EDITORS: I just wanted to thank you for [enlarging] my valentine [message] in your paper [Stranger Reader Valentines, Feb 8]. When I picked up The Stranger on campus, I flipped through to see if my wish was published. When I saw it leap off the page right at me, my heart skipped a beat. I don't expect that it'll convince Victoria to drop her boyfriend and find comfort in my arms, but it did me a world of good to see it. Thank you for the wonderful service you [provided for] the world of relationships--especially those on the outside looking in.
Unfortunately Still Anonymous, via e-mail
EDITORS: "Nobody outside of some 800 readers of Social Text magazine had ever read [Sokal's] original article," writes Doug Nufer in his review of The Sokal Hoax ["Look at My Thumb," Feb 8]. This is a gross underestimation. The Sokal affair has been incredibly popular in academic circles, and thousands of people have read the original article (if only because it is so funny). Just type "Sokal" in any search engine: Google's first choice is his homepage at NYU, where you can get tons of information about this controversy.
Anonymous, via e-mail
EDITORS: Give me a break. Seattle's very "self-image" tied up in Amazon.com? ["The Magic's Gone," Paula Gilovich, Feb 8.] Welcome to Business 101. Who was under the impression that an enormous, publicly traded company could be run like a mom-and-pop shop and still stay in business? Were those "Amazonians" [who were laid off] just showing up to work each day because of the camaraderie and fun times, or were people MAKING MONEY? Well that's what Amazon.com is going to have to do if the employees who are left (a respectably decent amount of people for a company that was bleeding a river of money) want to keep coming to work each day. Jeff Bezos offered an excellent severance package (a glaring oversight in your article) and made a smart and obvious business decision; [he] might just save his company as a result. I'm no fan of Amazon.com--I prefer to shop at my local neighborhood bookstore and other small businesses. But the idea that this decision was based on the union movement is so myopic, and flat-out wrong.
Joelle Nole, Seattle
KATHLEEN WILSON: Finally, we agree! Over The View's Lisa Ling, of all things ["Flat Asses and Dumb Bunnies," Feb 1]. But why the kid gloves? Surely you can rip her a new asshole better than that, given your penchant [to do so for] every other delicate, posturing female in the music industry. "Dumb bunny"? That's the best you can do?!
Ling Ling needs a beating, accord-ing to me, because she pretends she's a deep, rich cosmopolitan when she's really stale skim milk. Ling could've graduated straight from my high school, Ms. Overachiever Asian Princess--all teeth and fashion cloning, with nothing much left for the outcast masses but a toss of her egg-washed, shiny black hair.
Carol Banks Weber, Lynnwood, WA
DEAR EDITOR: I am greatly disturbed by Josh Feit's encouragement to "Call Someone Else's Congressman" [In Other News, Jan 25], since the congressman he suggested is Hal Rogers (R-Kentucky). Has The Stranger's hatred of Sound Transit's light-rail project driven you to get into bed with a right-wing demagogue?! Rep. Rogers is not interested in whether the light-rail project in Seattle is a good idea or not. He is solely interested in the construction of a highway through his rural district in Kentucky. The I-66 Highway is a project Rep. Rogers has been trying to get funded for years, as a way to bring jobs to his district and secure his reelection. I-66 in Kentucky, if built, will run through a national forest and a wildlife preserve, and is opposed by every environmental group in the state. No matter what your opinion is of Sound Transit or light rail, is Rep. Rogers someone you really want to help get reelected? Are his values the same as those shared by The Stranger or its readers? Here's a sample of Rep. Rogers' voting record: voted yes to ban gay adoptions; voted yes to prohibiting needle-exchange programs and medical marijuana; voted no on banning soft-money political contributions; voted yes on banning late-term abortions. I would rather Sound Transit take the federal transit money and burn it in Seattle, rather than have any chance of it going to Rep. Rogers and his Kentucky highway project. Let's keep our local political debates local.
Eric Pravitz, Seattle
DEAR RICK: Thank you for your incredibly insightful and well-written article about Vin Baker [Courtside, "Vinnie-the-Pooh," Rick Levin, Feb 1]. Vin is my favorite Sonic--not because he's the best, but maybe because he is my tragic hero. Vin Baker does go up against Vin Baker at every game; and I never realized it as such until I read your column, which is the most insightful and compassionate article about Vinnie that I've read. I read [a lot of sports writing] about the Sonics, but your weekly column is the best writing on the subject, as far as I'm concerned.
Amanda Morgan, via e-mail
MR. SAVAGE: Ten years ago, people like you supported the need for a cure for AIDS. People argued with passion that a cure was needed. Now, other than getting off your butt and walking for AIDS once a year, little else is being done. Your attitude about AIDS reinforces the complacency that is turning AIDS into an epidemic again ["AIDS Inc. Merger," Dan Savage, Feb 15].
Until you wake up at 3:00 a.m., throwing up for the 20th time in one damned night because you have to take those damned drugs [AIDS drug therapies], don't try to feed me the assumption that organizations like Northwest AIDS Foundation don't need a hell of a lot more funding. Until you have to stop working all together because you are "forgetting" things, then shut your trap! You have no idea what it is like living with this stuff in your body.
I wonder, Mr. Savage, what it takes for people like you to understand this epidemic the way those of us with AIDS see it? Perhaps when the numbers start to go up far enough--[when] people begin to die like they were [in the past]? When it starts to become people you know again? Why wait that long? There are STILL people DYING. While I am stuck choking on vomit, you should be stuck choking on your words.
Darryl Jensen, Seattle
EDITORS: While incarcerated at the Special Commitment Center (SCC), I had the pleasure of meeting Tamara Menteer, the subject of Phil Campbell's recent article "The Rape Revisionist" [Feb 1]. Tamara had been assigned by U.S. District Court Judge William Dwyer to serve in the capacity of ombudsman--a referee, if you will--who would report on a periodical basis to the court as to the SCC's progress, or lack thereof, in improving the treatment milieu. Since late 1992, I had been detained at the SCC.
Into this hornet's nest stepped Tamara Menteer. The majority of residents and some of the staff regarded her as an empathetic, patient, and compassionate human being. She spent literally hundreds of hours listening to both sides of the equation while displaying, I thought, an impartiality unique in work regarding the "nouveau lepers": untouchables the state had branded as sexually violent predators. I never had a clue that Menteer had been a victim herself. In retrospect, with the information I gleaned from Phil Campbell's article, I am simply blown away by Tamara's example of restorative justice. In January of 1997, I was miraculously released from the lion's den. But Tamara and I have kept in contact. We recently saw each other when I testified against the state at a hearing presided by Judge Dwyer, regarding experiences I've had since my release. In January of 1999, Tamara and I, along with friends and family members of some of the incarcerated men, testified before a panel of state legislators. Ironically, or perhaps poetically just, at the helm of the panel sat Ida Ballasiotes (whom Campbell portrayed as a contrast to Tamara Menteer in his article). I personally observed the polarized forces at work--Ida, the staunch victims' advocate, versus Tamara, the restorative justice advocate. I have a great respect for both women and a deep appreciation for their individual causes. But in all honesty, I'm glad that Tamara Menteer travels the road less taken. She is gallantly fighting against society's ever-increasing "throwaway" mentality. She is restoring the lives of both victims and offenders.
Joe Aqui, College Place, WA
DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: In "Wills and Electricity" [In Other News, Josh Feit, Feb 15], we wrongly reported that the current standard for governing local low-income energy assistance is 25 percent of the federal poverty level. The standard is actually 125 percent. We regret the error.
