Letters may be edited for clarity and length. E-mail to LE*****@OC******.COM, or send to Letters to the Editor, c/oOC Weekly, 1666 N. Main St., Ste. 500, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Or fax to (714) 550-5908.
WELCOMES DEATH
Just read the Nick Schou article on surfboards being built in Asia to save money on labor and skirt the issues involved with manufacturing products made of volatile petrochemical components [“So Board With the USA”, Oct. 7]. I've been surfing for 40 years and can't believe how the industry has sold out to the almighty dollar. I've also seen the same trend in the guitar industry as well — I used to be the marketing director for DOBRO Guitars in Huntington Beach in the 1980s. This desire to get shit cheap seems to pervade our society, no matter what the long-term cost and, I fear, will have dire consequences. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Chinese surfboards and guitars. Where will it end? I'm glad I'll be dead before I have to find out.
Mike Prendeville
Huntington Beach
THE BUSINESS
Concerning Greg Stacy's article on Jodie Foster [“Aging With the Stars”, Oct. 7]: seems Greg doesn't construct an article or write better than a 10-year-old.
Nicole
Via e-mail
I just read Matt Coker's Calendar pick on Dana Carvey and found it bizarre, inappropriate and insulting [“This Week in Healing Benefits,” Oct. 7]. If I'm reading Calendar picks, chances are I'm considering attending the featured event; I want to know about the performer, his act, and why it's worth my hundred bucks. Coker, instead of using the blurb to promote Carvey, uses it to attack Mike Myers, and it's no gentle attack. Matt's comments are pointed and personal; what's more, Coker makes Carvey sound like a washed-up, bitter asshole whose only chance of looking good is to make another actor look bad. Nothing could be further from the truth; Dana's talent sells itself.
Dena Bowles
Via e-mail
BAD MEDICINE
Nick [Schou], I appreciate your drawing attention to the situation at Western Medical Center [“Code Red at Western Med”, Oct. 14]. The physician's right to speak out for quality of care must be upheld. Suing doctors is not the way to help your business, if you are a hospital manager or owner. Unfortunately, in my opinion, if the owners just drop the lawsuit against the doctors and pass the medical staff's bylaws, it may not be enough to convince doctors to use the hospital. We need a solution to the problem that improves the hospital's position as a center of excellence in Orange County.
Michael Fitzgibbons, MD
Former Chief of Staff, Western Medical Center
ARTSY
Regarding the article by Joel Beers, “Hitchcocki, Hell and Trout Fishing” [Oct. 7]: I was very pleased to hear such enthusiastic sentiment regarding the works of Richard Brautigan, who, to paraphrase Borges on Chesterton, has given me more hours of enjoyment than any other author. However, I cannot help but feel that Mr. Beers' indignation toward the theatrical troupe's appropriation of the title of Brautigan's most celebrated novel to be somewhat wasted, albeit noble. I would say, rather, that the use of the title, “Trout Fishing in America,” is entirely in the spirit of the book and its author. You may recall that T.F.I.A. appears in many manifestations — as a legless wino, an old woman, a Byronic hero who has met his much sought-after doom. These many guises and personae of T.F.I.A. are apropos of Mr. Beers' line concerning Brautigan's subjects searching for “genuine enlightenment.” T.F.I.A. becomes the perpetual search to recover that America of unlimited promise in the works of Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman. In Brautigan's lifetime there occurred many institutions that adopted the book's title for this reason, including a young man who changed his name to T.F.I.A. So if we can regard the title not just simply as a book's name but a rallying banner for the hope of something better, fuller or more wonderful in our lives, why not then condone an innovative theatrical troupe's use of the title?
Ian Patrick McHugh
Via e-mail
FARTSY
I am distraught over the scathing review Rebecca Schoenkopf gave recently for “The Saddest Place on Earth” exhibit in Santa Ana [Oct. 7]. The point of her article was to dismiss Garcia as uninteresting, saying she enjoyed the artists exhibiting in the front of the building more — both of whom were horrible. The art was dazzling and imaginative, and no matter what kind of following Garcia has, Shoen-off should have recognized that.
Meredith Walako
Via e-mail
COPS/ROBBERS
Let it not be said that LAPD and its historical problems of corruption endemic to LA have anything on the local government in Orange County, particularly the DA's office and the sheriff's department [R. Scott Moxley's“Sex, Bribes and Jailhouse Scams”, Oct. 14]. Carona and Rackauckas are what you would typically see in old Alabama, Georgia or Texas. They have that Southern quality of gentility while having others do their dirty work: theft, fraud, assaults on innocent persons, favors to the rich. Orange County has become a soulless place; a neocon stronghold that is unlikely to change as long as Irvine and Newport Beach continue to determine the political makeup of the county.
John Doe
Via e-mail
Nice work on the exposes surrounding the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Noteworthy also is the piss-poor performance of Sheriff Mike Carona in the aftermath of the Katrina hurricane. When Sacramento called him to see about providing beds for evacuees, 10,000 were needed statewide. Carona played phone tag with other county officials for two days, and by the time he got back to Sacramento, other California officials had dealt with the issue. What a hero.
Robert Hagen
Via e-mail
DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS
Nancy Kaszerman/Zuma Press was incorrectly credited with taking the photo of George Clooney that ran with “Confessions of a Democratic Mind”, Oct. 14. Warner Independent Pictures provided the photo. We blame the Commies.
