LIKE A FRESH, CLEAR, COLD MOUNTAIN STREAM Like a ...
Hategirl
While your "Dategirl" column seems structured like a dating advice column (sorta like "Ask Isadora," "Savage Love," etc.), I cannot stand reading one more issue in which Judy McGuire picks letters whose authors and content she obviously doesn't like, then proceeds to waste an entire column whining about them. My advice: Get another dating columnist. McGuire is clearly uninterested in fulfilling the subject, so perhaps it's time for her to move on.
Jonathan Quimbly, Manhattan
Critescu the Critic
Having read Kevin Canfield's review of Franz Lidz's Ghosty Men, ("Books," 11/5) I wonder if we read the same book. I found this chronicle of New York's pack-ratty Collyer Brothers to be both ingenious and sublimely funny. I loved the book on all sorts of levels, and the writing is very elegant. I, too, worried that Lidz wouldn't be able to integrate his Uncle Arthur successfully into the story of the Collyers, until I realized that he was the way into the subject. Like Lidz, I found myself studying Uncle Arthur for clues. Unlike Canfield, I was charmed by the awful poetry of Lidz's mad Uncle Leo, whom I realized was the way out of the subject. I fear Canfield approached the book far too literally. A pity.
Critescu Dorin, Manhattan
Democracy by Diebold
Thanks for Alan Cabal's thorough article on e-voting and the dangers it presents to our democracy ("Rotation," 11/12). If we had a fair and vigorous mainstream press-instead of a complicit and compliant corporate-owned pack of prostitutes-every citizen in this country would be outraged by this partisan power grab. As it is, only a few brave souls are willing to even acknowledge this issue, let alone write about it from an informed point of view. Please keep this issue alive.
Linda Harbrecht, Bethlehem, PA
Signorile for Congress
Thank you for exposing yet another chapter in the heinous book of horrors edited by the Bush administration ("The Gist," 11/5). I have sent a copy to my representatives in the hope that someone will show some recognition and gratitude to these wounded souls and cease acting as if they have done something that has to be hidden.
Marian Cole, Sunnyvale, CA
Activision
What a wonderful article by Kate Crane ("Louder than Words," 11/12). It's heartening to learn that there are people in the city who are actually awake, aware and busy working to save our great nation before it's too late.
Georgia Guida, Brooklyn
Every Other Week
I just read the new "Louder than Words" column. It's great. Keep it coming.
Vicki Larson, Brooklyn
Dustbin Ein Winner
Derek Davis' "The Dustbin" column is a keeper, not something found among the usual band-of-the-week music coverage in alternative weeklies. If I see one more article about that bore Ryan Adams I'll scream! I've seen two Davis columns, one on Richard Farina's unnerving songwriting ("Dustbin," 10/22) and the other about the magnificent gifts of folk traditionalist Mike Seeger ("Dustbin," 11/5) and both got to the heart of the matter. Give this guy more space!
Jim Motavalli, Norwalk, CT
The editors reply: Good news, bad news, Jim. Bad news first: "The Dustbin" has been discontinued. Good news: Beginning next week, it will become "The Dustjacket" and will concern books.
Sound Affects
MUGGER: It is unfair of you to equate remastered albums with Super Audio CDs, which you needlessly put in quotation marks (MUGGER, 11/12). A remastered album, if it's on a CD of the same fidelity, is just as you painted it: a re-doing of the original production, probably sounding very similar. However, Super Audio CDs utilize better technology than our current CD standards. The original analog audio source (all those reels of tape onto which the songs were originally recorded) is sampled more frequently and with exponentially more accuracy than on a regular CD, and the digital files on a Super Audio CD use better transmission technology. The result is audio that technically better reflects the original analog recording. Of course, whether or not you'll hear the difference depends mainly on the fidelity of your stereo.
And then, in the same column, another idiotic remark. You argue that Gary Leon Ridgway should be put to death primarily because keeping him alive will be a "great expense to the state." In fact, death sentences tend to cost more than life sentences because of the considerable cost of appeals. A death-row inmate has ample opportunity to repeatedly appeal his sentence. However, a lifer who's confessed to 48 murders has very little opportunity to appeal.
Ridgway's life sentence-and let's not forget that he's already 54, which you pointed out in your column-will cost less than a death sentence would have. Duh.
Jon Schwartz, Brooklyn
Sob Story
Signorile: Thanks for this column. I enjoy your writing and reporting for the no-holds-barred opinions and analysis. However, this column really touched my heart, and just made me feel sad (instead of my normal angry) for our soldiers that seem to be lost in the politics ("The Gist," 11/5).
Joe Ball, Dallas
What Is this that Stands Before Bush?
I find it interesting that this current administration hides all these things from the general public ("The Gist," 11/5) as if they are ashamed of the results of their actions. How hypocritical for all their brash dog and pony show.
You would think honesty would be the best policy from a supposed born-again Christian, our commander-in-chief, the man with more blood on his hands than Lady Macbeth. The correct action would be to acknowledge the truth of the price of war and give the soldiers their due. Let the dominoes fall as they will. After all, no matter how difficult, that is the right thing to do.
Dave Kimber, Danville, PA
Look Out, Catucci
Wow, you guys have gaming articles now. I hope you keep that as a constant feature.
Sergei Servianov, the Bronx
You Do That
That Mark Ames used Dune as a comparison to the so-called pain he experienced reading Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs ("The Flip-Flop King," 8/27) is telling. Ames is a soulless critic, more than likely raised on too much science fiction and without the benefit of a sense of humor or a Star Trek Convention pass. His entire diatribe on Klosterman is comparable to a bitter wanna-be writer's pissing contest with a published writer; the outcome rarely explores territory beyond the published writer getting the last laugh.
Never have I seen such deeply rooted hostility put into a review without some sort of agenda, which I'd imagine can be traced back to a childhood playground injury. Not only do I intend to read Sex, Drugs, & Cocoa Puffs after reading Ames' review, I suspect that I will find that its pages share far more insight than Ames' entire career.
Estelle Baca, Brooklyn
Fleetwood Mac Attack
The fact that you publish garbage like the Mark Ames' "review" of Chuck Klosterman's latest book Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs is appalling. Never in my life have I read a review so scathingly cruel with not an ounce of valid reasoning behind any opinions made in this "article." It really just seems to me that your critic has many issues to work out with himself, this book not being remotely related to any of them. Ames is so caught up in traumatic run-ins with hipsters and attempts at witty banter, that he forgets to actually review the book.
There is as little of an excuse to publish such crap as there was for Billy Corgan to cover and destroy Fleetwood Mac's Landslide. Like said cover, this review continuously groans, waivers and randomly makes cracks without any back-up or logical validation for it. Stop smoking crack during your office meetings and start publishing reviews that rely less on bitter stupidity and more on actual criticism of the subject at hand.
Jocelyn Climent, Allston, MA
Taylor Ham, Mark Eggs
Mark Ames' response to J.R. Taylor's insensitive and moronic remarks regarding Elliott Smith's death was intelligent, well-written and on the mark ("The Mail," 11/5). That Taylor chose to reply ignoring the points that Ames so clearly made makes him either an idiot, a coward or both ("The Mail," 11/12). I'm betting on both.
I'd like to know if perhaps Taylor is one of those problem cases where his ineptitude and lack of talent are flagrant but not enough to merit dismissal? Is he banging someone who holds the cards to his continued employment? Otherwise, why does this sorry excuse for a writer-or human being, by the looks of it-still have a job with you guys?
Henry Mena, Brooklyn
Casualties of War
I read Michelangelo Signorile's article today and thought it was excellent. Cher is a very caring human being ("The Gist," 11/5), and I am not surprised that she would bring these injured troops to our attention. I did read, however, in either Time or Newsweek, that Bush does go to the Walter Reed hospital and hands out Purple Hearts to these men. He just cannot be photographed with them because people might see what is really happening to our own people in Iraq. I guess his motto regarding the American people is, "Ignorance is bliss."
I saw recently online a photo that broke my heart. A young Iraqi boy in a hospital had had both arms blown off and was severely burned. He had wanted to be adoctor when he grew up, and now he cannot be. I cried for this poor boy and others like him-Iraqis and Americans. Will part of the $87 billion go toward rebuilding this boy?
Susan Brownell, Long Beach, NY
Signorile and Senioritis
My wife and I read Michelangelo Signorile's column about Cher ("The Gist, 11/5), and we are thankful to have had the opportunity to read it. We are simply at a loss to understand why more Americans are not cognizant about just what the fascist Bush cartel is up to. How true it is that the media has played a major role in this tragedy.
I happen to be an overseas veteran of World War II. Signorile's column brought back so many harsh memories of that period. I was not wounded, but I visited many in military hospitals who were. This senior hates Bush with a passion, and hopes to live long enough to see him booted out of his stolen office.
David Edovitz, Winthrop, MA
Bono No Es Bueno
I love Washington Journal on C-Span because real people call and bash Bush unmercifully. When Cher called ("The Gist," 11/5), I recognized that wonderful, husky voice right away and was delighted. God love her, she's a hell of a lot braver than I am. I could never hold it together seeing our boys with their limbs blown off. I'm sure she was an emotional wreck, but being the trooper she is, she did it for them. I understand way back when someone asked her what she thought of Sonny being a congressman, she said, "Just can't figure out why he would be a Republican." You have to love Cher; she's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.
Marlene Wagner, Monee, IL
Herman Hessians
Regarding this passage from Taibbi's column ("Cage Match," 11/12): "The Vietcong, of course, were nothing like this band of blasphemous rebels. They would never, for instance, have thought of attacking us on Tet."
The American revolutionaries, of course, were nothing like the blasphemous Iraqi fighters, nor were they like the godless Vietnamese communists. They would never, for instance, have thought of attacking the Hessians during Christmas.
James Griffith, Brooklyn
Thanks, He'll be Here All Week
The best line that Russ Smith came up with two weeks ago in "Don't Doubt Bush" (MUGGER, 11/5) was, "When, in time, Iraq becomes a flowering democracy, the ripple effect in neighboring countries is sure to follow."
HA-HA-HA-LOL-LOL!!!!! What is this guy, a wise guy or something?
Michelle Savarese, Bronx
Metaphor, Stretched, Breaks
Taibbi's piece on Tom Friedman's car fetish ("Cage Match," 11/12) is one of those high-powered intellectual limousines that accelerates smoothly down the super-highway of debate, navigates the cloverleaf of public policy and delivers us to true wisdom. It's a funny ride, too. More. We need more.
Dean Rindy, Austin
W's Squat Thrust
In spite of what Russ Smith writes, Bush is the wrong person to talk about bringing democracy to the Middle East (MUGGER, 11/5). Americans should never forget that Bush used Nazi tactics to steal the presidency, and that is why he is squatting in the White House today.
Reba Shimansky, Brooklyn