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Consider the Dark Side

Regarding Don Bauder’s article on Joan and Ray Kroc — Another good synopsis by Don Bauder, considering the massive slaughter and consumption of creatures enabled by McDonald’s, it is truly a strange mix of the Krocs’ charitable giving. Of the two institutions mentioned in the article, consider the dark sides of a Notre Dame and the Salvation Army.

• Teddy Rodosovich
• via voicemail

Bigoted Buffoon

In response to Mark Peter’s letter of November 3, “Get Out and Vote”...

I shake my head in amazement at Peter’s statement that Donald Trump “is truly concerned about the black community.” This is a man who was sued by the federal government in the 1970s for refusing to rent to blacks. Trump’s comments about blacks being inherently lazy and that they can’t help it can be found on the internet.

Get out and vote — but not for this bigoted buffoon.

• Rico G.
• via voicemail

Burns in My Mind 41 Years Later

Most of your readers will not know of the long-ago local author and San Diego reporter, Max Miller. He was one of those sweet, personable characters that enriched the quality of life for all who knew him. The Reader’s Waterfront article, “Killer Whales” (October 27) is an interesting excerpt from Max’s book, The Town with a Funny Name. This is the only other story I know of describing an attack (“fight”) of killer whales feeding close-in to La Jolla’s coast line.

There was another orca encounter that I personally witnessed in the 1970s off the La Jolla Cove. A pod of seven individuals were navigating

leisurely down the coast, very near to shore. Their progress suddenly halted, and a startling and unexplained event unfolded in front of the Sunny Jim Cave just east of the cove.

Quickly and aggressively, the family circled in tight formation, foaming the surface. They seemed to have trapped something in the shallows on the bottom. One, two, or sometimes three at a time the killers started to “stand” perpendicular to the rocky reef below, with heads and nudging bodies pointing straight downward. Their flukes were exposed out of the water and they jerked them delicately back and forth, seemingly to keep their balance.

These actions were urgent. Every few moments another eager individual would trade places in their standing “attack.” I never saw what they were after.

Of course, the cove lifeguards immediately cleared the water ... except for two scuba divers on the surface about 100 [meters] down current from the excited pod. The most brave and expert cove guard, “Uncle” Joe Barnett entered the food chain and paddled a rescue board out to warn the oblivious “bubble butts” of the impending danger. All three levitated back to the safety of land.

After several minutes the pod ended their weird feeding activity and began to swim again towards the cove. They passed near enough to the sandy cove beach that you could see their eyes scanning the crowd when they slowly surfaced to breathe.

The orcas rounded Alligator Point and headed past the famous bodysurfing spot, Boomer Beach. As the group moved westward toward the Children’s Pool and Hospital Point, one of the short-finned females veered away and shot into the high Boomer surf. She started to ride the pressure wave in an underwater take-off sliding to the right, inside the translucent chamber. She never broke the surface.

It was surreal to see the outline of this “black fish’s” massive body with the strobing white flashes of its underbelly shimmering past within the unbroken face of the large, perfect Pacific wave. The disbelieving crowd on the cliff above erupted in great arms-raised cheers. It is an event that still burns in my mind 41 years later.

Bless you, Max Miller, wherever you are.

• Bill Owen
• Retired Lifeguard/Pilot
• South Mission Hills

Truly Evil

While your Evil Sudoku puzzle in your Beer issue (October 27) was hard (three tries and couldn’t finish it), this week’s Evil (November 3) lived up to its name. I couldn’t even figure out where to start. I bet most people thought you published the answer instead of the hardest puzzle yet. Keep up the good work.

• Sam King
• El Cajon

Mediocre Minds

In response to the letter, “Just What Trump Needed,” in the October 27 issue.

Come on now, D.B., pay attention! How many of Trump’s products are manufactured overseas when they could be produced here in the U.S.? Do you think he’s going to change that? Mr. Trump believes that billionaires shouldn’t pay taxes. (You now know that he hasn’t paid federal taxes for years.)

He believes that you should foot the bill because you’re poorer. Does that get your vote? Do you want him to make you even poorer?

Another wealthy, unscrupulous entity the Waltons (Walmart) is in the same unethical league. They are currently the biggest welfare family in the U.S. No decent living wage for their employees. They even instruct them on how to apply for welfare and other benefits.

Mr. Trump lost a billion dollars in the casino business — how? His companies have declared bankruptcy four times (despite daddy’s legacy). Thousands of lawsuits have been filed, thousands of contracted employees have been left unpaid. Would you trust this man with your financial future?

Perhaps other countries are outstripping us because they’re smarter. Perhaps they are great with greater integrity. Mr. Trump has proved yet again how easy it is to con the masses. Mediocre minds are gullible and easily manipulated as long as you push the right buttons at the right time.

Have we forgotten the other xenophobic dictator with the bad haircut and the arrested development? Germany hasn’t. Never mistake mental illness for genuine nationalistic concern. When it’s this crass, it’s not charisma, it’s craziness.

A vote for Trump takes us beyond Bush’s worldwide financial mayhem and the supporting of Isis. It takes us into the biggest Republican inferno of all time. If global warming doesn’t get us first. Enjoy!

• Anna Bowen-Davies
• via voicemail

No Excuse for Tirade

Re: Letter in your October 20 publication, “Watch Your Language”

I am a black male who saw The Birth of a Nation, and I found the movie to be revealing, with a lot of pertinent information about the time of Nate Turner. I even understand why he snapped and did what he did. This movie got a bad review from the Reader, same as 12 Years a Slave did (this was a great movie).

So, I understand the letter writer’s anger at the bad review. But I can not understand his anger that the word “nigger” was used by the critic. That word was used during the whole movie. So, maybe he felt it was alright to use it.

Anyway, there is no excuse for your angry, racist, profanity-laden tirade. If you were on the street talking shit with the homies, that kind of language could be excused. But not in a letter to the Reader. Your letter made you appear as an angry uneducated fool.

• Name withheld
• via email

Missing in Alpine

I’m calling about your distribution. I can no longer seem to find your paper in Alpine. I don’t know if you quit East County circulation, but I would like to see it in Alpine.

• Blake Cournyer
• Alpine

The Reader distributes to the following locations in Alpine:

7-Eleven (14110 Old Highway 80)

Shell (1140 Tavern Road)

Chevron (1145 Tavern Road)

Barons Market (1347 Tavern Road)

CVS (1385 Tavern Road)

Shell (2235 Alpine Blvd.)

Janet’s Montana Cafe (2506 Alpine Blvd.)