HEY EDITOR! In response to your Ramadan slam in the Last Days section of the November 22 Stranger, may I in response offer an interesting fact about The Stranger: If you add two letters, it spells "The Stray Anger."

Jack Lattemann, via e-mail

GET THE HELL OUT OF NEW YORK, YOU POSER! Nevdon Jamgochian's article about his fleeing the scene of New York City is but another example of the poser $%# that I associate with The Stranger ["Fleeing the Scene," Nov 15]. Nev (a.k.a. Ned): I know you, you're from San Francisco and have spent a few years in Seattle (long enough to buy a house here and go through a slew of roommates). How much of a New Yorker can you become in the amount of time you spent there? What has it been, a year? At most two years? Is that enough time to make you forget everything and every place else you have ever lived? Or is it that you have been a "true New Yorker" trapped inside a San Franciscan and Seattleite body?

I have several friends who live in NYC, all of whom have told me how much stronger they feel [about] New York, how much more they love New York post-September 11. Is it the real New Yorkers who stay and the wannabe New Yorkers who flee? I understand the idea of literary licensing that an artist has at his disposal, but don't misrepresent who you are. Don't try to be something that you aren't. That doesn't make you an artist. All it does is make you a poser with a bunch of words. Am I surprised to see this article in The Stranger? Hell no. You all still have a ways to go.

Shana, via e-mail

WHEEE-HOOO! Nevdon Jamgochian is my new hero! I remember that guy when he was peddling Proust at Pistil. Who knew the cojones he had on him? "Fleeing the Scene" is some EXCELLENT journalism. He has the smarts to get out in the field and listen to real people who had real opinions about an event that affected EVERYBODY. Not just senators and their flunkies, but also bus drivers, ex-Marines, and white trash. And he has the talent to write it all down in a way that's sympathetic, entertaining, and downright illuminating. We've all been hearing, reading, and talking a lot about this war, and Jamgochian's firsthand observations, in this article and the ones a few weeks ago ["Bad Karma," Sept 13; "Stars and Bars," Sept 20], are among the most informative things I've read.

Joshua Okrent, Seattle

EDITORS: I just read Pat Kearney's article "Covering Their Tracks" [City, Nov 15]. It is really amazing what you pass off as journalism. I am stuck in two hours of traffic every day, so I want a solid public transportation system as much as anyone. Light rail, monorail, or whatever gets me there--I don't care.

What is up with Mr. Kearney's documentation of random people's opinions? Since the reports all these experts are talking about are either not out yet or may not exist at all--why not wait to write the article until he has some real evidence to slam Sound Transit? Maybe he should reference these reports, so people who are interested can go and find the details he doesn't think we can digest.

Just give us the facts, and spare us the opinions. You know what they say about opinions.

MTT, via e-mail

TO THE STRANGER: Here's what Emory Bundy didn't tell you [Letters, Nov 22] about the Seattle tunnel study sponsored by Maggi Fimia.

To achieve her dream of 15,000 riders per hour, Maggi's study says that all buses in the tunnel must be packed to the gills with "64 seats and 45 standees for a total of 110 persons in a bus." The maximum would be 146. Talk about sardines!

Currently even the most packed Metro articulated buses rarely exceed 90 passengers. In fact, unlike Fimia, Metro may be thanked for scheduling peak-hour buses so that they are only 80 percent full on average (some standees in the peak direction, but often half empty in the off-peak direction).

Think your bus will continue to use the tunnel under Fimia's plan? Think again: "As the tunnel approaches capacity, it is assumed that only two trunk routes would be operated." That's right--not 25 routes, just two.

Not only that, buses would have to come every 20 to 30 seconds, a feat never before achieved in any bus tunnel with stations. This prospect simply boggles the minds of bus drivers. At a minimum, it would require a whole new technology and a very tightly controlled exclusive busway the whole length of the two trunk lines, just like a traditional subway.

Light rail will not only cost less, but the Sound Transit design will give standees 50 percent more room and a more comfortable ride. Plus, most of these [passengers] will be standing only for a short time.

We haven't even mentioned all the errors in the now nationally infamous DMJM-Harris report (see www.peopleformoderntransit.org/Articles/BTun112001.html).

Dick Burkhart, via e-mail

EDITORS: In the important and otherwise well written article "Patriot Games" [Nov 15], author Nathan Thornburgh seems to be under the frighteningly ignorant misconception that all Muslims are Arabs and all Arabs are Muslims. This may shock Mr. Thornburgh, but most Muslims in the world are not Arabs, and most Arabs in the U.S. are not Muslim. In fact, the store owner targeted by the FBI and Customs Service in Seattle was African (and may have been Muslim), not Arab. Certainly, many people get this confused, but a reporter writing about misconception and prejudice shouldn't.

David Robison, via e-mail

Howdy Stranger: Once again, I am inspired to write by the continuing brillance of Mr. David Schmader. Dear David, you are actually getting better with each column [Last Days]. Your combination of grace and razor wit is maturing and deepening. Thank you for making my Thursday mornings.

David S.

Owner, Vivace Coffee, via e-mail

Hello from Wakayama: The next time you put a few articles together to represent an entire country, could you please put a disclaimer on it? ["Flat, Sexy, Serious," Emily Hall, Nov 8]. I live nowhere near Tokyo, and the people of this area (near Osaka and Kyoto) consider themselves different from Tokyoians. They even have two distinct dialects, which, like American Southerners, they are very proud of (and oddly enough, it's very similar in its effect on city folk). As far as the Candy Kids are concerned, it is very popular to dress outlandishly when you don't have to wear your school uniform (which happens to be ALL THE TIME, except on Sunday, when they don't USUALLY have school).

The point being, these stories you show the Seattleites give them an impression that the things you have reported on are subculture, when actually they are more new culture. It has to do with the gap that exists between the generations. The young Japanese don't have an inkling about what happened [during World War II]!

It comes down to this: there is a resentment that is building as the veils are being lifted from Japan's youth. As they see how their historical and cultural reality has been edited for them, they gain a level of resentment. But because they have grown up in a polite society that dislikes Western-style conflict, they are rebelling in a most amusing and carefree way. To be happy and carefree is the opposite of being a salaryman or office worker--the pinnacle of drudgery.

Another way to look at it: Every time another Japanese person learns an English word, there's a bit of energy that's stored in the group consciousness of Japan, and once the young people realize that they have enough energy stored to change Japan entirely, they will... and with amazing speed and efficiency at that.

Lobu, Japan, via e-mail

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS

In the byline for last issue's Gift Guide [Nov 22], the name of Adrian Ryan was mistakenly omitted. Mr. Ryan did indeed take part in the writing of the Gift Guide, offering his recomendations on both wigs and whores. Also, in the same byline, the name of Meg van Huygen was misspelled. But that's what you get for being named Meg van Huygen. Our apologies to both writers.