Letters

Thankth

The gopher on the front page (October 29) is missing his or her two front teeth.

Don D’Ercole
via email

How Silly Of Us

Re “The Scariest Part of Halloween” (“City Lights,” October 29).

Note about line in article “Ghosts with names like carbon black and terephthalate haunt us all year long.”

The name “terephthalate” is a misnomer, as it is not really a “phthalate.” Terephthalate is actually polyethylene terephthalate, or polyester, a plastic used to make all soda and water bottles. Again, it does not contain phthalates (if anything it contains aldehydes).

The bad phthalates you can read about on the EU RAPEX website, where you can see all this junk coming in from China.

Name Withheld by Request
via email

No Negativity, Please

I’m startled that the article on my brother, Robert Campos, and his celebration of life party (“Crasher,” October 15) confused Mr. Darrell Gentry (“Letters,” October 29). The article was written by a “party crasher.” He wasn’t there to do an in-depth report and personal interviews. In fact, it was a last-minute decision to attend. Perhaps some people were not pleased that not enough was written about them.

Mr. Josh Board showed a lot of heart by crashing and writing about my brother’s special gathering. It was a kind gesture. I was touched by the way he made the connection between my brother and little Elmar. That was the most special moment of the entire evening. Also, the description of Roberto, reminding him of a Mexican Jim Morrison, was right on!

Let’s please stop bashing the author and understand his true intentions. Any negativity goes against all the positive energy we’re trying to surround Robert with. I see and hear so many things that are so contradictory, but this is a time to focus on my brother’s needs and not our own. It is wrong to do otherwise. I thank Mr. Gentry, Mr. Board, and everybody that was there for having taken part in Roberto’s celebration… it was truly special.

Angela C. Armstrong
via email

Love It, Hate It

I loved the Reader’s prize-winning tamales story (“Tamales, Tacos, Flies,” Feature Story, October 15) by Ms. Lopez (the “caregiver”) and Mr. Sorensen’s pitch-perfect appreciation for living among Mexicans in Baja (“Please Don’t Tell Anyone That Old Surfers End Up Here,” Cover Story, October 8). I also loved the cover photo of horrified fans fending off a broken baseball bat in Matthew Lickona’s piece on our loser ball club (“Foul Ball,” October 15), but I have to cavil with his prissy dissection of objectionable lyrics in great anthems like “We Are the Champions” and “Hells Bells” and “My Sharona.” It ain’t the words, Matthew, it’s the music.

Monaghan
via email

Anonymous Clarification

I want to clarify my letter “Clown Council” dated September 17. All the info I provided was from the U-T paper from over the last one to two years. First of all, I am a nonsmoker and quite honestly could give a hoot about the law in general. I do care about the way it was passed. Some people don’t realize that the rough draft of the smoking ban included private backyards, which they omitted from the law. Even Mr. Kendrick stated in the Reader article (“I Blow Smoke on Your Law,” “City Lights,” August 27) that he wanted to pass a ban on smoking at apartment complexes (in- and outside).

Now, to clarify “religious fanatics.” A year or so ago the El Cajon City Council allowed Bible history programs to be aired on their public-access station (it wasn’t a leased time slot). The city attorney at the time recommended pulling it, and they did. During public-comment time at city council meetings, a city councilman gave Bible history speeches (all of this can be found in the U-T archives).

My main intention of writing the first letter was to highlight the failures and misdeeds this city council has done to its citizens. Again, El Cajon needs leaders on its city council with their own ideas, not followers, and unfortunately there are some of both. There are far more important problems in El Cajon than a need for a smoking ban that has no teeth and is hard to enforce.

Name Withheld
via email