HOW DOES MJ SMELL?
EDITOR: When my 3-year-old daughter saw Michael Jackson rendered in cereal on the cover of The Stranger [Feb 17], she said, "Look Daddy, she doesn't have a nose! How is she supposed to smell anything without a nose?" I just about died. I'll be saving that cover and that story for her to enjoy later in life.

Ryan Spain

UMM, IT'S CEREAL
What a fantastic cover this week [Feb 17]!!! Spectacular! I remember something from past issues and happenings in this city about cereal art… or food art, or whatever! When I first saw this, I thought what a wonderful mosaic! I have to know, what are those white dots? Are they the marshmallows in Lucky Charms? Is this all edible, unaltered food? Are those raisins "altered"? Curiously smitten (CRUNCH!!).

James

TIMES BAD, FEIT GOOD
JOSH: You state that the cry-wolf Seattle Times story about the initial monorail bid "…ruin[ed] its own credibility as an honest watchdog" [CounterIntel, Feb 24]. This implies you believe the Times ever HAD any credibility as an honest watchdog. Silly man. I've lived here about 15 years; they certainly haven't had any in that span. If I didn't have to swallow its Sunday pulp-mill jobs program to get the weekly P-I, the Times would never cross my threshold. And if The Stranger were a daily, it would replace both of them. Keep barking, honest watchdog.

Dan Ballard

DEAN, DEMS NOT DUMB
EDITOR: After reflecting on Howard Dean's leadership decisions as the new DNC chair ["Dean of the Establishment," Feb 17], I realized that Sandeep Kaushik has got it all wrong. Dean's strategies are actually very smart. How are they smart? Let me count the ways:

(1) By focusing energy and attention on the Democrat rank and file, Dean is emulating a successful Republican strategy, one Kaushik doesn't mention. Republicans have been quietly taking over school boards, city councils, and state legislatures for the last decade or so. These actions laid the foundation for their recent successful takeovers of Congress, the executive branch, and the judiciary. By encouraging grassroots Democrats to show up, speak up, and run for local office, Dean is cultivating a force that will have to be reckoned with 5 or 10 years from now.

(2) Dean recognizes that, although he disagrees with them on fundamental policy issues, attacking the powerful Democratic officeholders right now won't accomplish anything except to damage his own still-fragile party cred. Meanwhile, he can still encourage those leaders' constituents to pull them leftward, if that's possible, or eventually oust them, if it's not.

(3) By refusing to impose a top-down discipline, Gingrich-style, Dean demonstrates his thorough understanding of true Democrats: We're not herd animals.

Bobbi Dykema Katsanis

WELCOME TO OZ, BITCH
CHARLES: OK, so the Seattle Police can just walk up and look inside your backpack, find a gun and drugs, and be heroes? [Police Beat, Charles Mudede, Feb 17] Shit man, what right do they have to walk up and look inside anything I own? "Acting suspicious." LAME!!!!!! Stereotyping bastards!!! Have a nice day.

JK

DUDE, ANNIE DOESN'T DATE LIBERTARIANS
EDITORS: I'd like to compliment Annie Wagner on what a great job she did writing this week's article about abortion rhetoric ["Half-Baked," Feb 24]. Though I lean left and am 100 percent pro-choice, I also want to compliment The Stranger for publishing this article because it lacks the politically correct bias that usually dominates your pages. It's actually an objective look at a controversial subject that does not automatically take sides. Exactly what I want in journalism.

Josh Brown

LOATHING AND LOATHING
EDITORS: I understand that you are in the business of making fun of absuletly [sic] everybody, but I honestly never thought you would stoop so low. Congratulations, Stranger. Congratulations on having the wit, the fortitude, nay, the brilliance, to actually blatantly copy one of the greatest writers of our time as you make fun of not simply his death, but his suicide ["Once I Exit the Calvarium, There'll Be No More Pain," Feb 24]. Indeed, an amazing feat if only in that, as you plagarized [sic] your way into junior high school hall of fame, you actually managed to shamelessly plug your own pblication [sic]. A cheap laugh. A way to meet the deadline. But he is fucking DEAD and you motherfuckers think you are good enough to write like him. Fuck you. Not a Single Fucking One Of You has ever come close to Hunter S Thompson. Rest in peace, Hunter.

Thomas

HUNTER S. THOMPSON RE-SPONDS: Listen, "Thomas," you little turd. Don't you ever presume to mock The Stranger. Especially not without checking your letter for grammar and spelling. Part of the reason I did myself in was on account of tinhorn pukes like yourself taking my side in every goddamn argument. Will you for crying out loud leave me alone, already? What do I have to do to rid my consciousness of such cretinous admiration, kill myself?

HST, the Hereafter