January 7, 2003

talkback...

Are eggs evil?

Forty-eight hours after she moved in, I invited my new roommate to join me in a weekend morning breakfast of French toast. "Eggs are evil," she snapped. Thank you, Paul Reidinger, for saying what needs to be said here in self-righteous Veganland, even if it was tossed off in a tiny paragraph at the end of a Without Reservations column (12/18/02). "It is disturbing to be reminded that life is founded on death. Yet it is: everything we eat, whether animal or plant, was alive at some point."

Indeed, you should devote an entire column to the subject sometime. You may not want to, but you may have to – the shrill response from amongst your readers' Level Five Vegans (remember the Simpsons episode? "I don't eat anything that casts a shadow") must be pouring in already.

Bart Snowfleet

San Francisco

Muni isn't fixed

Earth to Mayor Brown, Earth to Mayor Brown: The Muni is not fixed yet. I repeat: The Muni is not fixed yet and does not warrant a fare increase ("Don't Raise Muni Fares," 1/1/03). Just because you have heard that the Muni is now all wonderful and reliable does not mean that it actually is. Sans the public events, have you ever taken the Muni? Waiting 45 minutes for a surface bus at rush hour is common, especially when it's raining, of course. The only reason this taxpayer can make it downtown to work and back in a decent time frame is because the majority of my ride is on BART.

I tell you what, Mr. Mayor. Before you finally leave office, why don't you get out of the comfort of that limousine and take Muni for one week. No fanfare and no publicity. I'll bet that after one week you'll want to lower the fare and say you're sorry.

Come to think of it, though, I would probably lose that bet. After all, it was you, Mr. Mayor, who announced that the Muni could be fixed in 100 days and that there were no homeless in Golden Gate Park and on Market Street.

David Pomeroy

San Francisco

Joe Strummer's legacy

I'd like to praise Jeff Chang's comments on Joe Strummer and the Clash ["Give 'Em Enough Hope," 1/1/03]. Not only do I find them to be the best written of your writers' efforts, but I believe that they are the best I've read on the subject in any media.

By contrast, it would be easy to disagree with much of what Kimberly Chun has written – i.e., the Clash would seem "almost quaint" compared to Eminem (who I like) and J. Lo (who is ... er ... a capable actress and model). I really don't remember the Clash playing stadiums at the time of London Calling and Sandinista. In fact, after appearing live in Dallas first at Perry Cloud's Palladium, near the upper-middle-class neighborhood that Vanilla Ice was living in at the time, Joe very perceptively complained to my local newspaper, "They were trying to be so cool, just sitting at their tables sipping their piña coladas...." When the Clash returned to Dallas, it was at the Bronco Bowling Alley in Oakcliff (think Oakland to Dallas's San Francisco – even though, yes, this flatters both north Texas cities).

I don't believe the Clash "had all the answers" (or believed that they did – wasn't even Joe's rhetoric in Rude Boy oddly undecisive – "The left's gotta be better than the right, doesn't it?" and "I don't know, they're communists.... I just like the shirt....", etc.); but most of all where Chun's piece shows major inferiority to Chang's writing is her ridiculous summation that the Clash's music "hasn't aged particularly well" because, she charges, current bands cover the Sex Pistols (or Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath?) before they cover the Clash.... (Can you say, Ms. Chun, that maybe current bands aren't smart enough to cover the Clash?)

M. Kevin Tutor

San Francisco

Pelosi the bagwoman

The recent exchange on the goodness of Nancy is astounding [Letters, 12/25/02]. It is not an accident that our congresswoman and the national leader of the Democratic Party is known as the bagwoman of the Democrats. She has taken millions of dollars from the major corporations, and her votes show it, including her support for NAFTA. On top of this, we must not forget that she voted for the PATRIOT Act and the Homeland Security Act, and has said she will be shoulder to shoulder with Bush if he decides to invade Iraq.

Last but not least, Nancy has also declared her support for the $14 billion loan to Israel to continue its ethnic cleansing. I guess Israel's needs rate higher than the workers at United Airlines and the state of California.

Steve Zeltzer

San Francisco

For the record

In "Justice Pursues New Times-VVM inquiry" (1/1/03), the law firm representing New Times Inc. in a legal dispute with the Bay Guardian was incorrectly identified. The New Times firm is Fenwick and West.