Gualdo supporters, "Other ones were too afraid to drive."

Heads up Trump

During the afternoon of Saturday, Jan 2, I received an email request from for information regarding the gathering of Venezuelans in Waterfront Park, for the purpose of manifesting our gratefulness to the countries that have supported our struggle for democracy in Venezuela and recognized Juan Guaido, President of the National Assembly, as interim president of the country. The result of the informal request, was a lengthy interview that touched many aspects of the situation in Venezuela. This interview was published in the the San Diego Reader on Monday, February 4th (“San Diego Venezuelans grateful to Trump,” Neighborhood News.) My impression of the Reader publication was that its content generally reflected my personal views on the Venezuelan situation and I thank the SD Reader for helping us in raising public awareness in this regard.

Notice sent out by Groening. "Gualdo has been in protests like everyone else."

At the same time, however, I am compelled to raise my objection to the title of the article, as it touches aspects of US internal politics that distracts from its real content. A title like “San Diego Venezuelans grateful to Trump” is bound to create an unnecessary rift between those that sympathize with the president and those on the opposite side, as it focuses on Mr. Trump’s foreign policy and not on the Venezuelan struggle. After all, the lion’s share of the article reflects important aspects of the latter. Some will probably even stay away from the article, considering the state of polarization of American politics.

Of course, it would be petty not to commend the president and his team for the strong show of support of the Venezuelan cause. It certainly has proven critical and we are very thankful for it, as expressly manifested in the article. At the same time, we must add that the support of most of the Latin American countries, the Lima Group, the European Community (with few exceptions), Australia and Japan, have been extremely important. As you can see, we are mentioning countries or organizations, not their presidents. In this sense, we are commending the strong support of the United States and its people, and not of specific parties. In view of all the above considerations I respectfully ask you to change the title of the article, to one that faithfully reflects the content of the interview and also to publish this letter.

• Ana Groening
• San Diego

Spoiler alert

I enjoy doing the crosswords in your paper, but lately I have had a problem. I can’t truly enjoy the puzzle unless I carefully cut out the top of the puzzle page from behind before I have chance to look at it. The puzzles used to run without a title, but lately, you have started printing the titles of the puzzles at the top. Often these are a dead giveaway to the answer of a key word or phrase in the puzzle. For instance, last week’s puzzle was titled “Craft Shows”; and the answer to 58-across was “craft shows”. When a crossword puzzle has a title, it is traditionally a hopefully clever reference to the theme, and maybe a help in solving, but it shouldn’t include any actual words contained in any answers. If the constructor of these puzzles, David Levinson Wilk, is naming them himself, then I would hope he doesn’t expect the titles to be published. If possible, please go back to having no titles for your crosswords. I don’t care whether you print this letter, but I hope you read it, understand it, and pass it along to someone who can change how the puzzle is printed.

• Jerry Lee
• San Diego

Is designer sea salt basically the same thing as what's in a packet from a take-out joint?

ArtCookStudio/iStock/Thinkstock

Salty vocabulary

Re the “Sea Salt Scam” article (Straight from the Hip, May 1, 2003). That author got a lot right but somewhat missed the target – by a mile actually. Yes there are scams and yes there are those afficiandos who loudly claim they know what’s right. BUT. Processed salt, common table salt and the like, usually proclaim that they are 99% pure, ie near as damn it 99% chemical sodium chloride with a few extra chemicals tossed in for good measure. Un-processed sea salt should contain a great deal more than a few extra bits of no importance except the dirt or mud or whatever as your writer suggests. And is therefore a lot less than 99+% pure chemicals and NaCL in particular. The human body is about 60% water and hey guess what it resembles un-processed sea water except with less sodium. So who is pulling the scam?? Maybe a chemical manufacturer perhaps?

• Peter Tomkinson
• Australia

Briggs: “Hoteliers are making money and renting rooms because our city is so wonderful that people want to come here."

Crusty coursework

Hey man, I’ve been following San Diego politics since 1967 when Tiny Tim ruled our City (“Briggs runs for Mayor,” News Ticker, January 31). I like this cat Briggs, he’s a cool cucumber and besides if Donna supports him, well, he can’t be that bad! Except ground control to Major Tom, we have a problem. Cory is not politically correct. He’s a middle-aged straight white guy and that is bad, real bad! Yet, my best friend died of AIDS. Listen, San Diego, you gotta be honest, man! Just tell the truth. Everybody is so obsessed with hurting someone’s feelings. The lady in La Jolla running for mayor and Saint Todd have got this bagged as one of them will prevail. I’m betting on the boys at Vermont and University to stand true and carry the 1000 watt Gullwing smile to the line. Briggs would have been a shoe in fifty years ago but, well let’s not offend anyone!

• Daniel J. Smiechowski
• Bay Ho

San Diego River flows over Avenida Del Rio in 2010. Typically, Mission Valley flooding is more of a traffic hassle than an aquatic apocalypse.

Photograph by Chris Woo

Channeling concrete

I moved to San Diego at the end of summer in 1970 and Moss Gropen’s article on Mission Valley flooding brought back memories (“Why do we keep building in Mission Valley?” City Lights, January 10). At the time there were two political hot buttons in town, one was the kick-backs to the mayor from Yellow Cab. The other was the proposal by the Army Corps of Engineers to construct a concrete channel through much of Mission Valley, similar to what they’d constructed in a few places in L.A. Their argument was the “100 Year flood” level extended across the width of the valley from wall to wall and that needed to be prevented. However there was an unheard of alliance between environmental groups and developers in opposing the Corps’s plan. Very different reasons of course, but neither wanted to see a wide concrete channel through the middle of Mission Valley. I don’t recall all the details but it was finally resolved by the City of SD agreeing to limit further development within MV. We can see today how well that worked out. The interesting thing is it shouldn’t take an engineer to appreciate that replacing grasslands and open soil with hard surfaces from buildings, freeways, streets, parking lots, etc. would mean that all the incoming water from upstream would simply rush through, with little or no chance for any to be absorbed into the ground along the way. And so today we live with sudden street closures and flooded parking lots. But does anyone wonder what might happen if we ever do experience that 100 year flood?

• Name withheld
• University City