MIN LIAO: I think I want to marry you. Or at the very least share a meal with you sometime, because you hit the fucking nail square on the head with your review of Wild Ginger [Chow, August 8]. In fact, your comments could easily be extended to most other upscale downtown and Belltown restaurants that offer so-called "fusion fare," which in most cases is an overpriced rip-off of what can be found down in the ID, where it remains both authentic and affordable.

Keep eating and telling us all about it.

Rafer Nelsen, via e-mail

MIN LIAO: I just wanted to tell you how much I totally enjoy reading your articles every week. Your joy of food is palpable, and your writing conveys your vast culinary knowledge without hitting the readers over the head with an "ain't I smart" attitude.

While cleaning out some ancient piles of stuff around my apartment this afternoon, I came across your article about Abe Lebewohl, and your search for matzo ball soup in Seattle [Chow, January 31]. Re-reading it was still as moving and funny and, having eaten at some of those places, right-on as when I first read it.

I hope The Stranger pays you enough to stick around for a long time, because (to paraphrase Anita Bryant) a Stranger without Min Liao's Chow would be like a week without sunshine.

Gary Tucker, via e-mail

EDITOR: This week's Stranger had an article on Options Talent, about a young guy who felt he'd been scammed by Options ["Glam Scam?", August 8]. I'm not paid by them, honestly, but I felt compelled to write in. I'm a "talent" with Options too. They've been nothing but nice, and very helpful to me, giving good advice, staying in touch regularly, etc., to check up on me.

It's well known in the fashion industry that work doesn't just fall into your lap, and you have to put in energy to get anything back, like the rest of life! Options probably suffers from a number of young and idealistic people [who want] the American Dream. I don't wish to negate this boy's experience, but want to show the other side of the picture.

It's a fair warning: There are sharks out there. My experience is [that] Options isn't one of them. Options never claimed to me that they would guarantee work.

Okay, so if you don't have $600 to spend, don't go there! Nobody held a gun to my head. I was given plenty of time to think about it before I agreed to pay up.

Apparently, what you didn't mention in your article was the fact that up until recently, EVERY single person on their books had gotten work! I only have their word for that, but it's a grand claim to invent if it could be disproved. I believe them, though I haven't had a call yet. It's been about six weeks. Maybe I'm a sucker, [but] I don't think so. It hasn't held true for the rest of my life.

Chandira Hense, via e-mail

EDITOR: Organized opposition to the Teen Dance Ordinance came mainly from industry-insider profiteers looking for a scapegoat to blame for the inevitable decline of Seattle's so-called "grunge scene." As they watched their gravy train leave the station, they mobilized legions of underage would-be rebels who should have been working on their grades instead of their dance steps. While the minors' oblivious parents cashed in on the economic boom of the 1990s, anti-TDO activists convinced the under-parented teenagers that they had the "right" to party all night in an unsupervised, Ecstasy- fueled frenzy of freedom.

Now a weak-willed city council and a pandering, electioneering mayor have rubber-stamped a piece of legislation that will certainly lead to tragedy.

The ever-arrogant "music scene" should sober up for a few hours and imagine the backlash that will erupt when some 13-year-old girl is gang-raped at one these precious events where the ratio of attendees to security personnel is, at best, 250 to one.

No one under 18 needs to be dancing and partying in some uninsured, unregulated dive at 4:00 a.m., and no responsible parent would allow it.

Walter D. Smith, via e-mail

EDITOR: Please don't publish any more trash talk by our white male politicians from Southeast Seattle [Letters, August 15]. Obviously [Adam] Kline and [Dwight] Pelz have skins that are very thin too. It's embarrassing and sets a bad example for our youth, who will never get anywhere in life if they follow the example of political leaders who overreact and talk this way. Sometimes our youth feel persecuted too, and we don't want them to think that just [receiving] a public disclosure request on what a person has been doing on public time is a reason to go off the handle.

We'd also like our youth to develop good reasoning skills. For example, since Dwight Pelz wanted us to vote another $1.2 billion for light rail to Northgate and the airport this November, but he didn't have any routes or cost estimates, it is not good reasoning for him to say we shouldn't get to vote on a $1.5 billion measure that does have routes and cost estimates.

And if our youth have questions, we want them to read the material, do the research, and formulate those questions, preferably all through the school year. We don't want them just shouting at us that they want answers, or asking us to tell them the answers if they're already there in the reading material. For that they'll have to wait until they get into positions where they have paid staff.

Thanks for setting a good example with your restrained response, Josh.

Ruth Korkowski, via e-mail