Letters

Akira Mizuta Lippit
Associate Professor, Film and Visual Studies
UC Irvine

I found Gustavo Arellano's article on trying to find sea-turtle soup absolutely distasteful, not to say unforgivable ["Turtle Tryst," March 26]. Sea tortoise is an endangered species, and I'm not saying so just because I'm a turtle and tortoise fan—he freely says so in the article: "Killing the nearly extinct giants for consumption is illegal in the U.S. and Mexico" and "break(s) international law."

Knowing that these magnificent prehistoric creatures are nearly extinct, why in the world would your magazine publicize where to locate soup featuring sea turtle as the star ingredient, as well as inform us how delicious your misguided reviewer found the dish, going so far as telling us he believes it has "aphrodisiacal qualities"? Like I said, unforgivable.