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Letters
“Frisco”? Yikes!
Re “Two Toronados” (Restaurants, March 22).
Imagine the scene. A tourist from San Diego visits Toronado, a venerable San Francisco institution, insults the hosts by calling the city “Frisco,” revealing himself as a hick from the sticks and a backwater yahoo, suffers well-deserved castigation in the form of indifferent service, scurries back to San Diego with his tail between his legs vowing revenge by writing a facile “analysis” of the differences “in the very fiber of their underlying cultures.” This is an article about two beer joints, for Pete’s sake, lighten up! You spend a couple of hours in a great city, and suddenly you’re a cultural expert. What cultural “expert” calls San Francisco “Frisco”?
As a former resident of the City and a frequent visitor to the Toronado, I can tell you about some of the differences between the two bars. Toronado San Francisco is a San Francisco institution located in a world-famous neighborhood — Haight-Ashbury. Toronado San Diego is a lightweight Johnny-come-lately located in a nondescript area of North Park, hardly a sought-after tourist destination. As for the “laid-back” Southern California ambiance (what writer uses this tired old cliché?), this flies in the face of the high-tension rat race San Diego has become. And what the heck do you mean by “modern-day sensibility”? This is just a sound bite, devoid of meaning and weak writing.
However, all this is understandable, a recurring case of San Diego’s inferiority complex, a need to compare costume jewelry to a diamond. Let’s be real: we are a blister on the border with a “culture” of fish tacos, fire pits, and football. Please, Mr. Hernandez, do us all a favor and stay out of places you don’t understand if all you can do is criticize. And here is a another “cultural” difference: San Franciscans don’t call San Diego “Dago”; they have more class. Pity you don’t.
Rico Gardiner
San Diego
I Consult, I Don’t Lobby
Please make the following correction from your March 1 edition. I was listed as a lobbyist, but that is not the case (“Horn’s Immortal Campaign,” “Under the Radar”). I am a small business consultant and help with strategy. I do not lobby.
George Plescia
Matt Potter responds: Bill Horn’s campaign disclosure filing of January 12, 2012, reported Plescia’s occupation to be “consultant” to California Policy Advisors at the time of his contribution. According to the Sacramento-based firm’s website, “Our ability to lobby, advocate and build support for critical state or local government affairs efforts is second to none.”
Treading On The Downtrodden
I’ve read your paper for several years, and from time to time your covers are psychologically negative or create negative feelings when it serves nothing more than to stir people up, such as the cover on March 29 (“People Will Tell You That You’re Late”). What is the point in creating more negative feelings when many are greatly feeling the financial pinch and are feeling very downtrodden at the moment? Yes, I am aware that a number of the upper socioeconomic status are doing well financially, but many, many of the lower socioeconomic status are not, and much of your reading public in the East County are of this lower socioeconomic status. The last thing they need is someone or something they look to to bring them further down.
You have a public responsibility, and part of that is to assist the public. Which, in part, is to uplift the people when they need it. Yes, it’s to bring the truth, too, but when people are so downtrodden all they can think of is putting food on the table, then uplifting is what is needed most at that point in time.
Many of your readership are of this downtrodden socioeconomic status. Maybe you are unaware of this, and if you are, then you need to survey your readership so you can be more sensitive and aware who are the majority of your readership and what is their current mind-set. Such as in the East County, where many are still feeling financial stress and feeling downtrodden. Many have just given up, and like sheep or Pavlov’s dog, accept what is being given them, as many have no fight left. Thus, the current mind-set of your readership needs to be uplifted, at least on the cover.
If you feel the need to include things that are negative because you feel the need to inform the masses, I understand that, and those points of view and the facts should absolutely be included inside the paper, but many don’t read your paper, and many just look at the cover. Do you really need to bring so many people down with your negativity and dissatisfaction?
Yes, of course we have problems with our government and government services. There’s a great deal of graft, which is really just downright raping the public, especially the pocketbooks of the poor. Yet, at the same time, when you compare many of the services in the U.S. to other countries, say, Egypt or Mexico, etc. (the list is endless), our services are still quite superior. Not to say that many, many parts of city, state, and U.S. government offices and services don’t need a great deal of work and investigation into the graft, because they certainly do, but what the people need even more right now, when many people are just struggling to put food on their table, is some positive, uplifting words and thoughts that you are in a unique position to offer.
Please, in the future consider the impact you are having on the public in general. The masses, especially in areas like East County, need uplifting when they can see how a number of San Diegans are doing well, yet many, many are still downtrodden. Do you not have some responsibility to help uplift these people in some fashion, so they can gain the strength, desire, and drive to fight the corruption and graft?
Jan S-Dell
via email
Medicine + Moo = Millions
Regarding your Reader dated March 8, on page 2, “Under the Radar,” where it lists the medical millionaires, and specifically Dr. Stuart W. Jamieson, who heads the UCSD School of Medicine’s division of cardiothoracic surgery, with total pay of over a million dollars. He has the formula down pat, as he sidelines as a cattle rancher! A good formula for creating your own business. I certainly hope people don’t read The China Study by Campbell.
On page 4, under the letters to the editor, is a letter entitled “It’s a Cult, People.” I would just like to make a short reply. Dear Name Withheld, for your information, all religions are cults.
Ted Rodosovich
University City
Up With Hindis
I was shocked and dismayed by this letter (March 8), written by an anonymous writer who is either an ignorant or a biased person who does not have moral courage or knowledge of this world’s oldest religion, Hinduism, which is over 5000 years old. There are about 1.5 billion followers around the world. Their holy scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, is the oldest scripture of all the major religions of the world. The greatest follower of this religion was Mahatma Gandhi. Upon his passing, the greatest scientist, Albert Einstein, called him “the greatest man who ever walked on the face of this earth.” I feel the Reader owes an apology to all the followers of this great religion.
M.G. Bhakta
via fax
No Notes, No Play
I’ve been doing the Sudoku puzzles for years, but I’ve stopped submitting them only because you’ve removed the notes that everybody used to be able to write. I’ve got a suggestion. People who do the Sudoku puzzles know if it’s right or wrong because, for example, if you end up with two nines in the same row, you know you’ve done it wrong. It’s kind of redundant that in each week’s puzzles you show last week’s. Those four grids that waste all that space, I think instead you could put back people’s comments. I think people really miss them. It’s the best of both worlds. From what I can see, I see a dwindling winning of the baseball caps that you give out now. To me, that’s an indication that people aren’t submitting them as much anymore, so I would think that would bring back the popularity.
Joe Arbusto
Rancho Peñasquitos
Here's something you might be interested in.
Letters
Letters
“Frisco”? Yikes!
Re “Two Toronados” (Restaurants, March 22).
Imagine the scene. A tourist from San Diego visits Toronado, a venerable San Francisco institution, insults the hosts by calling the city “Frisco,” revealing himself as a hick from the sticks and a backwater yahoo, suffers well-deserved castigation in the form of indifferent service, scurries back to San Diego with his tail between his legs vowing revenge by writing a facile “analysis” of the differences “in the very fiber of their underlying cultures.” This is an article about two beer joints, for Pete’s sake, lighten up! You spend a couple of hours in a great city, and suddenly you’re a cultural expert. What cultural “expert” calls San Francisco “Frisco”?
As a former resident of the City and a frequent visitor to the Toronado, I can tell you about some of the differences between the two bars. Toronado San Francisco is a San Francisco institution located in a world-famous neighborhood — Haight-Ashbury. Toronado San Diego is a lightweight Johnny-come-lately located in a nondescript area of North Park, hardly a sought-after tourist destination. As for the “laid-back” Southern California ambiance (what writer uses this tired old cliché?), this flies in the face of the high-tension rat race San Diego has become. And what the heck do you mean by “modern-day sensibility”? This is just a sound bite, devoid of meaning and weak writing.
However, all this is understandable, a recurring case of San Diego’s inferiority complex, a need to compare costume jewelry to a diamond. Let’s be real: we are a blister on the border with a “culture” of fish tacos, fire pits, and football. Please, Mr. Hernandez, do us all a favor and stay out of places you don’t understand if all you can do is criticize. And here is a another “cultural” difference: San Franciscans don’t call San Diego “Dago”; they have more class. Pity you don’t.
Rico Gardiner
San Diego
I Consult, I Don’t Lobby
Please make the following correction from your March 1 edition. I was listed as a lobbyist, but that is not the case (“Horn’s Immortal Campaign,” “Under the Radar”). I am a small business consultant and help with strategy. I do not lobby.
George Plescia
Matt Potter responds: Bill Horn’s campaign disclosure filing of January 12, 2012, reported Plescia’s occupation to be “consultant” to California Policy Advisors at the time of his contribution. According to the Sacramento-based firm’s website, “Our ability to lobby, advocate and build support for critical state or local government affairs efforts is second to none.”
Treading On The Downtrodden
I’ve read your paper for several years, and from time to time your covers are psychologically negative or create negative feelings when it serves nothing more than to stir people up, such as the cover on March 29 (“People Will Tell You That You’re Late”). What is the point in creating more negative feelings when many are greatly feeling the financial pinch and are feeling very downtrodden at the moment? Yes, I am aware that a number of the upper socioeconomic status are doing well financially, but many, many of the lower socioeconomic status are not, and much of your reading public in the East County are of this lower socioeconomic status. The last thing they need is someone or something they look to to bring them further down.
You have a public responsibility, and part of that is to assist the public. Which, in part, is to uplift the people when they need it. Yes, it’s to bring the truth, too, but when people are so downtrodden all they can think of is putting food on the table, then uplifting is what is needed most at that point in time.
Many of your readership are of this downtrodden socioeconomic status. Maybe you are unaware of this, and if you are, then you need to survey your readership so you can be more sensitive and aware who are the majority of your readership and what is their current mind-set. Such as in the East County, where many are still feeling financial stress and feeling downtrodden. Many have just given up, and like sheep or Pavlov’s dog, accept what is being given them, as many have no fight left. Thus, the current mind-set of your readership needs to be uplifted, at least on the cover.
If you feel the need to include things that are negative because you feel the need to inform the masses, I understand that, and those points of view and the facts should absolutely be included inside the paper, but many don’t read your paper, and many just look at the cover. Do you really need to bring so many people down with your negativity and dissatisfaction?
Yes, of course we have problems with our government and government services. There’s a great deal of graft, which is really just downright raping the public, especially the pocketbooks of the poor. Yet, at the same time, when you compare many of the services in the U.S. to other countries, say, Egypt or Mexico, etc. (the list is endless), our services are still quite superior. Not to say that many, many parts of city, state, and U.S. government offices and services don’t need a great deal of work and investigation into the graft, because they certainly do, but what the people need even more right now, when many people are just struggling to put food on their table, is some positive, uplifting words and thoughts that you are in a unique position to offer.
Please, in the future consider the impact you are having on the public in general. The masses, especially in areas like East County, need uplifting when they can see how a number of San Diegans are doing well, yet many, many are still downtrodden. Do you not have some responsibility to help uplift these people in some fashion, so they can gain the strength, desire, and drive to fight the corruption and graft?
Jan S-Dell
via email
Medicine + Moo = Millions
Regarding your Reader dated March 8, on page 2, “Under the Radar,” where it lists the medical millionaires, and specifically Dr. Stuart W. Jamieson, who heads the UCSD School of Medicine’s division of cardiothoracic surgery, with total pay of over a million dollars. He has the formula down pat, as he sidelines as a cattle rancher! A good formula for creating your own business. I certainly hope people don’t read The China Study by Campbell.
On page 4, under the letters to the editor, is a letter entitled “It’s a Cult, People.” I would just like to make a short reply. Dear Name Withheld, for your information, all religions are cults.
Ted Rodosovich
University City
Up With Hindis
I was shocked and dismayed by this letter (March 8), written by an anonymous writer who is either an ignorant or a biased person who does not have moral courage or knowledge of this world’s oldest religion, Hinduism, which is over 5000 years old. There are about 1.5 billion followers around the world. Their holy scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, is the oldest scripture of all the major religions of the world. The greatest follower of this religion was Mahatma Gandhi. Upon his passing, the greatest scientist, Albert Einstein, called him “the greatest man who ever walked on the face of this earth.” I feel the Reader owes an apology to all the followers of this great religion.
M.G. Bhakta
via fax
No Notes, No Play
I’ve been doing the Sudoku puzzles for years, but I’ve stopped submitting them only because you’ve removed the notes that everybody used to be able to write. I’ve got a suggestion. People who do the Sudoku puzzles know if it’s right or wrong because, for example, if you end up with two nines in the same row, you know you’ve done it wrong. It’s kind of redundant that in each week’s puzzles you show last week’s. Those four grids that waste all that space, I think instead you could put back people’s comments. I think people really miss them. It’s the best of both worlds. From what I can see, I see a dwindling winning of the baseball caps that you give out now. To me, that’s an indication that people aren’t submitting them as much anymore, so I would think that would bring back the popularity.
Joe Arbusto
Rancho Peñasquitos