Cockroach Brain Speaks

Maybe it is because I spent several years cold canvassing business firms that Cami Adair’s piece rang true for me (“Please Let Me Sell Them Pest Control,” Cover Story, February 12).

She acquired an education in human nature. The humor, anguish, suspense, and surprise that one encounters when dealing with individuals is presented by her in a sprightly way. Of course, she is sprightly because she hops over fences, lands on her feet, while always being able to muster up a smile.

Humor — She imagined her crew as a bunch of cockroaches slipping into residences. We can only keep our sanity if we can laugh at our place in the world.

Anguish — Without a sale, she will have to post a zero on the sales board. The anticipation of pain will weigh on her for a whole day.

Suspense — Will she be nabbed by the evil homeowner’s association operative?

Surprise — Richard Dreyfuss? Did she make this up? This is just too good! And he laughed at her impersonation of a snail. A star connects with a cockroach.

If that isn’t enough for an A-plus grade, she puts in something profound. Relations with other humans depend, she says, not on the conversation as much as on the metaconversation.

I learned that too in my cold-call days. I think that it took me three years to discover it. Actually, with my small cockroach brain, that is fairly fast.

Bravo, Cami.

Fellow Peddler
Miramar Ranch North

Bugman In Iraq

I really enjoyed Cami Adair’s style of writing, dialogue, story-recounting, and overall point of view in her February 12 pest control article (“Please Let Me Sell Them Pest Control,” Cover Story).

I’m an entomologist with the U.S. Air Force. And I love integrated pest management. Were the pest controllers of the world one of the first groups, if not the first group, to go green? I wonder if this has hindered pest control as a business or helped due to several enviro-friendly products now hitting the marketplaces?

TDM
Iraq

Graceful, Poetic

This week’s “T.G.I.F.” column entitled “Remarkable people were at the Carlsbad station that Friday” (February 12) was graceful, poetic, and refreshing. I don’t usually write letters to the editor, but I’m so moved by the natural flow and imagery of Mr. Brizzolara that I had to sit down and write to you. You’ve got a talented writer in him. I’m already looking forward to next week’s Reader. I’ve not seen such quality writing in any local publication anywhere I’ve lived (NY, TN, NM, MD…), so thanks, and keep it up!

Matt Buchly
via email

My Other Plane’s A Turbo

While your “Clipped Wings” piece (“City Lights,” February 12) pointed out a few conspicuous examples of executive excess, it blatantly ignored the great majority of business aircraft that are used for legitimate purposes. Every day, hundreds of passengers from private and public companies, military organizations, and government agencies, along with several elected officials in state and federal government positions, travel in business aircraft. It’s as though you decided to tar and feather everyone who owns or leases a car in America along with the 1 percent of fat cats who ride around in stretched limos, luxo SUVs, or $200,000 European sedans.

For example, the considerably smaller and less expensive turboprop and turbofan business aircraft, based at local general-aviation airports, including Montgomery Field, Carlsbad’s McClellan-Palomar Airport, Gillespie, and Brown fields, are much more representative of workaday business airplanes. Every day, hundreds of such aircraft enable people to reach destinations much more efficiently and with much greater schedule flexibility than they could on the airlines. These aircraft are anything but polished royal barges for coddled elitists who deem themselves too good for airline travel. Six out of seven of these aircraft are used, not new. They have useful lives of 35 to 45 years, so they aren’t glamorous or gleaming like new models fresh from the factory.

“But, why do we need business aircraft at all, when we have the airlines?” you might ask. Just try taking the city bus — instead of your own car or a cab — to your next business meeting across town or another city in San Diego County. “That’s a ridiculous comparison,” you might respond.

Not so. Airline service is at its worst since the dawn of the jetliner half a century ago. The airlines now provide point-to-point service only between a dozen or so city pairs in the U.S. The airlines now serve less than 300 destinations with any frequency. They simply abandoned smaller cities where their profit margins were lower.

To reach most of those 300 cities, you have to wait in a hub airport as though you were a piece of store-and-forward airfreight. Every year, stormy weather, traffic congestion, broken airplanes, and poor scheduling cause thousands of airline passengers to be stranded in hub airports, thus arriving hours or even days late at their final destinations. Their luggage also gets lost, they have to wait for hours to reschedule, and there may be no seats available on the next flight out.

The folks at Qualcomm, for example, used their business aircraft to support the relief effort for Hurricane Katrina. They carried engineers, tools, supplies, and portable cell phone station parts on their corporate airplanes. They never missed a flight. Qualcomm officials recently testified at a federal government hearing in Burbank, which I attended, that they got more done in three days to support the Katrina relief effort than they could have on the airlines in three weeks.

And while you’re throwing darts at Qualcomm VIPs, you should note that the Jacobses do not use company airplanes for personal trips. They have their own airplane, along with their own cars, that they use for family transportation.

Am I jealous? The Jacobses have a much nicer airplane than my 1973 single-engine Beech. They also have much nicer cars than my 20-year-old Ford. And their home undoubtedly is much nicer than my 1978 Bay Park tract house. I say, hurray for Dr. Jacobs’s enjoying the fruits of his labors. I’m proud that innovative, talented, and hardworking Americans, such as the Jacobses, still can do that in the United States.

I don’t think America would be better off if we forced everybody to travel on the McJet.

Fred George
Bay Park

Seeking Smith

Jeff Smith’s work on theater features, reviews, and history columns are the reason I seek out the Reader. Thank you for him!

Linda Libby
via email

You Missed The Mission

In response to your “Sheep and Goats” article regarding Pastors Sergio and Georgina De La Mora of Cornerstone Church of San Diego (January 29).

With all due respect it was apparent that your purpose to visit Cornerstone was not to receive God’s word but simply to write this article; an article that lacked meaning and insight, which this church lacks none of. Your piece of about 95% quotations was neither informative nor descriptive of the true purpose of my church. Our pastors and church leaders have made it their mission to turn the hearts of families to God, to develop our God-given potential and to advance in the kingdom of God. If we lack tradition, we sure have made up for it in creative and inspirational ways to spread the true message of a church. It’s never too late to start new traditions.

So I invite you, Mr. Lickona, to return to Cornerstone with a different purpose. Come with an open mind and heart remembering those dark valleys you have walked through in your life and instead of drudging through them how great it would have been to be carried through them. I hope that on your next visit you will see and experience the passion of our church from our energetic, Spirit-filled pastor to the 3000 souls, enthusiastically ready to receive their spiritual gift.

Sophia Martinez
via email

I Miss The King

Every week, the first (and sometimes the only) articles I read were “Remote Control King,” “Best Buys,” and “Tin Fork.” I’m sorry to see that column go. It was usually weird but also usually entertaining and funny. Maybe you’ll bring it back?

Christiane
via email

Highlight Disappears

May I add my voice to the many, many others who are lamenting the (involuntary) departure of Ollie. His column (“Remote Control King”) was indeed the highlight of the Reader each week. Clever, irreverent, funny…Ollie! We miss you!

Mary
via email