HOT NEWSCASTERS:
REBECCA STEVENSON—PERT AND PINK!

TO THE EDITOR: Hats off and zippers down for your long-overdue examination into the wank potential of local TV news "personalities" ["Burning Plastic," Adrian Ryan, Aug 11]. While a color spread on Alison Grande might have been nice, the only thing really wrong with your (un)coverage was the tragically short shrift given to NWCN/KING dreamsicle Rebecca Stevenson. Sex kittenish segues, and you KNOW that bottom is pert, pink, and needs a spanking. "It's gonna be a wet one." Ohhh yesssss...

Anonymous Newswatcher

WHERE WAS LILY JANG?

TO ADRIAN RYAN: Hello! I read your story on the sex appeal of local newscasters and I have a complaint. You didn't feature Lily Jang from Q13 Fox! Why, I ask you, Why didn't you include that lovely babe? She's only been my favorite news hottie since she anchored on NWCN! In my opinion, she's more beautiful than any of the other newscasters featured in your piece.

Jim Thomas

Oh, NO! WE'VE LOST OUR SENSIBLE READERS!

DEAR EDITOR: This article is beyond crass, unintellegent [sic] and pointless. Your have managed to alienate the majority of your sensible readers, congratulations. I know a lot of people that wont [sic] be picking up your newspaper any more [sic]. You should make an officoal [sic] apology at the very least to save face. Shame on you.

David Robin

PAT RESPONSE

DEAR STRANGER: Last week [Aug 11], a concerned and moronic reader wrote in to complain about Reverend Buddy making light of the Pat Tillman "tragedy." First of all, I'd like to express my deeply held appreciation for your new Reverend Buddy column—it's funny, informative, and helps many of us agnostics, who lack God in our lives, better understand what we're missing.

As for Pat Tillman, he is/was not a hero, as so many America-worshiping sentimentalists keep whining. His was a wholly tragic existence, but he is no hero. Since when does getting killed by your own army make you a hero? Those two cable guys who saved the boy from drowning in the pool were heroes—they did something overwhelmingly significant that nobody else, given the situation, could have done. Pat Tillman wanted to defend his country, so, like many brave and honorable Americans, he joined up. Tragically, if he really wanted to help, he should have taken the better part of his large NFL paycheck and given it to the troops in Iraq, who could've used it to armor another dozen or so Humvees. Perhaps then we wouldn't have quite so many "heroes" coming home early from Iraq.

Making a rash decision to endanger your life in the name of defending your country and dying as a result does not necessarily qualify one for the title of hero. Pat Tillman may have been a brave, tough guy, but he's no hero. Deal with it.

Josh

TEAM ANGEL

TO THE EDITOR: I am shocked and upset by Erica's In the Hall column titled "Family Values" [Aug 11]. While I do understand that your newspaper does not have to support my candidacy because I do not have the wealthy people in town supporting my campaign with contributions of $650, at least your reporter should show some respect by mentioning the facts while talking about city council candidates for Position 4. It is true that I do not have $150,000–$200,000 in my campaign bank account as Drago and Corr have; however, see who has the best platform and campaign materials for this race. I know that money is necessary, but is it necessary to buy journalists? Journalism, dear editor, is supposed to be impartial, informative, and neutral. Erica Barnett not only is misinforming and misleading the readers but she also is endorsing Drago by stating that the 37th District Democrats gave Drago their endorsement. Erica failed to mention that I was endorsed by the 37th in conjunction with Drago. She also failed to mention that I was the candidate who worked hard so that neither Drago nor Corr got endorsed by the 46th nor 34th District Democrats. In the 46th the chair did not even allow me to be part of the endorsement process, nor did he allow me to talk to defend myself from half truths and accusations from a fellow member who did not recognize my work as a Democrat and rather mentioned a bylaw adopted a year or so ago to punish me because I happen to be a member of two parties.

So please, Erica, practice journalism as we were taught and not as part of Team Drago or Team Corr.

Ángel Bolaños

Candidate for Seattle City Council

KORPORATE KINK

TO AMY JENNIGES: Thanks for the great article ["Bound and Gagged," Aug 11]! My favorite bit of "pandering to the fetish community" advertising recently came from Starbucks. They had location-specific billboards all over town to advertise the vanilla Frappuccino. The one about a mile from the Wet Spot read "This could give vanilla a reputation." Ha!

Cat

DAM FINE WORK

TO RICA BARNETT: That was a good article on Electric City ["Road Trip," Aug 4]—that is actually where I spent the first 18 years of my life. I live in Seattle now, but that's where I call home. If you ever make it back there, ask some local kids where "the rocks" are—a great little inlet for cliff-jumping off of rocks anywhere from 11 feet to 90 feet high.

I know this is a feature piece and all, but it seemed like you had mostly negative info on the dam. So, sorry—I'm a little defensive because I grew up there—I know everybody doesn't have the stupid trivia facts I do. However, the main relocation was upstream instead of in Electric City. Where you were sitting on Banks Lake and looking out—that's where Electric City used to be—under the water—but very few people lived there. Some of the buildings are still at the bottom. The main relocations were in areas upstream from the dam as Lake Roosevelt began to rise.

The big issue has been the wildlife (predominantly salmon); I do think it's a tragedy that salmon cannot bypass the damn to reach their traditional breeding grounds, though they haven't even had the numbers to make it that far upstream in many years, due to a combination of things including pollutants (a paper mill toward Canada had dumped toxins in the river for years). It's still rather unsafe to eat many fish from Lake Roosevelt.

However, on the other hand, the Grand Coulee Dam has done some good. The dam is still surrounded by controversy, but Banks Lake wouldn't have been possible without it—thousands of acres of farmland wouldn't have been possible—and Eastern Washington might not have been so useful. Plus (don't quote me exactly on this), the dam generates roughly enough electricity in one hour to power the city of Seattle for a day.

Nick-Alas

MORE GHOSTS

STRANGERS: A cyclist myself, I was really impressed to see the GhostCycles ["Crash Course," Amy Jenniges, Aug 4] going up near my house. Having had numerous wrecks and close calls of my own due to careless motorists, I thought that it would be a great way to raise awareness of the bike-riding community. The problem that I have with the whole project is that many of the "accidents" detailed on the group's website were the cyclists' own fault. Take #22, for example, whose accident was the result of attempting to jump a curb in poor weather. Or #10, who was following too closely and rear-ended a car when the driver had to hit the brakes. While I feel that raising awareness of cyclists is important, showing examples of cyclists who fail to ride safely is not the way to go about it.

Jasen Samfor

WHO SUCKS?
DOES THEATER SUCK?: It apparently DOES suck now that David Schmader ["The Intermission Escape Artist," Aug 4] is no longer an actor.

Gosh, Dave, will you please come out of retirement so that theater can quit sucking? Or perhaps you can just come up with a pantload of money to give to the fringe theaters so that THEY can quit sucking (since, according to you, fringe theater inherently sucks because any schmo can do it).

Or you could just shut up, go to the movies, and let the rest of us enjoy a Seattle art form that is still strong, dynamic, and entertaining.

Fine: You believe Seattle theater sucks. Okay. But WHY?! Not only do you never say what, exactly, is WRONG with Seattle theater (hint: saying it's missing a "spark or frisson" doesn't count), you never say how it can be fixed.

A good writer would give concrete supporting evidence for his thesis, and maybe a suggestion or two as to how the problem could be ameliorated. You, however, just whine. Which is why this particular Stranger story, well, sucked. But as a reader, I shall continue my "necessary slog through the dead and pointless to find the gems."

Allison Wedell Schumacher

Actress and Author

FROM THE FORUMS AT
WWW.THESTRANGER.COM

POSTED BY LUCIUS BOLIVAR: Last I heard, it was legal to put up fliers on telephone poles in the city. But there are certain areas and certain poles where any flier put up will be taken down the next day. I am curious about the legality of somebody removing the fliers. I've heard that some merchants do not appreciate fliers on telephone poles outside their places of business.

If it's legal for them to remove these signs, then it should also be legal for one to go around removing those folding wooden signs some business put out on the sidewalk, or newspaper boxes, or unsightly vehicles, or any other private property that has also been left legally by somebody else on public property.

If it is illegal for persons to remove fliers, that would be interesting as well. There are a lot more of us who like to put up fliers than there are persons who feel entitled to take them down. We should pay these offensive persons a visit.

If it actually is certain merchants who remove fliers from poles outside their businesses, then it might be easy to determine who some of these merchants are simply by looking at the businesses located directly next to the areas where fliers are continually removed. I suspect if a hundred persons who like to put up fliers showed up together during business hours, we might be able to speak directly with the offending proprietors and let them know politely that we do not appreciate them tampering with property that does not belong to them.

I've also heard it suggested that city employees take down fliers in certain areas. But that does not make sense to me. Why would they target only certain areas for flier removal, and leave other areas alone?

Perhaps somebody else could shed some light on this subject for me.

POSTED BY LILBLACKCAT: I think the SPD has better things to do than worry about people taking down fliers. I see businesses trying to keep the poles from becoming fire hazards by peeling them all down about once a week so they don't get too thick with paper.

I personally will remove any fliers depicting the war that shows dead bodies within three blocks of my apartment where I walk with my child (like that "Replacements Needed" poster that was littering the city for a while. Those are as bad as the PETA posters of skinned animals or the abortion picketers in my book!). They can arrest me if they want, but I doubt they would. I do it right in front of people in broad daylight; the only comment I have ever received was, "Good, I am glad someone is taking those down, they are vile!"

If they are show posters, I leave them alone, as long as they stay G-rated, since they are on the public street where children play.

POSTED BY LEVISLADE: As much as it sucks, I believe removing posters is as much a protected form of speech as posting them. We're free to post them; they're free to rip 'em down.

Discuss, debate, rant, purge at forums.thestranger.com.