HUNG OUT TO DRY
TO THE STAFF AT THE STRANGER: I would like to express my disgust at the cover of this week's issue [Inaugural Drinking Issue, Jan 20]. I'm sure you guys think it's hilarious to make a joke out of suicide by showing a guy not only hanging, but having wet himself in the process. And then to have the SAVE website address on the cover? I know you guys think you're hip and hilarious, but I'm starting to wonder about the humanity of your staff. Have any of you ever lost anyone to suicide? Have you ever contemplated it yourselves? I lost my grandmother to it, and my mother has attempted it many times. And I can assure you it wasn't hilarious. Why couldn't you have just made your point by making fun of alcoholism? That's funny.

A Very Disappointed Reader

CORIANTON HALE RESPONDS: Have you ever lost anyone to alcoholism? Have you ever known anyone with liver disease? I lost my grandmother to the bottle, and my mother drank heavily for years before passing away a couple years back… and I assure you, it wasn't hilarious. I'm sure you think it would be witty or ironic to make fun of those stricken with such an "amusing" disease. Or maybe you think it would be even more amusing to make light of those with cancer or AIDS? Now that's funny!

BAD BRAD
TO THE EDITOR: Regarding Brad Steinbacher's review of A Tale of Two Sisters [Film Shorts, Jan 6], which said, "This latest Japanese horror import has everything…." I just wanted to let you know that this review made a mistake. A Tale of Two Sisters is not Japanese, it's Korean.

Yujin

GET BROADWAY ROLLING
TO THE WHOLE FREAKING TOWN: I am writing to you to share my proposal to turn the old Broadway Safeway into a full-on roller- skating rink! If you have walked by the space, you can see that with the large, flat floor--interrupted only by a few beams that could provide support for a divider wall between the skating area and a watching area--as well as its preexisting parking lot, the place was practically MADE for this! Give it a cute name like "Broadway Rollerway" or "Roller Broadway" or "Broadway Skate" and folks on Capitol Hill--and all over--will come!

In fact, by turning the space into Seattle's first and only roller-skating rink (White Center's inaccessible, partially operational rink doesn't count), it will undoubtedly turn Broadway into one of the most exciting places in town! In addition to the Garage, Capitol Hill's famed bowling alley and pool hall, this will be one of the biggest and most exciting recreational venues for the Seattle metropolitan area! Roller-skating is back, dammit! And you know it!

To turn this idea in reality, we need backers (i.e., supporters with money, large lines of credit, and equity), people with city planning and development connections and know-how, and people like you! According to the city planning and development website, there seem to be no plans for the space as of yet.

So what do you say, Seattle? Are you in?

Erin Thompson

P.S. If you would like to help, and/ or can provide any information that would help, e-mail me at la_petita2@yahoo.com.

EXECUTIVE APPROVAL
TO JOSH FEIT [Regarding your Jan 20 CounterIntel column]: Thank you!

Ron Sims

URBAN ACTION!
Dear Stranger: Josh Feit's article on Mansfield's town clerk, [CounterIntel, Jan 20], and her idiotic and/or abhorrently selfish views on tax-revenue distribution reminded me of a thought I had during the I-695 mania: Any intelligent person knows that, as Feit points out, counties like King pay more taxes than they see in incoming state revenue, while counties like Douglas see more revenue from the state than they contribute. I propose a new initiative. Call it I-713 (my birthday--for luck), the Fair Tax Initiative for Washington State. Approval of this initiative would require the State to spend any tax money it collects in the county in which it collects it.

The irony of such an initiative is that all the idiots who voted for I-695 and I-747 would probably vote for I-713, and unlike 695 and 747, passage of the initiative would benefit all the liberals in Seattle and King County. This would throw parts of the state into an economic catastrophe, but who cares? King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties will be rich! Our schools will turn out the brightest students, our roads will never again resemble terrain from a Hummer TV ad, and the monorail will deliver you within a block of anywhere in the Puget Sound region. E-mail me at initiative713@gmail.com.

Josh Hanson

MISSING A. BIRCH
DEAR STRANGER: I love the paper, but while out of country vacationing I missed the last two issues and am now wondering what happened to the old Stranger Ombudsman, whose Table of Contents I used to LOVE and read as the first thing every week, before Savage Love, Last Days, and News (in that order). Seriously, guys, at times I almost peed myself laughing. Nothing against Ms. Jenny (do give her a column on another page), but I want the old guy, Mr. A. Birch Steen, back. PLEASE!!!

Katarina Guttmannova