Letters

The Ultimate Dumpster

I’m calling about this article about Dumpster divers (“Dumpster Diving for Dinner,” Cover Story, June 26). If you can get ahold of these guys, tell them to go to the Trader Joe’s at Liberty Station, because these people I know are getting, like, three hundred dollars’ worth of food out of there every night — salmon, steaks, everything. All these guys are vegans, but there’s tons of produce and fruit, and it’s all good. It’s all packaged. It gets outdated that day, and they throw it out, and they go about midnight and grab ’em. My friends took off back to Oregon, so nobody’s getting it, so if those guys want, they can get whatever they want. They throw more food out there than you could ever believe.

Steve Carol

Full Of Poison And Bugs

I haven’t read the article about Dumpster diving (“Dumpster Diving for Dinner,” Cover Story, June 26), but I’m going to. I’m just looking at the cover. I’m a security officer, and I work with a lot of people on the street. But that picture, and whoever was thinking of it — I’ve stopped people from eating bugs, everything that’s in there. There’s nothing consumable in a Dumpster. Absolutely nothing. I haven’t read the story, but that just, to me, shouldn’t have been done, because that stuff is rotten and it’s horrible, and I keep people from poisoning themselves every day. We keep them locked up at the shopping center. You don’t eat stuff in the Dumpster. There’s nothing edible in there, ever, anywhere. And that shouldn’t have been written, giving someone the idea that that’s an option, because it’s not. And it’s not necessary, because they have food places to go to.

Robert
Kearny Mesa

I Couldn’t Find The Hyatt

While I read Naomi Wise’s superb reviews almost religiously, this week I got very confused (Restaurant Review, June 26). She mentions how difficult finding the Red Marlin is due to poor signage, etc., but I was puzzled about which Hyatt it was even located in. I couldn’t find it in the article and had to Google Red Marlin to find out it was in the Mission Bay area. Anyway, Naomi’s opinions have provided innumerable pleasant outings over the years, and I feel San Diego is the richer for having her here and on staff for the Reader. Thanks to you and to her.

Eric Jones
Tierrasanta

The restaurant’s address is provided in the info box, located to the right of the review in the print version of the paper and at the end of the review in the online version. — Editor

Much Cheering In This Library

To begin — I love this article (“No Shushing in This Library,” Cover Story, June 19)! Let me get this out of the way before I gush.

As library services director for a consortium of 75 public libraries in northern New Jersey and a former New York Times Librarian of the Year, I want to thank the Reader for this wonderful article.

I have been a librarian for a very long time, and this may just be the best article of its nature that I have ever read.

Creative, engaging from the first sentence, fun, informative, well-researched, and so well written, this piece should be submitted for an award.

Alex knows what most good librarians know — that every library, no matter the size, can make a profound difference in the lives of the people it serves. When I was a library director, I always said that my library, a small storefront library in a very poor town, was like Cheers without the alcohol. I know what a difference we made every day for the people who used our library. I use the example of when the earthquake in El Salvador struck. We had a line of people waiting to use the Internet to email back home to El Salvador to find out if their family members were alive or dead. But that’s just one example; every librarian has loads.

I have forwarded Finlayson’s piece to my colleagues with a caveat that it is long and wonderful and a must read.

Thank you for being such a visionary editor, and please thank Alex Finlayson for her exuberance and intelligence, both of which shine through big-time in this article.

Again, I loved this article! Congrats!

Arlene Sahraie
Library Services Director
Bergen County Cooperative Library System
Hackensack, New Jersey