Letters

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.

TOILET PAPER

Thank you, Will Swaim, for your words and, Sarah Callender, for your research [“The Junk in Our Trunk,” April 16]. I, too, read The Orange County Register's Steven Greenhut's editorial in which he referenced the vote to clean up the stuff we flush as “pure politics.” I laughed in disbelief that he could even suggest the “fecal plume” was not a problem. If I had not canceled that rag-ass newspaper over an earlier (and equally stupefying) Greenhut editorial (regarding the Wal-Mart in Huntington Beach), I surely would have scratched it over this numbnut position. The OC Sanitation District's own investigation demonstrated that the plume did touch the beach in Newport and it came “dangerously close” to the shore in Huntington Beach. That fact alone disqualified the district from applying for a continuation of the EPA waiver, which allowed the pumping of the “stuff we flush” and should have forced the Sanitation District to submit a remedial plan in the first place. Ten years from now, we will have full secondary treatment of our potty water; until then, bleach will be added, and then chemically removed, to help clean up the effluent. The Register is infamous for ridiculous editorials based not on fact, but on hysterics. Hold their feet to the fire.

John Fisher
Huntington Beach

HUNGING ON

If David Ng is looking to Hollywood to provide him with a realistic image of an Asian person, he'll never see it [“Hung Out to Dry,” April 16]. There are more non-Asians in America than there are Asians and, more important, more non-Asians who decide what's put forth for mass consumption. America's pop culture is short on original ideas; it recycles. William Hung is simply this generation's Long Duk Dong (Sixteen Candles).

So don't feel bad, David. When it comes to the land of make-believe, there are more white people than us brown ones in charge. But in the real world, there are more brown people than there are white ones. As a brown brother, I will have the opportunity to get laid by a greater variety of women than you will ever imagine in the next 20 years. If you got game—beyond the self-hating Asian “I only date white men” chicks—you will have your pick of women from all the Asian nations. And there are our other brown sisters—the Puerto Ricans, Indians, Pakistanis, Persians, Mexicans, etc.—who will feel a closer connection to your brown ass than to our white brothers. Happy hunting.

Michael Do
via e-mail

Okay, now for the truth about William Hung: the most outrageously offensive thing about this untalented jackweed is that right here, right now, he is the most famous civil engineer of our time (in history?!). Most of us in the profession are not geeks at all. We're hip, we rock, we hang out in the coolest nightclubs, we drink great booze, we drive hot cars, and we get fine-looking women. I'm offended that the public's perception of what a civil engineer is has been forever affected by Mr. “She-bang.” Hey, where did I put my damn calculator?

B. Dirk Yarborough
via e-mail

NAME GAME

I wanted to set the record straight on several items in Gustavo Arellano's “The War on One Broadway Plaza” [April 16]. One, Joann Ramirez has been opposed to the construction of One Broadway Plaza since day one. Other council members and I have met with her and other residents to try to answer questions. We share some of the same concerns on the project—that is, $8 million in traffic mitigation at the developer's expense. Otherwise, we obviously agree to disagree.

Two, Jim Pantone is just a hatchet man for those whom I ran against in the Democratic Primary that I very nearly won. He is married to Carina Franck, who was state Senator Joe Dunn's field representative and is now on his campaign for attorney general. You may recall Senator Dunn's support of Tom Umberg, not me, for Lou Correa's seat.

Claudia C. Alvarez
Council member, Santa Ana

Gustavo Arellano responds: Thanks for the clarification, Claudia. Now it's apparent that, like the Bush administration, you choose to attack your critics rather than comment on the issue at hand, which is why you haven't recused yourself from voting on a project involving Mike Harrah, a man who contributed significantly to your campaign.

MUSIC ISSUES

I was very dismayed to see that of all the new music that comes Chris Ziegler's way—including my band's CD—he decided to write April 16's Locals Only column about a six-year-old demo by a band that no longer exists [“Murder on Memory Lane”]. I'm sure you know how many bands and musicians toil to sculpt the new OC scene. Why ignore our efforts?

Adam7
via e-mail

Seven things I love about Buddy Seigal [“When He Was a Young Dude,” April 23]: (1) Even though he has no musical cred (“Yeah, dude, I played kazoo with the Beat Farmers. You know the Beat Farmers, man . . .”), Buddy feels no constraint in ragging on legitimate musicians. (2) Buddy is blissfully unaware that his contribution to the OC Weekly is an inside joke on a par with the entertainment value that Elephant Boy supplies to the Howard Stern Show. (3) Buddy used to perform [?] with his old bud—Big Dick (who smells kinda funny right now)—which may explain his obsession with private parts. (4) Although Big Dick's main claim to fame, according to Dr. Demento, is “Happy Boy” with its compelling lyrics (“I'm a happy boy! Hubba-hubba, hubba-hubba, hubba!”), Buddy clearly prefers its bouncy cheerfulness to the brooding obtuseness of Bowie's Omega Man-like apocalyptic prose poem “Future Legend” intro to “Diamond Dogs.” (5) Buddy does not like poseurs. (6) Buddy's consistent personal article format style—”Okay, like, as long as the artist, venue and show times are correctly posted at the bottom, I will use the rest of the space to, like, just totally riff on stuff that bugs the shit out of me. It will be totally wicked, man! Check it out!”—guarantees the OC Weekly will forever be valued as an entertainment/show time listing flier, greatly padded. (7) His initials are B.S.

John Richardson
Costa Mesa

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