Letters for January 26, 2006

Hard to beat that story

Re “Viagra and the culture of manhood” by R.V. Scheide (SN&R Feature story, January 12):

Great article on Viagra. Keep it up!

Michael Anadon
Sacramento

Whining isn’t funny, girl

Re “Funny girl” by Kel Munger (SN&R Arts&culture, January 12):

Now what is really funny is to read Suzanne Westenhoefer whine about the “white and money” people allegedly behind Fox News while going on her Olivia lesbian cruises doing her shtick for well-to-do professional “womyn” with few or no children to raise, who are precisely that! Your typical Fox News viewers, busy raising their children, don’t have the money (or more importantly the time) for any kind of cruise until retirement, if then.

It gets funnier when Suzie whines that Fox is “getting the right people to send their message instead of what’s really behind it.” Gee, what ever happened to evaluating a message on its own merits? Would Suzie mind when African-American people with a message are discounted simply because they are black? Yes, I thought so.

If Suzie wants to know why Ann Coulter and Fox News are so popular now, she should take a good look in the mirror. Really, now that is funny.

Nick Byram
Antelope

His chaps are not yellow!

Re “First we pray, then we ride” by Vanessa Gregory (SN&R Feature story, January 5):

I was talked about in the bull-riding article. I just want to set the record straight.

First, my chaps are buckskin, not yellow. I wasn’t nervous; I was excited. I didn’t quit ’cause of the broken ribs. In fact, I rode the next weekend at the state fair (I’ve got pictures to prove it). Most important, I quit because I got a job with the fire department, and I decided that being a firefighter was more important to me than rodeo, not because I got hurt and was scared.

Just wanted to set the record straight, but as a suggestion, don’t let people from Berkeley write rodeo articles for you. They don’t know what they’re doing.

Nate Benner
via e-mail

Vanessa Gregory responds: Benner did tell me that he was trying to get paid work at a fire department. He was a volunteer there when we last spoke, still working at a Galt bank in the day. He explained that he broke his ribs bull riding and wanted to avoid future injury. I did not write, and did not intend to suggest, that Benner quit bull riding out of fear, but merely out of a reasonable desire to stay healthy and uninjured.

Prod the praying cowboys

Re “First we pray, then we ride” by Vanessa Gregory (SN&R Feature story, January 5):

So, now it’s “Praise the Lord and pass the cattle prod”? How very Christian of them to use Christianity to justify harassing animals for entertainment.

I’d like to see these cowardly cowboys in the arena with a strap pinched across their testicles and a few well-chosen electric shocks! I bet they could kick up some dust. Now that would be entertainment.

Kim Hanks
Sacramento

Put Joey up front

Re “Codependent some more” by Joey Garcia (SN&R Ask Joey, January 5):

One of the main reasons that I pick up SN&R magazine each week is because I enjoy the “Ask Joey” column so very much. Joey’s column is always very informative and spiritual, and she gives excellent advice.

The only thing I don’t understand is why you keep her column hidden in the back pages in the classifieds and Talking Personals. I wish that her column was in the front pages where it belongs. Joey is a very dignified lady, and her column deserves to be in a dignified area of the SN&R.

Vera Farris
Citrus Heights

On the road with Barker

Re “On the road to Sacramento” by Jeffrey M. Barker (SN&R Feature story, December 29):

I just wanted to let you know that your story on the many Sacramento locations was one of the best I have read. It was easy to put myself in the story and see through your eyes. Great job.

Karen Zirkle
via e-mail

Dems need … eggs?

Re “Cowardly, inactive Dems” (SN&R Letters, January 19):

I started reading this letter, ho-humming at the usual right-wing diatribe, when I got to the second-to-last paragraph, which states, “Come on, grow some huevos.” Hmm, I thought. This sounds like some kind of left-wing conspiracy to make right-wingers look stupid, or at least illiterate in a foreign language spoken by a significant minority of California’s population. Yes, dear writer, you are hoisted on your own petard. (Petard is French, I believe. The online Babel Fish language translator had no English equivalent for petard, and my Spanish is much better than my French.) You are obviously some kind of left-wing feminazi, because huevos are, of course, eggs, which are about as feminine as the language gets. That’s what those cowardly Dems need—eggs! This letter has to have been written by a left-wing type, because everyone knows a real right-winger would have used the word cojones, which is about as masculine as the foreign language spoken by a significant minority of California’s population gets. Or maybe the writer meant conejos, or rabbits. I think we can all agree that the Dems need rabbits more than they do eggs. It’s so obvious.

Don Rake
West Sacramento

Correction

Re “Good food, no waiting” by Kate Washington (SN&R Dish, January 19):

In last week’s review of Shahrzad Restaurant in Rancho Cordova, we mistakenly wrote that the coffeehouse and hookah bar adjacent to Shahrzad was owned by the restaurant. It is a separate establishment entirely. This has been corrected on the Web site.