From the Jan 15 – Jan 21, 2004 issue

Columns

Letters to the Editor

WHAT ABOUT THE MILK, MAN?
EDITOR: No one seems to be alarmed that these radical prions could also infect our milk supply. It is mentioned in your cover story ["We're All Going to Die!" Christine Wenc, Jan 1] that BSE has been passed from mother cow to calf. But do the experts know the vehicle of transmission from mother to offspring? The current law, as I understand it, says that no cattle intended for human consumption can be fed animal waste products. Does this include dairy cows? If not, then is there scientific research that proves that the prions that cause BSE cannot be spread through dairy products?

I understand that the major concern is meat that has come in contact with brain and spinal tissues; however, where does a developing embryo come into contact with these tissues? It doesn't. Therefore the prions must be present in the blood or milk of brood cows. If this is the case, then far more of our younger beef cattle could be infected without showing any symptoms because of the long gestation of this disease. So not only is that tall cold glass of milk, ice cream, or cheese laden with hormones and antibiotics, but possibly BSE too. Yeah, we're all going to die. And maybe the meek really will inherit the earth. As a vegetarian, pacifist, and anti-industrialization/ globalization supporter, I feel that it would be a just irony if the industrial meat organizations were to kill off their own customer base. This would help solve the overpopulation problems we have, as well.

Jason Sasquatch

SAD COW
TO THE STRANGER: Cheers to Christine Wenc, not only for writing two splendid articles on bovine spongiform encephalopathy ["Cannibal Cows and Dying Deer," Aug 21 and "We're All Going to Die!" Jan 1], but for doing so in an extremely intelligent and nonbiased fashion.

Ms. Wenc's first article on BSE opened my eyes and kept me thinking about mad cow disease for all the months between when she wrote it and when the first U.S. case of mad cow was discovered. I changed my eating habits, eating less meat in general, much less beef in particular, and switching to organic meat, milk, and eggs. Her second article is not only a right-on reminder, but rings so true that I heard my very own sentiments echoed in every paragraph, right down to the fact that the author is also someone who likes to eat meat, and does not wish to stop, but instead would simply like to know that the meat that she is eating is SAFE--not only free of prions, but of all other disease. Is it really too much to ask that we be sold meat from animals that are healthy, injury-free, and fed only what Mother Nature intended for them to eat?

Christine Wenc and I agree that it is not too much to ask, and I'm sure we wish that the rest of you would wake up and smell the hamburger.

Isabella Borlo

LIGHT RAIL, MONORAIL:

IT'S ALL GOOD
TO THE EDITOR: The truth is that both the monorail and Sound Transit's light rail are going to get built. Both will have some flaws (this is planet Earth, after all). Why can't The Stranger figure out a way to get behind both projects now, and help ensure that all kinds of people from all over Seattle will have more options for getting around without a car? Every time you bash Sound Transit, you warm Tim Eyman's cockles. And if you think that little creep has any interest in the well-being of Seattle's car-less residents, you really are on another planet. The blocked-intersection argument against light rail just doesn't cut it. San Francisco and Portland have rail systems that are mostly at-grade (and Portland has two flavors of at-grade rail to choose from). I ride both those cities' systems frequently, and I have never experienced any intersections blocked by light-rail trains.

Tim Burak

AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST CONGRATULATES STRANGER ON TAKING SPJ AWARD
TO THE EDITOR: My greatest honor ever. Wow. All those pieces of Lucite [on the shelf at KUOW] and you picked mine (MINE!) to steal ["Stranger Takes Three SPJ Awards!" Jan 8]. I hope once the layers of dust are carefully removed, the award shines as brightly in your office as it always did in my heart. I'd come over there and steal it back, but I live in New York City now, working out of the Manhattan NPR bureau. Hard to believe those pieces of crap weren't worth taking with me. Stop by when you're in the city.

The Award-Winning Robert Smith

New York Correspondent

National Public Radio

YOU PEOPLE

SUCK
DEAR STRANGER: Thank you so much for your new column, Jock Itch. All of us white-belt-loving, narcissistic Hill-heads are ecstatic to finally have a completely worthless sports column to match your completely worthless television column. We are finally able to bury our collective head up our collective ass when it comes to anything remotely resembling pop culture, rather than, say, legitimately critiquing types of mainstream media that (like it or not) permeate our everyday lives. Now all that's left is to let Adrian Ryan write all of the theater reviews, and then your paper's only thoughtful analysis of the arts will be left in the more-than-adequate hands of Christopher Frizzelle and Emily Hall... where it obviously, rightly belongs.

Matt Farnsworth