Here's something you might be interested in.
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Letters
Necessary Meds
I feel compelled to comment on a recent column, "Classic Barb Guy" (Diary of a Diva), and a subsequent entry in the letters column by Name Withheld, April 26, praising living without psychiatric drugs or Lexapro.
I’m not familiar with Lexapro, but I am with Haldol. Before I started taking it daily, I was a suicidal psychopath diagnosed as schizophrenic. I don’t dare go off my meds. With them I’m able to live a life I want to live. A friend of mine was off her meds. She was leading an angry, hurtful existence. I encouraged her, along with her doctor, to get back on her meds. She did and is now a much happier, well-rounded individual.
Some of us are not as fortunate as Barb and Name Withheld. We have to take our meds to enjoy a life worth living. I just pray that no one will read these columns and go off their meds. That could be life threatening — quality as well as quantity.
Laura Owen
Talmadge
Better 54 Years Ago
Why audiences are flocking to see Titanic is no mystery. The movie (“film” suggests artistic value) is aimed squarely at those in their teens and early 20s, which happens to be the demographic most likely to go out to see a movie. Adults are likely to leave the theater as I did in 1997, with both ends of the anatomy paralyzed.
What is puzzling is that Titanic is rated even higher by critics than by the general public. It can’t be because they are afraid of offending their readers — many of those who gave it good reviews panned Blade Runner, Forrest Gump, and The Shawshank Redemption.
One reviewer who didn’t go along with the majority is Duncan Shepherd. Read his 1997 review. It would be interesting to know what Mr. Shepherd thinks of the movie today.
If you want to see worthwhile cinema based on the Titanic sinking, skip this techno-melodrama and check out A Night to Remember, a British film made in 1958.
Name Withheld by Request
via email
Another Big Miss
This is regarding the April 5 “Sporting Box,” by Patrick Daugherty. He has the author’s name wrong for the book The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods. He printed it as “Hank Henry,” but the author’s name is Hank Haney.
Name Withheld
via voice mail
“Frisco” Is Like A Love Note
This is in reference to a response to a response in this past week’s Reader, dated April 5. A gentleman named Rico Gardiner responded (Letters) to the “Two Toronados” restaurant review of March 22. He tells the gentleman who wrote the review that people were offended by his calling San Francisco “Frisco” and accused the man of being “a hick from the sticks and a backwater yahoo,” but then goes on to say “This is an article about two beer joints, for Pete’s sake, lighten up!” Then he goes into a cultural tirade, accusing the man of comparing San Francisco to the location of the come-lately Toronado in North Park. And then he goes on to say that we in San Diego “are a blister on the border” and mentions a few items that make it appear so, and then says, “All you can do is criticize.”
I know Brahmans in Boston who call it “Beantown,” and I know old families in Chicago that call it “Chi-Town.” This is an affectionate term and not derogatory. And I myself cannot see somebody defending San Francisco any more than they might defend San Diego. San Franciscans are no different than San Diegans unless they are educated and have manners and taste, and this gentleman needs to realize that he was as intolerant of a different location as the man who wrote the original article.
Dennis Travers
via voice mail
Post Office Kept Me Awake
Great job on the postal article, Ryan (“People Will Tell You That You’re Late,” Cover Story, March 29)! It’s been years since I read an article that I could literally “not put down.” I know that is an overused cliché, but in this case it was true — I was up way past my bedtime but couldn’t put the Reader down. It was like looking at a car wreck, I guess. You can’t make that stuff up! Having the guys use the term “fingering” and everybody calling in sick when it rains was priceless. I think everybody assumes the post office is run like that, but now we know for sure. I once applied to work at the Metropolitan Transit System, and I could tell they ran their company with that same business model of running people into the ground with no reward for success, just more grief. I’ve never understood a business model where employees are treated with disdain, but I’ve worked at companies like Target, so I know it’s true. Great job — that story was one of a kind!
Vince Meehan
via email
Gringos Gagged In Baja
Several weeks ago, the Reader published a “News Ticker” item discussing how Mexican journalists were going to be protected by a new law requiring that the federal government get involved investigating crimes against journalists. Readers should know that English-speaking Baja journalists have run into a situation where no English-speaking newspaper will print any investigative reports or negative news. This is being done in an interest to promote tourism. Several years ago an English-speaking paper called the Gringo Gazette did investigative reports and gave the American community a voice. In 2007, the editor was almost facing criminal charges and one of the feature writers was deported. Since then, no American English-speaking Baja-based paper will print any hard news or do any investigative reports, effectively silencing the voice of Americans in Baja.
Vivian Marlene Dunbar
Playas Tijuana
Here's something you might be interested in.
Letters
Letters
Necessary Meds
I feel compelled to comment on a recent column, "Classic Barb Guy" (Diary of a Diva), and a subsequent entry in the letters column by Name Withheld, April 26, praising living without psychiatric drugs or Lexapro.
I’m not familiar with Lexapro, but I am with Haldol. Before I started taking it daily, I was a suicidal psychopath diagnosed as schizophrenic. I don’t dare go off my meds. With them I’m able to live a life I want to live. A friend of mine was off her meds. She was leading an angry, hurtful existence. I encouraged her, along with her doctor, to get back on her meds. She did and is now a much happier, well-rounded individual.
Some of us are not as fortunate as Barb and Name Withheld. We have to take our meds to enjoy a life worth living. I just pray that no one will read these columns and go off their meds. That could be life threatening — quality as well as quantity.
Laura Owen
Talmadge
Better 54 Years Ago
Why audiences are flocking to see Titanic is no mystery. The movie (“film” suggests artistic value) is aimed squarely at those in their teens and early 20s, which happens to be the demographic most likely to go out to see a movie. Adults are likely to leave the theater as I did in 1997, with both ends of the anatomy paralyzed.
What is puzzling is that Titanic is rated even higher by critics than by the general public. It can’t be because they are afraid of offending their readers — many of those who gave it good reviews panned Blade Runner, Forrest Gump, and The Shawshank Redemption.
One reviewer who didn’t go along with the majority is Duncan Shepherd. Read his 1997 review. It would be interesting to know what Mr. Shepherd thinks of the movie today.
If you want to see worthwhile cinema based on the Titanic sinking, skip this techno-melodrama and check out A Night to Remember, a British film made in 1958.
Name Withheld by Request
via email
Another Big Miss
This is regarding the April 5 “Sporting Box,” by Patrick Daugherty. He has the author’s name wrong for the book The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods. He printed it as “Hank Henry,” but the author’s name is Hank Haney.
Name Withheld
via voice mail
“Frisco” Is Like A Love Note
This is in reference to a response to a response in this past week’s Reader, dated April 5. A gentleman named Rico Gardiner responded (Letters) to the “Two Toronados” restaurant review of March 22. He tells the gentleman who wrote the review that people were offended by his calling San Francisco “Frisco” and accused the man of being “a hick from the sticks and a backwater yahoo,” but then goes on to say “This is an article about two beer joints, for Pete’s sake, lighten up!” Then he goes into a cultural tirade, accusing the man of comparing San Francisco to the location of the come-lately Toronado in North Park. And then he goes on to say that we in San Diego “are a blister on the border” and mentions a few items that make it appear so, and then says, “All you can do is criticize.”
I know Brahmans in Boston who call it “Beantown,” and I know old families in Chicago that call it “Chi-Town.” This is an affectionate term and not derogatory. And I myself cannot see somebody defending San Francisco any more than they might defend San Diego. San Franciscans are no different than San Diegans unless they are educated and have manners and taste, and this gentleman needs to realize that he was as intolerant of a different location as the man who wrote the original article.
Dennis Travers
via voice mail
Post Office Kept Me Awake
Great job on the postal article, Ryan (“People Will Tell You That You’re Late,” Cover Story, March 29)! It’s been years since I read an article that I could literally “not put down.” I know that is an overused cliché, but in this case it was true — I was up way past my bedtime but couldn’t put the Reader down. It was like looking at a car wreck, I guess. You can’t make that stuff up! Having the guys use the term “fingering” and everybody calling in sick when it rains was priceless. I think everybody assumes the post office is run like that, but now we know for sure. I once applied to work at the Metropolitan Transit System, and I could tell they ran their company with that same business model of running people into the ground with no reward for success, just more grief. I’ve never understood a business model where employees are treated with disdain, but I’ve worked at companies like Target, so I know it’s true. Great job — that story was one of a kind!
Vince Meehan
via email
Gringos Gagged In Baja
Several weeks ago, the Reader published a “News Ticker” item discussing how Mexican journalists were going to be protected by a new law requiring that the federal government get involved investigating crimes against journalists. Readers should know that English-speaking Baja journalists have run into a situation where no English-speaking newspaper will print any investigative reports or negative news. This is being done in an interest to promote tourism. Several years ago an English-speaking paper called the Gringo Gazette did investigative reports and gave the American community a voice. In 2007, the editor was almost facing criminal charges and one of the feature writers was deported. Since then, no American English-speaking Baja-based paper will print any hard news or do any investigative reports, effectively silencing the voice of Americans in Baja.
Vivian Marlene Dunbar
Playas Tijuana