Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

What's Bad For the Goose
After seeing your paper take the lead in publishing good information about the horrors of foie gras [Naked City, "Liver Worst," Cory Frolik, Dec. 2, 2004], I was disappointed to see you promote the restaurant Bianca, which features foie gras [Food, "Bianca Slate," Maxine Keyser, March 17, 2005]. There is nothing worthwhile about selling or offering foie gras. It is barbaric. Illinois is now considering a ban of the sale and production of it, as well as New York and Massachusetts. California is banning it in 2012. There is a reason for that — you don't pass state laws for no reason. I am going to enlighten the writer, Ms. Keyser, by forwarding lots of information about the production of foie gras. It will not be pretty.
Beverly Rolfsmeyer
Roxborough

Fanning the Flames With Profanity
Goddammit, that is a good article [Slant, "Smoke This," Brian Hickey, March 10, 2005]! These cocksuckers, one of their strongest arguments is they don't want their clothes to smell like smoke. Fuck the whole lot of them. Are they suddenly going to become interesting between age 65 and 85?
Nick Esposito
Modern Drunkard Magazine

You fucking no-good, filthy, dirty smoker. You should be denied the right to live!!!!! [Smoking] will be banned in a few weeks when the bill passes. Who the fuck cares whether you live or die, you're a piece of shit. Every smoker will be terminated. The time is near.

In another 10 to 12 years, tobacco is going to be banned. I can't wait because when that happens, the suicide rate is going to go up 340 percent. You filthy dirty motherfuckers. I just punched two of you in the mouth this week for being the creeps that you are. We the nonsmokers will get each and every last one of you.
Name Withheld
via e-mail

Movin' on Back
Bravo to Nancy French for her 100-percent on-target opinion piece [Slant, "Life in the Big City," March 17, 2005]. I am another soon-to-be-ex-suburbanite who after three long years in the New Jersey burbs is calling it quits. In 2002, due to a personal family situation, we had to move from Philly to South Jersey (see how I neatly absolved myself of all "flight to the suburbs" guilt and culpability?). I never wanted to live here (my husband suggested it), but after living here (especially as a non-driver), I can honestly say that life here sucks big-time! Where is the convenience of life I knew in the city? The friendly next-door neighbors? The sight of cyclists everywhere? The lower property taxes? What I did in the city as a necessity (cycling and walking "to get places"), people here see as "recreation." I first heard of "powerwalking" when we moved here; I thought that's when you're running to catch a SEPTA bus.

If French is anything like me (and, as an outspoken conservative, she seems to be), she may understand one thing I miss about city life: being able to argue with liberals on the street. They have liberals here, too, but they're the quiet types who live behind doors with security signs on their lawns.

Give me a good old-fashioned, raucous demonstration outside City Hall any day!
Anne Wassermann
Washington Twp., N.J.