Podder’s Pride

Ms. Rejas’s (“Filipino Rules,” Cover Story, March 4) “podder” must be gloating with bragging rights for having a daughter who single-handedly made fun of her family, her upbringing, and her culture in one lame article in the Reader. And here I am, always thinking that having a son as a senior human resources manager (Clorox), another as a mechanical engineer (NavFacEn), and a daughter who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy (class ’99), who presently teaches at a Montessori school, is the way to be very proud of your children.

Ms. Rejas, follow the wish of your “podder” and be a nurse or a nurse’s helper. You’ll never go far with journalism. Stop slighting and insulting Barbarella by copying her style!

• Ben Javier
• via email

Out There

Great job by Maecel Rejas on the cover story about her culture (“Filipino Rules,” March 4). Not many have the guts to put themselves out there, and she certainly did that, and she can be proud of it. Having taken a cold bath in the Mexican culture over the last two decades, I related immediately to the difference between how I was brought up and how others are taught from an early age. I’m sure that she’ll take criticism from her peers and fellow Filipinos and Filipinas, but her effort here should transcend these differences. Teach me what I don’t understand, and I’ll be better off for it. Fear of criticism keeps me ignorant, and I hope you’ll take that criticism in exchange for my enlightenment. Thanks, Maecel. I loved it.

• David Alton Dodd
• via email

More, Please

What a great read (“Filipino Rules,” March 4)! Thanks for putting it on the cover, as I read it right away. More stories from Maecel, please.

• Ryan Velasco
• via email

Jock?

I have a question concerning the March 4 Reader, the cover story “Filipino Rules.” On page 33, in the second paragraph, the girl says, “I knew he didn’t have a girlfriend at the time because my best friend Joann was on his jock.” I’m a little puzzled there. I’m a native English speaker, and I’ve been speaking English for 78 years, and I have no idea what she means there. I don’t speak Tagalog, and I don’t hang around with Filipinos, so maybe it’s Filipino slang. What does that mean?

• Name Withheld
• via voicemail

The Online Slang Dictionary defines the verb “jock” as “to be extremely attracted to someone; have a crush. Also be on (one’s) jock” and gives the example, “She’s on his jock.” — Editor

Too Much Mayoral Muscle

Great story by Don Bauder about how the mayor fired Scott Kessler, a department head who wouldn’t break the law to follow the mayor’s orders (“Too Much Conflict,” “City Lights,” March 4). The department head is suing the City for retaliation against him.

The lawsuit shows the huge powers the mayor has under the strong mayor system, namely, awarding contracts and getting rid of employees who tell him that the contract is illegal. Quoting the lawsuit (page 4), “Mayor Sanders’ office instructed Plaintiff to ‘bend contracting rules’ in violation of San Diego Municipal Code.”

The suit also says that Kessler was told the mayor could not trust him because he cooperated with law-enforcement officers from the police department and the FBI.

I will vote against the June ballot measure to make the strong mayor system permanent. Too much power for one individual.

• Melvin Shapiro
• Hillcrest

The Free Stooges

Don Bauder’s “Too Much Conflict” (“City Lights,” March 4) emphasizes Li Mandri’s Italian background. No mention is made of the Jewish background of other key players in this conflict. It is an indisputable fact that the only ethnic group in the United States that is not protected from lies, stereotypes, and hatemongering is the Italian Americans. Bigoted morons in the New York–Hollywood media, as well as their little stooges in San Diego’s bankrupt media, including you, the Reader, simply do not want to get this message. Whatever the facts are, somehow the FBI, which has a number of homosexuals in its ranks, seems to perpetuate stereotypes. The FBI is corrupt, as is the entire law-enforcement apparatus.

• Name Withheld
• via voicemail

St. Vincent, My Decorator

Regarding Pam Summer’s article “I Am Not a Thrift-Store Junkie,” in the March 4 issue of the Reader, I completely agree with her. Half of my apartment is furnished with items that I have found in either thrift stores or Dumpsters. I like to refinish furniture and reupholster furniture, and a lot of my clothes in my closet are from thrift stores as well.

Just this morning I was at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store on 16th Street downtown, and I got some cleaning products for my house, a lot of which were surplus from a larger store, and a DVD that I plan on watching later on tonight. The total was $6; I bartered the cashier down to $5 because all I had was a $5 bill in my wallet, and they said, “Yeah, go ahead.”

Prior to that, I had been working on a ranch, and after digging a ditch, working a shovel in Converse All Stars, I realized I needed some better shoes. So I went to that same St. Vincent de Paul thrift store and got a pair of Avia tennis shoes for $15, and I love them. And those are probably $60 tennis shoes brand-new. And they were in almost brand-new condition.

I almost never go to department stores to buy clothes. I will always hit up the thrift stores first, and if I can’t find what I’m looking for, then I’ll go to the department stores. In the same way, I’ll go to farmers’ markets first, and if I can’t get what I’m looking for, then I’ll go to the grocery stores.

San Diego has a wealth of locally owned and locally beneficial merchandisers, and I would like to give kudos to Ms. Summers for bringing that to the forefront in this week’s issue of the Reader.

• Scott Weselis
• East Village

Kome To The Korral

A message for Pam Summers on thrift stores (“I Am Not a Thrift-Store Junkie,” Feature Story, March 4). Apparently you have not visited the best of all San Diego thrift stores — the Sharp Hospital’s Thrift Korral on La Mesa Boulevard in La Mesa. You are invited, and we will give you a tour of a most amazing operation.

• Sam R. Porter and 55 other volunteers

Much Ado About Pittman

I have a comment on your puzzle page “Brainstorms” in the March 4 Reader. I think you may have a mistake in here. You start out saying, “This is the word for ‘word’ in shorthand,” and then you have something looks something like a number 2 written in penmanship, and then you say, “Armed with just that little bit of information, a person even totally unfamiliar with Gregg” blah blah blah. I don’t think that’s Gregg shorthand what you show there. I started to do the puzzle, and I took my late mother’s Gregg shorthand textbook out for some help, and that looks nothing like the symbol for “word” in Gregg shorthand, at least the book I have here.

My mother went to high school and after that business school, from 1923 through about 1929. She said at that time they taught Pitman shorthand — the Gregg existed but the school she went to taught Pitman. But later in life she decided to study Gregg.

Anyway, I’ve got my mother’s Gregg shorthand book. It was printed in 1945, and it’s the 1929 revision. The symbol they show for “word” is completely different from the thing you show in the Reader. You go from left to right: first you make a little loop that looks like the top half of the letter O, and at the right end of that loop you draw a stroke, a straight line going up from left to right at a 45-degree angle. It looks nothing like the thing you show in the Reader. The little loop is for wer and the straight line is for d and that’s it. The symbol that you show is the Gregg symbol for “we will.”

• Name Withheld
• via voicemail

The hint that this was not really Gregg shorthand was the final line of the instructions: “No knowledge of shorthand is required. Take our word for it.” — Editor

Mold Miseries

I enjoyed your article “Home Owner Association Horror Stories” (Cover Story, February 18). I have one that is really severe. The property became mold-infested. They knew there were risk factors for water intrusion because they had contractors come out and investigate. And there were no drains around my unit — it was on a water table, and there were multiple risks for water intrusion and mold. But they didn’t tell me, even though they knew I had a history of mold allergy.

So I began reporting the musty odor, and I had symptoms for almost three years without realizing mold was growing in the unit. I visited immunologists, orthopedic surgeons, dermatologists, and ENT people. They couldn’t find a reason for my incessantly runny nose and sinus infections and body aches and pains.

So then at a town hall meeting, they reveal the fact that there are all these risk factors in the community, and my house is one of the biggest worries. They wanted a special assessment, and I had just received documents from an industrial hygienist stating that there’s a 50 percent probability of mold in the house. They really didn’t do anything about it, and I was forced to move from the property because the musty smell was present even with the windows open 24/7. They didn’t actually go in and test until a year later, after a lawsuit was filed, and they tested and there was extensive mold. But they didn’t do anything to take care of the sources of moisture intrusion, so after sitting another year, mold regrew.

I was paying mortgage and taxes and homeowner association fees all the time on a property that I couldn’t rent or I couldn’t live in, and in addition to the cost I was incurring living in another home. And I am right now just about broke.

I think this is a case of absolutely ignoring health risk to a person who is at high risk for mold problems and not maintaining the property well — or the whole community well — for a period of 20 years, so that it was really in very bad disrepair.

• Gloria Darovic
• Oceanside

Pump It

Re “A Town Left Dry” (“City Lights,” February 11).

In Borrego Springs, there is no connection between the cost of water and citrus growers and tree growers (there is no farming). They get their water free and only pay for the power to pump it. The exception was Montesoro. They used the water district for their water because they never wanted to pay for their own infrastructure. The growers (citrus and trees) have never given data on how much water they pump. The water is free so they don’t care and do not want anyone to know. They feel about water as humans do about air: it’s free, why bother?

• Name Withheld
• via email