Letters for June 9, 2005

Bad food review
Re “The veggie option” (Food finds, June 2):

I am writing in response to the “The Veggie Option” by Katie Power. I am disgusted by the fact that someone would publish such an inappropriate and inaccurate satire of the Gold N’ Silver. I have enjoyed several meals there and have never been dissatisfied with the quality of the food or customer service. The food I receive has never been what I have not ordered, and the staff has always provided me with timely, friendly and professional service. Concerning the “meat from strange places,” I found the manner in which Power expressed her bias as somebody who is “mostly vegetarian” to be highly inappropriate and unprofessional. Not only can’t she identify the source of the meat products at the Gold N’ Silver but she obviously has not tasted them. Furthermore, I challenge her to walk through the kitchen at the Gold N’ Silver, before she makes assumptions about the cleanliness or preparation of the food.

Perhaps her ideas would have been better expressed in a general article about why she chooses not to eat meat and her opinion of restaurant-prepared food. Her comments about the Gold N’ Silver and its employees are inappropriate. Readers need to dine at the Gold N’ Silver and enjoy the wonderful food, service and atmosphere that has been its hallmark for several years.

Shawna O’Brien
via e-mail

Don’t dis your clients
Re “The veggie option” (Food finds, June 2):

I own a business in Sparks. We have done a lot of advertising with your paper over the last year and been very pleased with the return.

I was horribly disappointed with the review on Gold N’ Silver this week, and let me explain why.

First, who in their right mind hires a vegetarian to do food reviews unless it is vegetarian food? I was mortified by her description of meat or lack of knowledge pertaining to where it comes from or what type she might be eating. That restaurant has been here forever and is a landmark to people coming into town since that used to be the freeway. When we were children, everyone coming to this valley would stop by there for a great piece of pie.

Next, how humiliating to women who have worked there for most of their adult lives to be degraded by some young thing who not only is a vegan but makes some rude comments about age. Those women work hard for their money and have raised their kids by working hard on their feet and serving their customers. I would like to see the vegan work one week doing what those ladies have done for 30 years.

Lastly and just as important, I notice that this restaurant has a very nice ad on the page behind this horrific review. My question is, why in your right mind would you allow a terrible review of a client who pays for an ad in your newspaper? Is this how you treat your clients? I believe morally and ethically you need to place a comment stating that her opinion is strictly hers and that the people at RN&R are not represented by her comments. Plus, apologize for the comments towards the ladies who have worked to serve all of us for years.

I will say that I am ashamed to tell anyone that I advertised with RN&R after this incident, and until someone does something I will be canceling my contract. Trust me when I say, this has overstepped the bounds. You do not treat your clients like this. This is not good business. I have the right to say this since I am an adult and own my business. It’s not right to work with blood, sweat and tears and have a young, non-business person tear down everything you’ve worked for because she is a vegan? Let’s seriously think about this.

Jacqueline Melzer
via e-mail

Let people speak for themselves
Re “Surprising opinion” and “For our sake? What’s that supposed to mean?” (Letters, May 26):

It seems readers may be a bit confused by the many roles you guys at the RN&R must play. The 15 Minutes interview with Holly Johnson has prompted outraged letters claiming that Kris Vagner is an incompetent journalist who fails to check her sources, yada, yada. I would like to humbly offer that in that kind of piece—an interview—I don’t think fact checking and source monitoring was Vagner’s job. If it had been an investigative piece, maybe she would have hit the belly-dancing books and sought out different points of view. If I were to go back throughout issues past and take the 15 Minutes piece as a source of intersubjective fact and empirically sound universal truth—I would probably need some sort of peer intervention.

Jill M. Snyder
Reno

Correction
Re: “Nashville or bust,” (Musicbeat, June 2):

Country band Clear Blue 22 won’t be out of town for the month of June. The band will play several shows in Reno, including June 17-21 at Circus Circus and June 30 at Great Basin Brewery in Sparks. For more show information, visit the band’s Web site at clearblue22.com.