Schumann wrote only 300 songs, advice for the Oceanside woman

Sour grapes diversity

“Entry level” used to actually mean “entry-level” just as “diversity” actually used to mean “diversity.” (“College is Over“, Cover Stories, April 11) At first glance the article does give the reader the impression that the recent grads are all entitled, naive kids; And if I were a greedy property owner looking to jack my rent another grand per month after some minor cosmetic improvements, or a large employer looking for justification to further abuse the spirit of American visa laws, I’d be using exactly the same slams as justification.

Speaking of San Diego natives, a large local company with a lesser-used letter of the alphabet in their name likes to tout diversity as one of their selling points so I applied as a diversity candidate -- but when I visited their campus I quickly saw that “diversity” was only true for one or two values of “diversity,” and the only person who looked anything like me was the lone security guard at the front desk. When you see corporate billboards tooting one’s own horn as being a “San Diego Native,” you’d think that these corporations going out of their way to sound warm and fuzzy would at least hire at least a few San Diego natives to round out the diversity a bit. And that diversity should include recent grads who lack the advantage of nepotism (which I believe is called “networking” nowadays) and the three years’ mandatory experience that “entry-level” fresh grads are somehow supposed to magically have. Let the “sour-grapes” hate-mail commence.

• Ignacio “Nacho” Martinez
• City Heights

Schumann’s timeline

I always enjoy Garrett Harris’s column (Schumann vs. Schubert, Classical Music, April 6.) One cavil, though, on this week’s column, in which he wrote, about Schubert, “He basically doubled Schumann’s 300+ songs by writing 600+ songs.” As Schumann didn’t compose his first song until 13 years after Schubert’s death, that sentence might have been phrased more chronologically precisely, “He wrote 600+ songs, twice as many as Schumann eventually did.”

• John Mann
• Linda Vista

Signless and heartbroken

My fellow San Diegans, I am a candidate for San Diego City Council from Point Loma, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach and Clairemont (“Now Jen Campbell’s going after Zapf’s seat,” News Ticker, September 1, 2017). I am writing to apprise you that as a poor and underfunded candidate, my last remaining campaign yard signs placed on private property with permission of the owners are being stolen. This is heartbreaking and demoralizes me. How does a man fight while on his knees? God bless all of you in the City we love so dearly.

• Daniel Smiechowski
• Bay Ho

Trouble with manslaughter

About that guy who has bought the property and converted it over for the homeless (“Matthew Philbin — landlord to the homeless,” Neighborhood News, March 26.) I live — and I was born and raised — in National City, there is no Hollister St. here.

And, if you go 2 blocks west of I-5 the only housing you are going to find is between 13th St. and 24th St. and those are very, very few. Part two of my comments are about the woman who ran over the man in Oceanside (“Trial begins for Oceanside woman who drove with body in her car,” Neighborhood News, March 30.) First of all she should get a better lawyer because when she left her car and went home and was already in her house when she was arrested, they should not have given her a breathalyzer because she was already gone. The police cannot tell or say or verify how much she had to drink at home. Sure she did make the mistake of killing this guy. But, what about the man who ran over that man on Highway 94 about three years ago or two years ago, drove home to Spring Valley, parked his car and was there for over an hour before he drove back to the scene of the crime. And they dismissed all charges against this guy. How about the woman in Los Angeles who hit a man and he went through her window, drove home, entered her garage, went inside, was home for a while until the police showed up and everything was dismissed against her. Why is it that this woman was tried and convicted? Was it because she was a Latina or undocumented? And they are stating that she is undocumented or a DUI. But the DUI should have been thrown out of course since she had already gone home. She was not at the scene of the crime. They cannot prove how much she was drinking.

• Hal
• National City

Crossed words

Your last crossword puzzle was full of errors and the clues did not match the numbers on the puzzle. I have noticed the crossword puzzles are a bit different the past few weeks. Perhaps you have found a new source for your crossword puzzles. I now call them the dangling participle puzzle since most of the clues seem to have them. If you have contracted with a new source, put me down as a vote to bring the old source back.

• Patrick Taylor
• Tierrasanta

Editor’s note: Due to an error by Reader staff, we mismatched the puzzle with the clues in the March 15 issue.

Bring back the JamRock!

Re: “So much for the bull penis tacos,” Waterfront, February 15.

As far as I am concerned, Bull Taco will not be missed at all. Strange menu aside (yuck), they took over the spot of our favorite place to eat on the 101, JamRock Jamaican food.

That place was a little piece of heaven to those of us who enjoy cuisine other than Mexican. No one needs another taco shop; we need variety. Bring back the JamRock!

• [Name withheld]
• Vista