Contact us via e-mail le*****@oc******.com">(le*****@oc******.com), regular mail (Letters to the Editor,OC Weekly, P.O. Box 10788, Costa Mesa, CA 92627) or fax (714-708-8410). Letters will be edited for clarity and length. By submission of a letter, you agree that we can publish and/or license the publication of it in print and electronically. All correspondence must include your home city and a daytime phone number.
WE ARE SO LIKE BOILS ON HIS TUCHIS
Please be advised that this office has been retained to represent Philip Ellison, D.D.S., in his claim against you for defamation. Dr. Ellison takes issue with and has suffered harm over the cover of your publication, Volume 7, No. 47, in which you label him an “old fart” (Matt Coker's “'The Sap Spills Like Blood,'” July 26).
Contrary to your libelous statement, Dr. Ellison is a distinguished member of the Orange County community. Dr. Ellison was the president and founder of the Committee for World Peace in Honolulu. He was the vice president of the Waikiki Residents Association, sat on the senior advisory committee to Kaiser Hospital and was in the Army Reserve for 18 years. Dr. Ellison was appointed by U.S. Senator Daniel Inoue to be treasurer of the Democratic Party for the Waikiki precinct and was a docent at the Waikiki Aquarium. He also tutored disabled children for the State of Hawaii Board of Education.
Dr. Ellison is a true humanitarian. While living at Leisure World, Dr. Ellison has been on the Board of Directors for the Foreign Policy Association, and he founded the United Nations Association Chapter for Leisure World.
On behalf of Dr. Ellison, and pursuant to California Civil Code section 48a, demand is hereby made that you immediately correct your libelous statement about him and provide this firm with notice of the same.
Kiera Berkley
Law in Progress Inc. END TIMES
Kudos to Jim Washburn for his thoughtful and melancholic cover piece on the slow death of the Times Orange County(“A Times Obituary,” Aug. 9). The OC edition's promise ended with the demise of another OC—publisher Otis Chandler—the day in 1985 that he was shown the door by a cabal of money-grubbing Mandarins led by Chandler's Uriah Heap brother-in-law, F. Daniel Frost, and Frost's pompous elitist crony Robert Erburu.
Beware, Orange County, because The Orange County Register is about to be overtaken by the same brand of familial greed, instituted by the trust-fund babies of the founding Hoiles family.
As a veteran of Southern California journalism, I am sick to death over the excuses I have heard about the sagging economy—or the loss of advertising to television or the loss of readers to the Internet or the high price of newsprint or any of the other claptrap bandied about in corporate boardrooms—reeking havoc on newspapers like the Times and the Register. California has now leaped ahead of France in terms of GNP. We're living in the world's seventh richest “nation” and can't support a couple of daily newspapers?
The problem is snot-nosed bastards like old man Hoiles' heirs, who need more ready cash to redo their summer homes or buy that little rancho in the Sierra foothills to raise palominos. It is the climbing cost of fertilizer for the many English gardens tended in San Marino by the avaricious cousins of Otis Chandler. These heirs to the tough, crusading founders of these newspapers will always be able to find toadies like Erburu, Mark Willes and former Times editor Shelby Coffey to do their bidding as they sell off their own company.
Their loyal subscribers will get screwed when it finally dawns on them that their newspaper may contain paper, but precious little news.
Dennis McDougal
Long Beach
Editor's note: McDougal is author ofPrivileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L.A. Times Dynasty (DaCapo Press).
RICH AND STUPID
Rich Kane's stupid article amounts to the best review of the Tragically Hip I have ever read (“Maple Leaf Rag,” Aug. 9). Take a look at the acts he bagged on: Rush, Yes, Sara McLachlan . . . what kind of music does this freak show like? Millions and millions of listeners can't be wrong. This guy would piss off Roger Whittaker. We should build a fence between Canada and the U.S. to keep idiotic, annoying, musically nonsensical American morons like Kane out of our country and away from our music. Americans who appreciate good music will have tickets waiting at the fence. But be warned: judging by the response at the Tragically Hip show in San Diego on Aug. 11, there will be a big line at the will-call window.
Steve Alexander
via e-mail FORGET THE DOG DICK, BOWIE HAS BALLS!
An artist's greatness is not necessarily measured by whether they imitate others (Buddy Seigal's “The Thin White Puke,” Aug. 9). Madonna is certainly not a great “singer.” Elvis may have never had an original idea. Even Sinatra started his career imitating Bing Crosby. The genius behind these artists may lie in exposing ideas to a large audience. Bowie was not the first to try many things, but he's not afraid to take risks others would consider career suicide. The fact Seigal thinks a dog dick on the cover of an album is so cool that he's still writing about it 30 years later is all we need to know about how he measures greatness.
Craig White
Aliso Viejo HE'S BEING FACETIOUS, RIGHT?
After reading the Aug. 9 “Mondo Washington” by James Ridgeway, I felt like putting on some olive drab and peace pins, growing a beard, and going up to Berkeley for a little marching. Everything about the economy is the Bushes' fault, of course. We all know the “business cycle,” the stock market “bubble” and the recession that started while Bill Clinton was in office had absolutely nothing to do with today's economy. Yep, James has it all figured out, and I'm sure anyone, such as myself, who just doesn't buy into all that drivel is considered a right-wing loony to be shouted down by the young radical sheep. Pathetic.
Mike Cunningham
Costa Mesa
