MERITS OF URBAN HUNTING

BRENDAN: That ["The Urban Hunt," Brendan Kiley, Sept 28] was fascinating. Absolutely fascinating!

I have always known that if it were up to me to have to kill my own protein I would not be able to do it, but it does not make me any less aware of what each "mouthful of death" costs. That is why I try to do my part to be a productive member of society; I'll entertain your kids or help make your house look better while you are out killing dinner. I have also always thought that it is such a shame that we are so frickin' snobby in this country about what we eat. Why isn't rabbit right there with the chicken and pork at any grocery? If you are in Fremont again I have a couple of raccoons I would let you experiment with.

Thanks much for that amazingly entertaining and insightful article.

Annett

FROM THE RABBIT COUNCIL

BRENDAN KILEY: I was most impressed, and provoked to deep thought, by your urban-hunting article.

Domestic rabbits are usually killed by cervical dislocation or blunt trauma to the skull during commercial slaughter. It's incredibly quick and very humane when done properly. Other places may also use electrical stunning followed by immediate exsanguination (bleeding) and/or decapitation.

I just wish that more cities and towns would allow limited rabbit rearing (yes, there is such a thing) so that everyone who wishes can produce clean, healthy protein for their families and themselves.

Pamela Alley, RVT

Director, Rabbit Industry Council

WELL-PREPARED IN CALGARY

EDITOR: I suppose I could be referred to as an urban farmer, with many of the same concerns raised by Mr. Kiley. In case of disaster, our family will be able to feed ourselves. We have a small rabbitry in the backyard, raising meat rabbits. The manure is used to fertilize our vegetable garden, and we have a few bug-eating pet chickens that provide fresh eggs. We would also be capable of urban hunting to supplement our diet.

Too few urbanites consider where their food comes from; how fortunate they are that they can just go to a grocery store or restaurant.

Leona DeKoter

URBAN REPENTANCE

HI BRENDAN: Just wanted to say not only did I learn three new words (interlocutor, fecund, dowager), but I was also won over by your toggle of arguments about vegetarians vs. meat eaters, urban vs. wilderness hunting, etc. You really walked the walk on this one. This is the first time I am actually writing a journalist about an article, by the way. I was truly moved.

Jon E. Rock

LOCK HIM UP

EDITOR: It is unclear to me why you would allow a dangerous lunatic like Brendan Kiley to roam about armed. The best place for Mr. Kiley is undoubtedly some sort of home for the bewildered, not, gun in hand, on our nation's streets. Please rectify before a disaster of Cheneyesque proportions is visited upon some unsuspecting soul. Great article though.

Simon

AW, SHUCKS

BRENDAN: Your piece about urban hunting is simply amazing. Beautiful, simple, human, haunting, and matter of fact. Thanks.

Bart Reynolds

Read dozens more responses to "The Urban Hunt."

CHANGING TOPICS

DEAR EDITORS: Like a pubescent mathlete getting punched in the headgear by Mr. Popular, we were secretly pleased (in a sick way) to learn that your "columnist" Christopher Frizzelle still thinks enough of Cranky Literary Journal to include a facile, snarky, and insulting aside in The Stranger's annual back-to-school guide: "So You've Decided to Adopt Literary Pretensions" (snort) [Sept 21].

Based on Mr. Frizzelle's never-ending sniping, it is clear that if one holds a party in a public place, one runs the risk of upsetting the sensibilities of quietly inward, cheap-leather-jacket-wearing hipster wannabes, as was the case that fateful night nearly three years ago, when the "columnist" went to Cafe Septieme to brood over a clove cigarette and mojito and instead found people having a good time celebrating Cranky's first issue. As an example of our generosity, we'd like to point out that we held the "unending" issue–seven-debut reading at Richard Hugo House so as to avoid a similar pout.

O, nostalgia is delicious, yes, and while we do get misty-eyed recalling the heady days when we were first smacked down by The Stranger, we fear that by dis(mis)sing every issue of Cranky as "mediocre," Mr. Frizzelle may lead tender youngsters to believe that he's actually pulled his head out of poor Charles D'Ambrosio's ass long enough to read one or more of the last five. And that ain't right.

Would it kill this pretentious twat to put some content in his column for once? How long does it take him to write this shit? Why does he coincidentally promote bookstores and readings that buy ad space in The Stranger? And, more to the point, who wants to help us give him an atomic wedgie? It may be the best thing that's happened to him all year.

Amber Curtis, Amy Schrader, Cat Jones

Editors, Cranky Literary Journal