That was a gross story on restaurant inspections. Please write another one
Please do a follow-up with the Web sites once the online reviews are available (“Food for Thought,” September 18).
Too bad your “Menu of Menus 2002” cannot be combined with a grade (like in Los Angeles) or with a health inspector report! Ha!The article was great, informative, shocking, surprising, and kind of gross. … We all need to be reminded from time to time that our lives are in their hands when they cook for us! Glad you put everyone from Chez Panisse to Le Cheval to Yummie Yogurt. They can all have problems, no matter how much you pay!
Melissa M. Amaro, Berkeley
Now I know what it’s like to be la Migra
Thank you for your insightful, thoroughly researched and well-written article. I too have asked for a copy of a health inspection report, only to receive a dumbfounded look, while half the kitchen staff ran out the back door. (They must have thought I was the INS.)
Jahan Byrne, Berkeley
Drooling frat boys: The last minority
I would like to thank Chris Thompson for his grim update on the Wheeler 33 (7 Days, October 16). Undoubtedly, the Cal demonstrators are doomed: Jesse Gabriel’s fraternity-dominated Committee on Student Conduct will make sure of it. Looking at the all-Greek list of nominees for the committee, one can only assume that it was drawn up in a drunken haze during a kegger, as pointed out by Mr. Thompson.
Now the most daunting challenge facing the demonstrators in the review process is clearly going to be hazing. What will prevent the frat boys on the committee from demanding that the demonstrators participate in exercises in binge drinking and homoerotic behaviors? At the very least, someone will get a beer bottle in the rectum.Even more frightening is the outlook for the female members of the Wheeler 33. A committee stacked with fraternity members would surely lend itself to the type of predatory environment over which frat boys salivate. The disciplinary trials will probably be one roofie away from degenerating into a frenzy of uncontrollable gang rape.Fortunately, Mr. Thompson has provoked our justifiable reservations in having the fate of the protesters rest in the hands of fraternizing miscreants. More importantly, in our age of ultrapolitical correctness, we are lucky to have Mr. Thompson remind us that there are still some groups that we can freely stereotype without repercussion. Kudos to you!
Daniel Badiak, Oakland
The resistance begins with you, Dublin High
Yet another example (“Reading, Writing, and Urinalysis,” October 16) in the endless series that may be filed under “horrifying manifestations of the Drug War gone wild.” Our societal interactions are increasingly predicated on, in most cases, groundless suspicion and a presumed guilt. This sad trend will only escalate as the reign of King Bush II proceeds.
Resist, Dublin students, resist.
Timothy Brosnan, Garden City, NY
Must be an Aries or a Sagittarius
Literal-minded people like Marion Syvek are depressing (Letters, October 16). You don’t have to take the Bible stories literally to be inspired or encouraged by them; the same for hero legends, fables, fairy tales or, for that matter, history. Ralfee Finn’s “Aquarium Age” (can Syvek appreciate the self-irony in that title?) is a spiritually uplifting column to read, no matter what one believes about planets and birthdays. It is unique to the Express among local alternative papers, and would be a significant loss were it discontinued.
Carol Bensick, San Francisco
After all, he wouldn’t write a letter like this
Enjoyed your article (“Geek Chic,” October 16) — interesting insights into the cartoonist Adrian Tomine. And again, his style and approach to comic storytelling reflects his personality very adroitly, based on how you painted his personality in the piece.
I was amused at the tagline, “Never trust a socially adept cartoonist. Their work probably isn’t good.” An interesting line but completely untrue, at least in my own opinion. My own Comics have actually been compared to Tomine’s in the Comics Journal 2002 “TCJ Books of the Year” article of February 2000. Sadly, I’m somewhat socially adept but still managed to get some recognition!
Chris Juricich, Berkeley
