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PLAY BALL!
Attention, Steve Lowery: No Political Football for the World Series? I've been waiting for 32 years to feel this good about the Angels—and quite frankly, I can't handle the truth! Although Barry Bonds and Willie Brown are certainly evildoers, and San Francisco is something of a mess, the Anaheim School Board trumps all of their evil 10 times over. Summer of Love, Barbara Lee and City Lights Bookstore vs. Nixon Library, Dana Rohrabacher and “It's a Small World.” Yecch! Let's set it all aside. Go Monkeys, er, Angels!
John Repka
Laguna Beach
Steve Lowery responds:Well, “John,” Political Football was killed a year ago against my will, and thank you so much for dredging up that pain. Perhaps you'd like to know about my dead pets or inconsistent nighttime bladder? Still, it's nice to hear from one's public, such as you are, so allow me to shine some light into your dreary reality:
POLITICAL FOOTBALL Matchup: San Francisco Giants vs. Anaheim Angels. Frisco update: Cutesy, cloying theme park estimation of a big city minus the significance and heavy industry. Anaheim update: Cutesy, cloying theme park. Consensus: Left of center and proud of it, San Franciscans are my political and cultural brethren, the needy, hateful pricks. Go Angels! RACIST SLOP EXPLAINED!
Could you explain the rationale behind the title of the new column “LikeeNoLikee”? Because it sounds suspiciously like a reference to the broken English popularized by caricatures of Asian-Americans. The Weekly was one of the few publications in Orange County that didn't shill for the conservative, white-male majority. Your column title is exactly the kind of offensive racist slop they would find entertaining.
Sharon Chan
Seattle (formerly of Orange) The first person in the office to say something after everybody stopped groaning replies: If we wanted to be racist, we would have called it “RikeeNoRikee.” COOL, SAY COOL
Although I didn't have a parent taking me around to jazz clubs, I know a fair amount about the Southern California scene—and Leta McLaughlin's article reminds me of my youth and my involvement in the scene up here in San Francisco (“Satin Dolls,” Oct. 11). It made me remember a cousin of mine, Fabio Gherardi, who headed a band he called Fabio's Big Band USA. Very cool.
Carlos Burns
Mill Valley A FEMALE TED CRISELL?
Gerrie Schipske is right—environmental organizations should endorse candidates who show support and care about the environment (Dave Wielenga's “It's Her Party and She'll Sigh If She Wants To,” Oct. 4). However, Schipske is neither grassroots nor environmental. The 46th District has no shortage of grassroots environmental issues—the polluting AES power plant and ASCON/NESI toxic dump in Huntington Beach, dirty water in Huntington Harbor, Bolsa Chica wetlands and mesa, dirty beaches, the air and water pollution in the Long Beach and Los Angeles Ports, the Hellman Ranch wetlands, the Cerritos wetlands, etc.—but Schipske has not shown leadership or interest. Environmental groups should give their “seal of approval” only if the candidate deserves it. Schipske does not. She is a female Ted Crisell.
Paul Arms
Huntington Beach TIME TO WAKE UP AND CHECK YOUR MESSAGES
Your cover pieces on the 2002 elections being a yawning fest really pissed me off (“Wake Us When It's Over,” Oct. 4). I have been doing organizing work for the past couple of years and have seen Orange County come out of its conservative closet. Those of us in the Green Party are doing anything but yawning. I have made the choice to be the change I want to see by running for Congress against Dana Rohrabacher. No one has asked me for an interview or asked me what my campaign is all about.
Thomas Lash
Huntington Beach
Nick Schou responds: Too bad you don't remember the telephone message I left on your answering machine about two months ago, in which I said, “Hey, Tom, I'm really interested in doing a story profiling you and your campaign against Dana Rohrabacher.” Too bad you never returned my call. That's why I never wrote the story.
OOPS! WE BOMBED 'EM AGAIN!
Dennis Worden states 1,500 or less civilians were “accidentally” killed by U.S. bombing in Afghanistan (Letters, Oct. 11), but the figure is higher, and the civilians were not accidentally killed. They were bombed on purpose because their village lay in direct line of the proposed oil or gas pipeline the U.S. wants to build. Also, the U.S. put the Taliban in power by giving $10 million of our tax dollars. Finally, the so-called “brutal” Taliban was mainly composed of innocent men and boys who were forced at gunpoint to join. Wake up and stop believing all the lies and propaganda.
Brenda Bradac
Costa Mesa LOOK WHO'S RAISING KANE
What the hell is Rich Kane doing reviewing theater? Is he even educated in theater? I thought he was your music reviewer, and a bad one at that—the guy doesn't like anyone except Springsteen. Anyway, I was at the same theater show Kane attended, and everyone but Kane was ecstatic.
Paul Ditto
via e-mail
Rich Kane pointedly responds: 1) I've never written about Springsteen in theWeekly; 2) How would you know we were at the same show? There were several that weekend, and you couldn't know what I look like, unless; 3) your date that night—someone I used to date—pointed me out to you.
