Death takes holiday
Dear ER:
While President Obama is pardoning two turkeys for Thanksgiving, every one of us can exercise that same presidential power by choosing a nonviolent Thanksgiving observance. It shows our compassion for an innocent animal and our concern for our family’s health. It’s a most fitting way to give thanks for our own life, health, and happiness.
The 270 million turkeys killed in the U.S. each year have nothing to give thanks for. They breathe toxic fumes in crowded sheds. Their beaks and toes are severed. At the slaughterhouse, workers cut their throats, and dump them into boiling water, sometimes while still conscious.
Consumers, too, pay a heavy price. Turkey flesh is laced with cholesterol and saturated fats that elevate the risk of chronic killer diseases. Labels warn of food poisoning potential.
This Thanksgiving, I won’t be calling the Poultry Hot Line, or wondering how that turkey lived and died. Our Thanksgiving dinner may include a “tofurky,” lentil roast, mashed potatoes, corn stuffing, stuffed squash, chestnut soup, candied yams, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and carrot cake.
An internet search on vegan Thanksgiving and a visit to my local supermarket will provide me more recipes and delicious turkey alternatives than I can possibly use.
Jack Matler
Hermosa Beach
On the Mark
Dear ER:
This is a terrific story — beautifully written [“Out on 101,” ER Nov. 18, 2010]. Working across the SeaTimes newsroom from Terry McD was an education in itself, and the reasons for that are captured in your article, Mark. Thanks.
KBM Hartnett
Web comment
Mark II
Dear ER:
I learned things about Terry I never knew. What an interesting and well written piece.
Kathy Routh
Web comment
Hermosa LAX
Dear ER:
I propose the construction of three decorative lighted mirror glass translucent pylons on the Hermosa Community Center lawn area, to serve as an entry demarcation to the new upper Pier Avenue improvement area.
These three-foot to four-foot diameter pylons of mirror glass, approximately 20 feet tall (variable heights) would be located near the intersection of Pier Avenue and PCH, similar but much smaller in scale to the pylons that serve as an entry to LAX.
The cylindrical towers would emit color lighting at night and perhaps have speakers for music. Lighting could be changed to fit each season, e.g. red, white, and blue for the 4th of July, orange for Halloween, and red and green for Christmas.
The purpose of these columns would be to attract motorists and beach traffic and shoppers to downtown Hermosa, hopefully to make them want to visit the Upper Pier Avenue business area. If successful, smaller columns could also be considered for construction at the east end of Pier Plaza to continue the theme.
After researching construction of those erected at LAX it was determined that they would be easy to construct and maintain and could be economically designed by architectural and engineering students from our local colleges thereby greatly reducing the cost to the City of Hermosa while providing a true hands-on project for the students.
In daylight these columns would appear to have a mirror-glass coating, much like the high rise towers in many central business districts. At night their translucent material would allow colored lights to appear and change colors on a timer inside. The electricity to run them at night would be collected by a solar panel at the top of each column that would transfer its solar power for lighting them at night.
I plan to introduce the concept at a January 2011 city Council meeting and encourage public response from the citizenry and business owners along upper Pier Avenue and the Pier Plaza.
JH Deutsch
Hermosa Beach
Toilet talk
Dear ER:
If “Big Brother” Manhattan Beach City Council wants to force residents to reach into their pockets, they should at least do it fairly [“Home buyers required to retrofit low-flow toilets,” ER Nov. 18, 2010].
Is MB in such bad financial straits that we need to generate income from the measly interest to be earned from toilet deposits? It should be the seller, not the purchaser who should be required to retrofit their toilets prior to sale. Purchasers already have it hard enough by having to come up with a minimum 20 percent down and pay most of the closing costs.
Seems the Manhattan Beach City Council is trying to appease Realtors under cover of conservation!
Jose
Web comment
Drawn in
Dear ER:
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Gil’s prints in previous shows [“Painted ladies of the sea,” ER Nov. 18, 2010]. It’s difficult to conjure up what his images would look like from just reading, but when you see big prints of big colorful ship hulls, there’s a sense of space and scale that is simultaneously intimidating and welcoming.
The graphically composed views draw you in to detailed sections from a massive structure. You can practically feel the tension from the photographer’s POV.
John MacLean
Web comment
Watts up?
Dear ER:
That’s nice, Hermosa get $350,000 when Watts schools are sharing books from lack of funding [Hermosa gets $350,000 school safety grant, ER Nov. 11, 2010]. The kids at Watts won’t be able to read the new school safety signs due to illiteracy and lack of damn books.
‘Lady Day’
Web comment
Don’t hate dogs
Dear ER:
I found the letter from the dog hater to be extremely sad Re: [“Loaded dogs,” ER letters, Nov. 4, 2010].
This person has become filled with hate toward a humanly domesticated species, rather than at the people who actually own the nuisance barkers. And the misguided person who thinks all dogs should be “free” clearly doesn’t understand that humans have interfered with canine genetics to such an overwhelming degree that most dogs would be completely incapable of living without human assistance [“Free the wolves,” ER letters, Nov. 11, 2010].
Not to mention the huge problems “free” dogs would cause. Can anyone imagine how a pug could hunt and survive in the wild? Or a Maltese? Or a Chihuahua?
Research how awful the abandoned dogs in St. Louis are faring and tell me who is to blame – the dogs, free and sick and dying? Or the owners who set them free when they lost their homes to foreclosure and didn’t have enough love or sense of responsibility to re-home or euthanize their unwanted pet rather than setting them free to suffer sickness and starvation?
Rather than hating an entire species of animal that we created, and letting that hatred grind away at her, the dog hater should place the blame for nuisance barking squarely on the shoulders of the individual dog owners.
People get dogs whose working backgrounds they haven’t got a clue about. Huskies and border collies and beagles, etc., are working breeds, hunters who are bred to be able to run all day long, using their voices in some cases to fulfill the entire reason they were specifically bred. For a person to get a beagle and then leave it locked alone in the house all day long with no exercise, nothing to sniff out and hunt, is criminal neglect in my opinion. Dogs need jobs.
Dogs are extremely intelligent social animals and often need to be in a pack setting for their emotional well-being and fulfillment. Collies want to herd, for Pete’s sake, not languish in your apartment all day with no company, nothing to chase, play with or think about except the neighbor’s ringing phone. The dog is literally begging for attention and something to do! It has become neurotic. No wonder dogs become nuisance barkers.
That is why people need to be responsible in the acquisition of any dog as a pet. They need to research what the dog is specifically bred for and be brutally honest with themselves in their estimation of how they will meet its basic need for stimulation on a daily basis.
While I certainly understand and sympathize with her frustration – as a multiple dog owner and veterinary technician, I am well aware of how constant barking or whining can wear down a person to the point of tearing their hair out – hatred solves nothing. It simply eats away at the hater and makes her as neurotic as the dogs she hates.
Not all dog owners are neglectful, proof of which is the booming doggy daycare and walking services in the area we are so lucky to have, not to mention all the dog parks available.
I commend this dog hater for being brave enough to state her frustration publicly rather than suffer in silence and I hope she can constructively get help to resolve her issues with her neighbors. She feels a complete loss of control over the peacefulness of her own home, and it isn’t fair. It would aggravate me too. It’s an excellent wake-up call to everyone with a lonely dog in their yard.
Maybe Easy Reader could devote an issue to all the tireless, excellent professional dog walkers, pet-sitters, and doggy day care facilities and dog trainers in the South Bay, as well as all the parks available to dogs and their hours.
A wise Chinese philosopher once said, “Hate is like picking up a burning hot coal to throw at your enemy. The only person burned is you.” I hope dog hater finds some peace and no matter what the outcome is, will let hate go.
J.T. Pogreba
Manhattan Beach
