TO AMY JENNIGES: I want to thank you for your article about [Ken] Hutcherson and the Antioch Church ["School Spirit," Sept 29]. I am a former Lake Washington student and member of the Gay Straight Alliance (I recently moved to Stanwood, where, sadly, we have no GSA—something I mean to change). I remember arriving at LW my sophomore year and feeling immediately accepted by this liberal, open-minded, and intelligent student body.
When Hutcherson began to get press, I was shocked and disgusted that my school was harboring this man. The fact that our principal (and, rumor has it, a handful of other members of the administration) actually ATTENDS the sermons sends a pretty strong message to the students, and not one I support.
I obviously was unable to attend the GSA meeting at which [Lake Washington High School Principal] Robertson spoke because I'm now living 40 minutes away. However, I'm sure that what he had to say was a huge load of crap orchestrated to appease the angry GSA members. I hope that the GSA this year takes some action and tries to make a difference. It is sorely needed!
Mackenzie Gregg
Age 16, "Straight but not Narrow"
FLIP FLOPTO JOSH FEIT: Don't get down on yourself for flip-flopping [on the monorail]. The mayor did an about-face after the election, the council sort of did the same thing, and the monorail board is running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
I voted the Stranger slate with some hesitation, favoring Chicago-style density but not sure Nickels quite got the Vancouver consultants' report. Density is necessary, but so are family-friendly amenities. There are only so many single yuppies to go around, and all the inner-city neighborhoods are competing for them. The mayor should also think of townhouses and row houses outside the high-rise zone, another secret to Vancouver's success. But at least Nickels is vaguely on the right side (not counting his "whatever Paul Allen wants, Paul Allen gets" policy), so I voted and hoped for the best.
The monorail is a more difficult issue. What we need is the full monorail plan: six grade-separated lines covering the entire city. Again, Chicago and New York show how greatly this enhances livability if it's comprehensive, fast, and 24-hour. But if we're paying for one line till 2050 and can't afford the others, that doesn't solve the problem. So I can see both sides to this. (Note to monorail board: Second Avenue, Second Avenue! And, much as I hate to say it, light rail from West Seattle to the SODO trunk would be acceptable.)
Mike Orr
SPANK THE MAYOR'S BOYTO JOSH FEIT: Your article "The Mayor's Boy" [Sept 29] was so appreciated. I was one of the 20 percent who cast their vote for Al Runte. The reason being, as you pointed out in your story, was as a protest vote. I did it in the primaries but can't see myself casting a Runte vote come November. On the flip side, I want the mayor to know that he still needs to be accountable.
What to do, what to do? Not vote for Casey Corr is the solution and I am glad your story highlighted the whys.
Kathy Nyland
FROM THE FORUMS AT WWW.THESTRANGER.COMPOSTED BY ANGRYCITIZEN: This is the third time I've heard about this in the last week so I'm posting this for anyone to comment on or give me their take.
In August The Stranger held its first annual amateur porn contest, Hump! Ordinary people from all over Seattle were welcomed to make their own porno and enter it in a contest to be judged by the viewers. The winner got $500 cash and a trip to Vegas for two during the porn awards. Cool, huh?
Maybe.
A week ago I heard from a reliable source that one of the grand-prize winners was in fact a Stranger staff member. What the hell? Was the contest fixed? Did our votes count? Or is this just more inside-joke pat-on-the-back bullshit like the so-called Genius Awards? Why was a Stranger employee even allowed to participate?
Something stinks, Seattle.
POSTED BY DAN SAVAGE: The winner of Hump! was not a Stranger staff member, and the contest wasn't fixed. The audience at Hump! voted, and we saved the ballots. The winner—Don't Stop Believing—was the overwhelming favorite. If you would like to review the ballots, Angrycitizen, you can e-mail caroline@thestranger.com, who has the ballots locked in her desk, and come in to our office and count 'em up yourself.
The prize winner wishes to remain anonymous, and we have to respect that, so I can't name him/her/it/them, but rest assured that he/she/they/it is not, and never was, a Stranger staffer.
I believe this rumor may have gotten started because a few Stranger staffers and freelancers—we happen to be a large, creative group of people, with ties to many artists, filmmakers, and kinksters in town—did grunt work on some of the submissions, helping out on some of the shoots. No Stranger staffer starred in any Hump! entries (so far as I know), and no Stranger staffers directed any of the entries, and so none were eligible to win the prize, which went to the filmmaker only. And, again, the fix couldn't be in, since it was the audience who chose the winner, not The Stranger.
Finally, please consider this: A crushing amount of work went into hosting and running Hump!, including the lawyers we had to pay to make sure we were doing this legally, the stories we wrote about it, the in-house ads we had to produce, the wrassling of submissions, the duplicating of tapes, the tons of paperwork (Christ, the fucking paperwork!), and finally the 16-hour day that Caroline Dodge, Lippy Imp, and I put in at the four screenings of Hump! and the awards ceremony afterward. Do you really think we would go to all that trouble just so we could scam a trip to Vegas for a Stranger staffer? Please. Stranger staffers who want to go to Vegas can afford to go to Vegas without everyone involved in the paper—from the publisher to our lawyers to the editor to the writers to the ad designers to the promotions people—pouring countless hours of staff time into an elaborate scam.
What doesn't pass the smell test here, Angrycitizen, is your conspiracy theory. Hump! was on the up-and-up.
Rant, rave, and hatch conspiracy theories at forums.thestranger.com.
