into as your "free" sexual agenda will be.

Jack Seney, Queens

And So Does Bernard

MIKESIGNORILE: Jesus, what a great column ("The Gist," 4/30)! I'm forwarding this to everyone I know.

Bernard Gundy, San Francisco

Don't Bother

MIKESIGNORILE: When I read the resignation letter of John Kiesling, I was embarrassed at having done nothing that could be considered "constructive" or "engaged." So I wrote letters to Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer via the Senate website expressing my disappointment at their lack of leadership. (I guess that might not be construed as constructive, but hey.) I feel somewhat as I imagine I might feel if I had been persuaded to attend a seance with the pet psychic or buy WorldCom stock. What can I do?

Alan Aho, Brooklyn

Testify!

MOREPATHETIC than the Village Voice's threatening letters to small-community "rivals" are its seedy dealings with its actual competition ("Flower Power," 4/23). As if there was any doubt, Village Voice Media's back-door deal with New Times Media last October?in which the Voice agreed to shut down its Cleveland affiliate in exchange for NT Media's shuttering its L.A. operation (whereby each took control of one city's market)?made it clear just what kind of corporate assholes both conglomerates have become.

Josiah Madar, Manhattan

Cop Violence and the Voice

I TOO have issues with the Village Voice ("Flower Power," 4/23). About the only story I've seen them get right is about former HDC President Russell Harding. In August of last year the Voice ran a story regarding the killing of Georgy Louisgene, the Haitian immigrant gunned down by the police in January 2002 in front of the Vanderveer Houses in Brooklyn.

The Voice strongly implied unjustified, racist police slaying and DA cover-up, conveniently ignoring?among many other things?that Louisgene's behavior immediately prior to his being shot was consistent with PCP ingestion. When I eventually made contact with one of Voice's editors, she became so indignant and defensive, you would think I had raped her daughter.

In late 2002, with the question of the Central Park Youths being innocent uppermost in everyone's mind, the Voice chose to ignore the fact that the jury was aware all along that someone else's DNA was on the jogger, although the jury didn't have a name.

When the police shot four youths on New Year's Day, the Voice chose to ignore the fact that Eric Adams of One Hundred Blacks in Law Enforcement, who doesn't hesitate to speak up about shootings, was silent.

When the Voice espoused the cause of Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) and claimed police harassment, it chose to ignore the fact that a boy made a complaint.

Of course, you guys aren't bad at ignoring inconvenient facts, either. You called "Cemetery John" of Lindbergh Kidnapping fame "Graveyard John," and said that Lindbergh went to the first rendezvous (Condon's friend Al Reich went). I wrote a letter of correction, which you ignored.

Nathan F. Weiner, Bronx

Faxed It Right Over

THANKYOU for your article on the New York Times (4/30). I do not know why they sold their soul to the devil, I just hope they can get it back someday. Please, please tell me you sent the article to Lewis.

John Isbell, Bloomington, IN

 

The Boro of the Damned

RE:TOMMODERN'S "Trashquatch!" (4/30): You guys have totally lost your minds. There may be a lot of anomalous creatures on Staten Island, but there hasn't been a Bigfoot sighting since 1975. And you publish an article on that? Staten Island is practically a window area! Why, in my backyard there are cats and raccoons living together in harmony! Crows kill squirrels with impunity! And people still take their children to the Sears Portrait Studio! Surely, it is a place of great mystery, no doubt due to the noxious fumes from Fresh Kills and Port Elizabeth. There are certainly more interesting bits of forteana to write about than a non-existent pseudo-primate.

Much more recently (well, not much more, but at least it was the late 70s) there were cattle mutilations on S.I. Of course, these were blamed on the ubiquitous "Satanists." And within the past five years, there were wild boar sightings, packs of dogs killing animals at the Staten Island zoo, a colony of mutant cats, widely-witnessed UFO sightings, deer (how'd they get there? It's an island! Did they take the ferry? Did a pregnant doe pretend to get shot by a hunter just to hitch a ride to the Island?), men in black and of course, hundreds of drunk, undereducated teenagers.

And what was the deal with throwing in that cat with wings reference? Just to get a chuckle out of all of us feline coetaneous asthenia fans? If you're going to run articles about forteana, at least make it something that's happened in recent times.

Marie Mundaca, Manhattan

State of the Press

The thing is, the Press used to be a must-read each week, because I could find items that made me nod in agreement as I read, others that gave me insights and news that I never would have gotten anywhere else and still others that would enrage me to the point where I had to hit the email to the editor. Farber is right to lament the moving on of Strausbaugh, a truly insightful liberal, who, along with Cockburn, was a great competitive balance to Caldwell. And things were never more compelling than when Taki's "Top Drawer" included three other writers like Szamuely or Toby Young each week.

In sum, I welcome Jeff Koyen, I welcome Matt Taibbi, I miss Alan Cabal, Jessica Willis and George Szamuely (though not Amy Sohn, good riddance), I'm thankful you still have C.J. Sullivan and Jim Knipfel. Even though he's a buffoon, you gotta keep MUGGER around, because who else but he can make my blood pressure rise (maybe Curtis Sliwa) when I read his blind lovefest for Bush and his cabinet of oil thugs (except for Powell?what happened to you, man? And please stop just blaming the French for your swapping of hats from diplomat to neo-con hawk). It's actually entertaining to read something so fluffy and mindless, under the guise of "journalism." And once Bush is voted out of office?assuming he would actually respect such a vote, rather than go cry to Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia to keep him in office, as he did to get in in the first place?MUGGER can go back to complaining about the inevitable issues we will always have with our leaders, instead of just gleefully applauding everything they do. Just please stop printing those worthless MUGGER letters from the hinterlands; they're a waste of space. Give me the vitriol of a Christopher Brodeur (which I've felt more than once) any day.

Glad you're back from Europe, Jeff. Please right this ship, because NYC really benefits when this paper is at its best.

Michael J. Smoyer, Hoboken

Basher Lover

MUGGER: I enjoy your New York Times-bashing (MUGGER, 4/30). I was shocked on my first visit to NYC in 1998 to pick up a random urban leftist alternative rag and not only read a Christopher Caldwell column but a conservative editor's note.

Clay Waters, Director, Times Watch, Jersey City, NJ

Long-Range Planning

MIKESIGNORILE: Great column on Santorum today ("The Gist," 4/30). My question in this whole mess remains: Is anybody on the Democratic side of the aisle keeping track of these Republican "slip-ups" so they can be used against them in the 2004 campaigns?

For example, I want the Democratic presidential candidate (whoever that might be) to run an ad next fall that says, in essence:

Remember those hateful, anti-gay sentiments expressed by Republican Senator Rick Santorum in 2003? Remember President Bush's response? He said Santorum is an "inclusive man." If this is the kind of inclusiveness and compassionate conservatism we can count on from the Bush administration, it's time for a change.

Santorum, Lott and whoever else opens his yap down the road and exposes his true feelings will continue to give the Democrats all kinds of fodder for political gains. But can we count on the Democrats to exploit this? Or will they quiver in the face of the O'Reillys and Limbaughs and Hannitys of the world and fall back on the lofty wonkishness that cost Gore in 2000? Keep fighting the good fight; you're doing great work.

Patrick Donnelly, Minneapolis

Santorum's Slip

MIKESIGNORILE: I thought your column about Rick Santorum's recent remarks ("The Gist," 4/30) was exceptionally insightful, very compelling, and added some important points to the ongoing discussion about his offensive, ill-conceived comments.

Stephen A. Glassman, New Oxford, PA

From Gus to Russ

MUGGER: Thanks very much for your article on the New York Times (MUGGER, 4/30). You rhetorically asked: "Why would they trust Hans Blix to verify WMD?" Answer: The same reason they openly admit that they would prefer the security of the U.S. in the hands of the U.N. rather than the Bush administration and our military. It seems to me that the single most important campaign argument President Bush should use is: "Do you agree with the Democratic Party that our security should be left to a majority vote of the U.N. before we can protect our citizens?" The Democrats could never begin to deny that charge as they are on record for exactly that position. Thank you.

Gus Doering, Cedar Park, TX

Baseball Therapy

MUGGER: Stop foaming at the mouth! (4/30) Calm down. Bush did use weapons of mass destruction as a rationale for invading Iraq. Rick Santorum and Trent Lott are repugnant, and both of them do belong to the GOP. And since when is two years an "eon ago" unless you are 16 years old? You are still mad at Bill Clinton, and he's been gone a lot longer than two years! Take a break, go to a ball game. And clear your head.

Jan Hutchinson, Tempe, AZ

State Penn

MIKESIGNORILE: How can a state that Gore carried comfortably in 2000 elect this inquisitor as one of its senators? ("The Gist," 4/30) This question tells the tale. On the one hand we have the creator of the "single bullet theory" that facilitated the "Warren Report," on the other, the Arch Angel Rick. We never had it so good in Pennsylvania. Pardon me while I throw up!

James C. Shinn, York, PA

Okey-Dokey from Skokie

MATTTAIBBI: Great article on the Times' punk-out reporting from Neil Lewis ("Cage Match," 4/30). Indeed, the guy should be fired at the very least!

Joanne G. Murphy, Skokie, IL

Faxed It Right Over

THANKYOU for your article on the New York Times (4/30). I do not know why they sold their soul to the devil, I just hope they can get it back someday. Please, please tell me you sent the article to Lewis.

John Isbell, Bloomington, IN