Fact: Conason's None Too Pleased; Hey, Taylor, Leave that Pop Alone; Liking Leschen; More MUGGER Converts?ro;”with Plenty of Contrarians; Some Actually Like Signorile; Take Another Listen, Armond; More

Much as I enjoy MUGGER's tendentious interpretations of my writing, I'm afraid his struggle with reading comprehension is going very poorly. His latest contains a particularly glaring error that needs public correction. MUGGER berates me for describing James Baker as a dirty trickster, an accusation for which he says I failed to provide any "proof" (11/28). But what I actually wrote was that the Republican "bourgeois rioters" in Miami last year were organized "at the behest of former Secretary of State James Baker by a consultant [my emphasis] whose reputation for dirty tricks dates back to the Nixon era." I saw no reason to give that consultant any additional publicity. His name appears in Jeffrey Toobin's excellent book and there is no doubt about his actions or his reputation, nor about the fact that he was summoned to Florida by Baker.

I guess the boss is exempt from factchecking at New York Press, so your readers shouldn't assume that anything MUGGER says about my work (or anybody else's) is accurate.

Joe Conason, Manhattan

Russ Smith replies: I'm honored, of course, that Joe Conason is concerned about my reading skills. And the Carville/Begala propagandist is correct that I mistakenly wrote that he identified James Baker as a dirty trickster. As Donald Trump says these days, "My bad." But Conason doesn't address the thrust of my comments about his Observer column, that he singles out Jeffrey Toobin's partisan book about the Florida recount because it conforms with his own views. And he doesn't answer my question about why Katherine Harris and her staff, if they "cheated and lied," weren't prosecuted.

I doubt Conason reads much of New York Press?except when his name is mentioned?but if he did, he'd find that our factchecking department is superb, especially when measured against those of other local publications.

J. Press Porn

The term "Presstige Collection" may be a play on J. Press' company name ("Billboard," 11/28); however, there is no excuse for the other mistakes. The fragment "discriminately tasting gentleman's..." opens up (so to speak) whole vistas. Maybe it's not a bad selling point, after all. Thanks for the fun!

Carol Schachter, Manhattan

We Is Sorry

Despite the excellent and elegant English usage that characterizes New York Press, and on which you pride yourselves, you have a bullying penchant for the charmless cheap shot. One example is in your 11/28 "Billboard" column in which you quip that Manhattan Community College graduates must be responsible for the bad English in the J. Press catalog. This little gratuitous piece of cruelty is a grotesque insult to the thousands of BMCC students, their faculty and administrators who have made this college, against elitist snobbery like yours, a highly respected school of many accomplishments and significant contributions to the well-being of this city. I can tell you from personal experience that the writing skills of Ivy League students, especially including those in the graduate schools of business, is [sic] often incompetent. Someday the 11 million students in American community colleges will recognize their collective political relevance and power. They will not be the butt of small jokes born of ignorance and prejudice. I look forward to the day that American presidents, spawn of Yale, will count Borough of Manhattan Community College as a significant part of their education and their experience of democracy. Our students write just fine, thanks.

James H. Berson, professor, Dept. of Business Management, BMCC

Check Date

A couple of letters last week had rich sport with my supposed ignorance of the founding century of Islam. Here's what happened. I wrote that chess had its start as a Muslim game of the seventh century. The vigilant factchecking department said that some authorities hold that chess might have had its start in the sixth century. Fine, says I, put sixth or seventh, but the emendation failed to note that if sixth century in origin, then it couldn't have been Muslim. Some authorities say chess was Chinese in birth, like gunpowder and 401(k)s.

Alexander Cockburn, Petrolia, CA

Pop's a Family Affair

Man, what did power-pop music fans do to deserve this coverage ("Music," 11/28)? I guess I missed the point of the article?all I got out of it was that Mr./Ms. Taylor (I don't know what J.R. stands for) is either in a bad mood, hates power-pop fans or has some deep-seated problems associated with the music. As a "normal-sized" male, with a wife and four kids (three girls and a boy?all of whom, along with my wife, love power-pop music), I'm trying to figure out your point in printing/posting this.

The music is fun, that's why we listen. Sure, some bands are better than others, but that's the way all music scenes are. Why insult the audience (the article pegs them as middle-age, overweight, male geeks with no lives). How about an actual review of the music? Just don't use the same writer. Find someone who watches and listens to the band at a concert, not someone who makes generalizations about the psychological and social make-up of the fans by watching them dance.

Ira Rosen, Highland Park, NJ

Pure Pop for Clinical People

Re J.R. Taylor's article on the International Pop Overthrow festival ("Music," 11/28). Pauline Kael said it best: "Only a twerp would castigate an audience for its enjoyment of something." Her statement isn't an attempt to silence potential pop critics; rather, it's a reminder that one must always respect the deep personal investments individuals (especially isolated, unhappy individuals such as the ones Taylor describes) make in popular culture.

In last week's piece, as always, Taylor displays a chimerical cultural philosophy: it's the virulent intolerance of a Tom Tomorrow-esque Republican caricature mixed with the cynical, blithe hedonism of your average Bedford Ave. denizen. It's as if Taylor found his own personal solution to the culture wars by combining the worst aspects of both camps in one pernicious philosophy. Within this code of ethics there is not even room for the laissez-faire, live-and-let-live libertarian. Taylor wants to cleanse art to make it safe for the ears of hipsters.

His only half-valid complaint in the whole misguided tract is basically that his favorite music has been colonized by nerds, but not just any nerds, nerds "fetishizing rejection," who find "fulfillment in being a social cripple." It's true that Taylor saves most of his savagery for the "handsome" hypocrites who sing to their adoring horn-rimmed public the glories of not getting laid. But the backhanded pity he offers to pop consumers, laced as it is with self-protective derision, is far less generous than a mere putdown would be.

It all comes down to Taylor's view of sex as a cure-all. He's convinced that if these ectomorphs could just get themselves a good screwing, their troubles would be over. Fetishizing rejection, according to Taylor, only encourages these twerps to navel-gaze and sink deeper into their womblike slough of despond. (Let's forget that this is essentially the same idea that caused Plato to expel tragedians from his Republic, only with sex substituted for war. Plato was afraid that if soldiers were exposed to the harshness of human emotion and the intransigence of suffering, they would be less likely to crave enemy blood on the battlefield.) He refuses to consider that depression can outlast an orgasm, or that sexual frustration can conceal or contain deeper, more intractable emotions. All great love songs are about, and thus reflect, deep-seated compulsion. It's that compulsion from which Taylor reflexively recoils, and with good reason. Emotional hell isn't fun to witness or to empathize with. But Taylor needs to find the kindness within himself to let the sufferers be, whether he calls that kindness libertarianism or humanism.

If Morrissey read Taylor's article, I suspect he would respond with lyrics from "Such a Little Thing Makes Such a Big Difference": "Leave me alone, I was only singing/You have just proven/Most people keep their brains between their legs."

Ben Kessler, Manhattan

Cool-Cocked

William S. Repsher: Your commentary on the Strokes ("Daily Billboard," 11/28) would have been on the nose except for the fact that you completely discredited the entire thing when you referred to Coldplay initially as "Coolplay." And don't try to call it a typo, either. What a dick.

Matthew Carpenter, Manhattan

A Few Quartzes Low

Andrey Slivka's description of meteor-watching in New Paltz ("New York City," 11/28) was a hoot. One minor correction: the Shawangunk Mountains are not made of granite, they are primarily composed of sandstone, conglomerate and conglomeratic quartzite (a sort of baked and squeezed pebbly sandstone). The water-borne sediments that became the Shawangunks were deposited during the Silurian period, about 430 million years ago. Those rocks have seen a lot of meteor showers (and dinosaurs) come and go.

John Cantilli, Cranford, NJ

Two Chopsticks Up

Just read Paul Leschen's piece on Vietnamese restaurants in Chinatown ("Food," 11/28). Loved it?great story, well-written and I like the guy's attitude.

Aaron Spiegel, Manhattan

He's Come Round

MUGGER: I am more Democrat than Republican, but not so you'd notice (voted for Carter over Ford, then voted for Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Gore). It must be difficult to attempt to defend the indefensible?that the election was indeed stolen and handed to Bush. Your weekly musings on this matter are gallant and sad.

When my father was a Navy coxsman stationed at Portland, ME, during WWII, he noticed something unusual during his travels to and from New York City. The people of Maine, so violently opposed to FDR and his policies, had erected a sign at the Maine-Mass. border: "YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA." I had thought, before 9/11, that I would adopt a similar sensibility?ignore anything Bush did, and wait four years until a real election could be held.

However, I believe everything happens for a reason, and you put the drill on the nerve with your assessment of Gore?Mr. Bush has been/is/will be the embodiment of a great president/commander-in-chief/statesman during this difficult time, while Mr. Gore would've done absolutely nothing of substance, instead worrying about fossil fuel, global warming or explicit lyrics on a CD.

Robert Liebowitz, Astoria

Sore Winner

MUGGER: "Tell Me When It's Over" was excellent (11/28). As a Floridian who voted for Bush, I'm more disgusted than most by this mess. And I somehow knew that no matter what this "media consortium" decided, the whining would never be over. I love the way you've articulated all the counterpoints they either ignore or lie about. Bravo.

Rita Dalton, Tallahassee

Tsk-Tsk

So you are ignoring the recount, MUGGER (11/28)? Well, for all your ignoring, your dissing of all the people you supposedly ignored was too much to deal with. You didn't ignore, you overindulged.

Helen Weber, Oklahoma City

Yeah, Russ, How 'Bout Going After the Times?

MUGGER: You take off on George Will but you should blast such people as Lewis, Rich and Krugman of the Times. Occasionally Safire could join that crew. I think those guys have lost their common sense. In their writings, they seem like a group of bitter, angry journalists who can't let go of the Florida election and who write with their own bias on their sleeves.

I'd think credibility would be the objective of any journalist, but with such bias as these clowns display it's hard to believe any of them. They seem to want to stir up the fire?they must be getting bored. Possibly someone could lead them all down to Ground Zero and remind them that there are still bodies not recovered. And of all things, can you imagine Frank Rich, formerly an entertainment critic, being a political op-ed person? On top of that, he would never pass the fashion criteria. Baby-blue jacket and white shoes?please. Will is fine, though at times he gets carried away, but at least he is refreshing on account of his having opinions outside of the political arena.

Jeremey Joseph, Houston

Left Wanting More

Love that stuff on tv's bimbos and blowhards, Mike Signorile ("The Gist," 11/28). But why not go all the way with tongue in cheeko? How about giving us the ratings for these entertainers?

Tom O'Hanlon, via e-mail

Slap 'Er Down

Mr. Signorile: The "Hunks & Honeys" piece ("The Gist," 11/28) was excellent. This was the first time I have read your work and I like it. The subject matter was also of interest as I would love to see someone bitch-slap the shit out of Christiane Amanpour, arrogant wench. Banfield just looks stupid, but that is NBC through and through. Again, your style and prose are outstanding. You have a new fan.

Steven Aukstakalnis, Cary, NC

Bunnye & Fidel

Mr. Signorile: So nice to find a reason to pick up New York Press. I stopped reading it a while back until someone mentioned you were contributing in a big way, and I now I have you and Mr. Wiggles to thank for making my Tuesday bright.

Concerning news reporters both here and in the field, on Oct. 8, 1968, I found myself at a beach home outside Havana around midnight with the personal physician and secretary to Prime Minister Castro. It's a long story. I was 26 at the time, a Young Democrat from Atlanta, and rather cute, I might add. At any rate, the big guy came through the front door and I found myself sitting next to him and the good doctor until dawn, talking about everything under the sun. His first question to me was, "Are you the lady who brought Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Otis Redding to Cuba?" Well, yes, I was. He thanked me profusely for introducing him to their records, which I had brought with me. He had never heard of Barbra Streisand and I wished then that I had brought hers as well. At any rate, during the long hours of chat I asked him whom he most admired of all the reporters worldwide and he said Peter Jennings, adding, "But, of course, he's Canadian."

I never forgot that night and to this day, when I see Peter Jennings on the news, my mind rushes back to that night outside Havana when a Young Democrat from Georgia sat next to Fidel Castro and talked about the world. Her world and his. It was all downhill after that. I mean, what in my life could top that? By the way, back then I was known under my maiden name as Bunnye Hearne. I dropped the Bunnye in my 40s.

Anna Carroll, Manhattan

Who Doesn't?

MUGGER: I thought Pink Floyd was pretty good (if you like lyrics that consistently deal with psychosis).

Fr. Gregory J. Lockwood, Cincinnati

Turn the Page

In response to Taki's "Hating Uncle Sam" column ("Top Drawer," 11/28): "Some brainwashed towelhead merchant," huh? In that case Taki should be described as a feta-cheese-breathed souvlaki-peddler. Personally, I don't need to hear your increasingly racist, jingoist, bullshit diatribes.

Larry Deyab, Brooklyn

Limey Pinkos

Taki: Great article and please keep it up. I'm so sick and tired of these Socialists that sometimes I actually feel we should close all our doors, recall our troops and let them kill themselves. Of course that wouldn't work too well, but, my God, there has to be a way for the European countries who act like this to pay a price. There is a town in England, northeast of London, that bears my forefathers' name. The way the British press behaves sometimes I'm embarrassed to say this.

John Coggeshall, Chicago

And the Mrs. Weighs In?

Again Taki is right on target. Well done, keep it up. We need him to keep reminding these airhead liberals about reality?as in downtown Manhattan becoming an open-air crematorium.

Ann Coggeshall, Chicago

Taki Reads Taki

This is in response to Taki's article "Hating Uncle Sam," ("Top Drawer," 11/28). He wrote, "...the nature of anti-Americanism is very simple: in the Middle East it has to do with our support of Israel, first and foremost." Even though the main topic of the article was not the Middle East, this is a very strong blanket statement that is not true and must be corrected. The Arabs don't hate the U.S. because of Israel, they hate Israel because of the U.S. They hate Israel, first and foremost, because it is the only state in the Middle East that stands for the values of human rights and democracy, in the midst of Arab states with regimes opposed to those values. This is also why they hate the U.S. and this is the reason Islamist propaganda calls the U.S. the Great Satan and Israel the Little Satan.

One doesn't have to look far for more supporting evidence. The feature article "Jihad 101" by Adam Mazmanian, which appeared next to Taki's in the same edition of your newspaper, proves my point. I would advise Taki to read it as well.

Yury Voloshin, Hoboken, NJ

Details, Details

Sirs: May I point out a couple of lapses in the piece by your reviewer Armond White ("Film," 11/14) on the Jacques Demy movie he once rated "number one," Lola? First, it is an exploratory version of Michel Legrand's sumptuous composition "Recit De Cassard" that became, in English, "Watch What Happens" that "permeat[es]" this movie, not the simpler tune and lounge-act favorite "I Will Wait for You." There is a world of difference between these two songs, both later used in Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. Pop versions of both appear as bonus tracks on the soundtrack CD of the restored version of that film. If anyone cares enough, they may want to compare the Tony Bennett "bonus track" version of the former with Carmen McRae's (on her Atlantic album Sound of Silence), which may be the best on record.

Second, it is clear from the context of the scene?and I'd guess that about half the audience in each of the two shows I attended immediately "got it," if their laughter was any gauge?that it is the Sadean and not the Alexandrian Justine to which Mme. Desnoyers turns up her nose. This establishes more generous dimensions to her "bourgie" tastes. And a minor point: the American sailor is identified in the subtitles as "Franky," not "Frankie."

Not to diminish Legrand's achievements over half a century, but in several films/albums scored by him, his taste seems to range from the sublime to the execrable. In my experience (not in Brittany, admittedly) showgirls and exotic dancers in Europe at that time, especially if their audiences included the U.S.-born, had hipper tastes than M. Legrand imputes to them here. A "prepared piano" parody should at least match the idiomatic integrity of its object, before having fun with it, if it isn't to sound mean-spirited.

Phil Hughes, Manhattan

Former Bronx Italian?

Re C.J. Sullivan's "Phantom of the Opera" ("Bronx Stroll," 11/21): Congratulations on a good article about a controversial case. It demands a followup. As I recall, Crimmins was a stagehand from the Fordam Rd./University Irish area (not Mosholu), which was pretty much pot-plagued by 1980. No doubt he had a "Hell's Kitchen" connection from family or friends, which helped his entry into blue-collar union jobs in the theater district. So he had a pretty decent job at 21 for a kid with limited education, a serious girlfriend and a loving stable family. He had no prior record of violence, although he may have had some minor scrapes with the law on drunk-and-disorderly charges, which were almost typical in his neighborhood of two saloons on every block.

So what we have here is a guy who's wacked out of his mind on beer and pot on 7/23/80, trying to sleep off his drunk in between his stagehand duties. Next we have a fellow worker, whose name escapes me, with violent priors and a suspect himself, implicating Crimmins by telling detectives that Crimmins approached him to provide an alibi for the time of the murder. The case was getting daily headlines and pressure for an arrest mounted. Crimmins didn't have much of an alibi because he was stoned, and he incriminated himself further by trying to create one.

The police had no forensic evidence tying him to the crime. They needed a confession and got one. When you merely report that "he broke under questioning," you dismiss the most crucial aspect of this case. Crimmins and his family knew he was a suspect by this time, perhaps the only suspect. They should have protected him by maybe sending him upstate for a while with an attorney at the ready. Instead, they did the Bronx-Irish thing of relying on the advice of friends who were cops on the force to make sure he wasn't railroaded. Big mistake. As I recall, Crimmins was pulled in one night while on a date with his girlfriend. She immediately contacted his parents, who rushed to the police station. No, he wasn't there anymore, said the desk sergeant, he was moved; and so on and on for the next 12 hours. Everyplace the family went their son was elsewhere. At some time an attorney was contacted but it was too late. The police were fortunate enough to have a detective in the ranks who had a talent for hypnosis. It was he who cracked the case and gained the confession with the help of this dubious art. Of course Crimmins recanted later, but they had their confession. It was a weak case, but a powerful DA hungry for a conviction and a sympathetic judge had too much skill for the defendant. No dream team defense for Crimmins?he was toast. It would be interesting to review the jury selection. I would guess it was more a jury of the unfortunate victim Helen Hagnes' peers than of Craig Crimmins'. I can't help wondering how a jury could accept the words of this hypnotist detective (who disappeared into retirement in Florida a few years later) and a violent felon and ignore the complete lack of any forensic evidence.

Crimmins will be denied parole until he confesses. That's how the board works; they demand remorse even if he's not sure what happened at the Met. His best chance is to say he was too stoned to know what happened but accepts the court verdict and begs forgiveness as the one convicted. That's probably the truth in his case; if he knew he was guilty he might have acted differently. Maybe he did it, or maybe not. The case always puzzled me. The worst thing he can do is talk to reporters?the penal system hates that.

Bart Marrone, Manhattan

Like Pigs in...

Interesting how a few months can change one's perspective. I've just read the 4/25/01 New York Press. I wonder whether "FDNYSucks" (the disgruntled EMS guy) has been keeping a low profile lately ("New York City"), and was amused by this story's being in the same issue with Mary Karam's enthusing about firemen in her "Scouting Report" on fireman-related gear from firewarehouse.com (which probably should have been included in your Holiday Gift Guide this year).

I was a trifle thrown by Alexander Cockburn's quoting the Franklin Spinney phrase, "The Pentagon is clearly broken." And I was chilled to the bone by this quote from a book review: "in recent years anarchists have become one of the nation's best hopes of fueling national paranoia about domestic subversion. Let's face it. Unless we have commies hiding under the bed or an Evil Empire ever-poised for and hell-bent on our destruction, we're just not happy. With the Islamic-fundamentalist-terrorist thing not working out quite as well as some may have expected, black ski-masked anarchists...will have to do."

Guess we can all be happy in our paranoia now.

Lisa Braun, Manhattan

Guilty Until Proven Guilty

MUGGER: Boy, you really "mugged" them. They asked for it, and you gave it to them. Keep it up. I think the mainstream media people would pass a lie detector test question of "Are you biased?" If they answered no, the machine wouldn't budge. They truly think they are objective and mainstream, so how could they be biased? To me they are more objectionable than objective. I rejoice that we have talk radio and the Fox network. If they are biased?and I don't say they are?at least they are biased in my direction. And why these people think the enemy in a war should have the same rights as a citizen astounds me. Those terrorists who attacked the WTC surely didn't get a warrant or consider the guilt of those killed or injured. Don't they know this is a life-or-death struggle?

Donald W. Bales, Kingsport, TN

Sure Thing, Ma'am

I saw Carol Iannone's column, "Homeland Insecurity" ("Taki's Top Drawer," 10/16). It was excellent and it was also something I've felt for a long time but could never really put into words. Many friends and family members also read it and were very impressed. Thank you so much for this patriotic and powerful message.

Connie Ellison, Manhattan

Nasty Little Man

I just read Josh Gilbert's article ("First Person," 10/24) and would like to say this: To write something like that and state within that you are Jewish seems redundant. I have an Arab-owned deli near me. Apparently a rat died behind a radiator or in the walls. They left it there for weeks?the smell gradually lessened but they did not seek out the corpus rattus. These are the people you want to hug? It makes one wonder how much you'll want to lap Sharpton on his next feigned perturbation.

To want to tell your girlfriend that story definitely has you destined for horns. After all, she was hired so she could be flagellated. See if she can get you a job there. Over a tuna fish sandwich you could both discuss events and arguments over who was next at the copier. That would be more exciting than your pandering to two Arabs who, what with their cellphones and incomes, couldn't care less who bombed what.

If your day begins with the excitement of small talk with emigre profiteers then get a life. You had your fun imagining Gandhi. To be fair, some days you should be Himmler; maybe Wednesdays, Goebbels. Works for me. It may not be just the right fit, but it can help you get rid of that disgusting desire to hug. You just don't get it: the young high-five and hug with no reason, no substance. You are only emulating what you heard about the old days and old causes. We may have failed back then but we were daring without hugs.

Harry Voorhies, Manhattan

Boycotts vs. Bombers

So here we are once again fighting a war caused ultimately by Middle Eastern oil. So what are all the car companies pushing? You guessed it: big gas-guzzling SUVs. They must think most Americans are stupid, like we don't already realize that we should conserve oil in every possible way: recycling, carpooling, developing hybrid cars, finding alternative energy sources (coal, shale oil, nuclear, hydroelectric and solar among others), and simply using less of the damn stuff.

Let us have a partial boycott on oil. As for those nations like Iraq and Saudi Arabia that sell us oil with one hand and support terrorists with the other, I say let them drink oil. As consumers we have a lot of power. Our economy is something like a quarter of the world economy, and we can vote with our pocketbooks. If we like the brand of terrorism that is exported with Middle Eastern oil, we can buy a lot of oil; if not, we can boycott oil as much as possible. If we don't like relatively peaceful countries like Thailand and India and Turkey, which produce products like cotton, rice and tea, we can buy alternative products, perhaps polyester, wheat and coffee.

Myself, I buy American goods when available, but I have to admit that I have been buying as little gasoline as possible, and even insulating my home and turning down the thermostat to conserve energy, and that I have developed a strange penchant lately for cotton products, rice and tea.

Let me say it again: people can vote with their pocketbooks. The people of the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada together control two-thirds of the world economy, and if they suddenly decide they prefer to use a lot less oil and buy more tea and rice, well, who in the world can stop them?

Jim Kyle, Palo Alto, CA

Has It All Figured Out

MUGGER: Limousine liberals who own newspapers and news networks are a sorry bunch of guilt-ridden emotional cripples who want the rest of us to pay for their do-gooder schemes. They (liberals) hate those of us who are anti-collectivist and promote individual rights instead of the collective good. The feminists are an off group with the women trying to be masculine and the men who support them very effeminate. Even locally we have two papers owned by left-wingers who thus far have managed to spew their political pabulum on an ever more skeptical public without a backlash. The mainstream press is on its way to being more detested than lawyers.

David Kerr, Farmington Hills, MI

Um...

Mr. Smith: I'm a trial lawyer, a litigation lawyer, and I deeply resent your Luddite comments. It's as if you cannot say "lawyer" without some pejorative adjective accompanying it. Suppose, because the media is a) liberal and b) leftish, that you were always referred to as MUGGER (now there's a classic name for you), that commie media guy. Not fair; not accurate.

Jim Sweeney, Los Angeles

MUGGER the Maroon

MUGGER: I read your latest column and all I can say is that you are an unreasonable moron. I would like to illustrate this to you clearly, but temporal constraints prevent that. For the record, no, I am not a Democrat. I actually hate both the Democratic and Republican parties quite strongly; I am a Libertarian. But it is as a human with at least half a brain that I find your column offensive and worthless.

Matthew J. Gies, Portland, OR

He Is the Breeze

MUGGER: As usual, your take on things was right-on. A breath of fresh air.

Bruce Rava, Scottsdale, AZ

If You're Thinking of Living in...

MUGGER: I'm as regular a New York Press reader as I can be living in New Jersey. I enjoy the paper and very often the tone and views of the writers. I'd subscribe if the cost were more reasonable and delivery time much shortened from what's advertised! Your article a few issues ago about walking with your sons in Lower Manhattan (11/14) prompts this letter.

I'm a native New Yorker but I think I'd move if I lived where you do. I can't see it as a pleasant place to raise kids. How can you put up with the depressing aspects of Lower Manhattan life? How about some grass and trees instead of smoke and destruction? My brother lives a block from Marine Park on Ave. T in Brooklyn and it might be worth considering a move there. The park is very large and it's a great place to be on a sunny weekend when the weather's nice.

If you don't mind moving across the Hudson, either Cranford or Westfield, NJ, might be worth considering. Both have pleasant downtown stores and plenty of trees and houses with lawns. The Raritan Valley line serves both towns with train service to Newark and then on to Penn Station.

Anyway, keep up your good work. We don't agree every single time (who does), but I enjoy your articles.

Frank Higbie, New Brunswick, NJ

He Was a Natural Blond, Too

John R. Selig writes in "The Mail" (11/28): "Is it a coincidence that the mainstream media left out the fact that Father Judge was gay, that the copilot...was gay, that one of the heroes...was gay?"

Is it also a coincidence that they left out that Father Judge was a Democrat, the copilot was a Lutheran and one of the heroes was black? And nobody mentioned that the Mayor is a heterosexual?more evidence of a cover-up? Or is it just that those facts had nothing to do with the momentous events being reported?

How would it have been written, by the way? "John Jones, who was gay, wrested the gun from the hijacker and..." How stupid is that? And by they way, please tell whoever wrote the first 11.28.2001 item about "a couple of fey hipster guys" that "fey" has nothing to do with being gay. This shows up in your publication often. "Fey" means "fated to die, doomed" or "able to see into the future." I doubt that's what the writer meant. So stop using it as if it's some combination of "fag" and "gay."

Vicky Fenolas, Manhattan

The editors reply: A look into several standard dictionaries reveals the following synonyms for "fey": "fairylike," "elfin," "whimsical," "precious" and "campy." The meanings you point out should be used next time you're in Edinburgh?they're primarily Scottish.

Hidden Victory

So a (presumably) straight, manly, religious firefighter hands the Pope a gay chaplain's helmet ("The Gist," 11/21). Mychal Judge must be smiling in heaven. That one gesture says more than a thousand gay activists on the steps of the Vatican ever could.

Lauren Wissot, Brooklyn

Ya Bloody Papist

Re "The Mail" last week, especially the letter of John R. Selig. What Selig doesn't seem to understand is that Jerry Falwell and other gay-bashing "religious leaders" in the South are not Catholics who are the followers of Pope John Paul II. They belong to religions that are offshoots of Protestantism, not Catholicism. These religions do not pay any attention to the words of the Pope. They hate him! Please get your facts straight. You can't blame Pope John Paul II for what Jerry Falwell says.

Paul J. Maringelli, Queens

Innocent as Li'l Lambs

Signorile: I have a lot of gay friends, but I also have a lot of Catholic friends, and I don't think you'll help the cause by comparing the Pope to the Taliban ("The Gist," 11/21). The church may be narrowminded in many ways, but it does not enforce its moral standards on nonbelievers or intentionally incite violence.

David Anderson, St. Paul, MN

Faith's a Beautiful Thing

Mr. Signorile: I've only been Catholic for a few years now, so I can understand your confusion about the teaching of the Pope ("The Gist," 11/21). I would have been confused, too. Obviously, you've heard the church's teaching of "love the sinner, hate the sin." I don't know if the Holy Father knew if that helmet's owner was homosexually oriented or not, but I do know that that would not have affected his decision to accept it. The Holy Father knows better than to judge any of God's children, regardless of their sin. Gay people are not bad people just because they are gay, they are not considered evil. No one?including all levels of hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, priests, bishops and, yes, the Pope?has the right to judge any human being. That is left to God alone.

Rather, the action of the Pope in accepting that firefighter's helmet was to acknowledge it as a symbol of heroism and self-sacrifice. John Paul II obviously regarded this man as a hero, and someone the Lord would be very proud of. Mychal Judge was not seen as a homosexual in this instance. The Pope looked beyond his sexual orientation, right to his heart. Judge must have had a big and generous heart to do what he did for our country, which the Holy Father recognized and admired.

The director of my R.C.I.A program (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) once told me that "the church only welcomes sinners." We are all sinners, though the sins themselves may vary, and no true Catholic would pass judgment on, ostracize or hate anyone who is exemplifying the life of Christ, which Judge obviously was, as the Gospel itself states "no greater love is there than this, to lay down one's life for a friend."

Erin J. Lyons, Steubenville, OH

Lacking in Logic

Signorile: Your reference to Matthew Shepard ("The Gist," 11/21) confused me. Let's see, two non-Catholic straight kids kill a gay Christian kid. Somehow they were motivated by the rantings of the head of a denomination they are not part of and that is a minority denomination in the society they live in. I have a long list of complaints about the Pope, but I try to keep them within the bounds of sane reality. Try thinking before you write.

Konrad Nimchek, Washington, DC

The Free Ride Is Over

Signorile: I think the churches have had a free ride for far too long, and I'm glad that more of us are challenging them ("The Gist," 11/21). I recall that two summers ago, Karol Wojtyla (I like to use a real name rather than a title that conveys legitimacy) was livid when LGBT people raised hell when he failed to pressure the Rome government to cancel a parade permit for the Europride event. He railed that we were an affront to Christian believers.

You are right on target when you portray this man as contributing to the violence that plagues our people. There can be no doubt how the terms "disordered" and "sinful" or "unnatural," not to mention "evil," get translated from stained-glass sanctuaries to the dark alley where some poor "fag" gets the shit beat out of him.

Bob Schwartz, Chicago

Nice Soul, Tony

Look Signorile, neither the church nor the Pope calls for the abuse of homosexuals, but there is a condemnation of homosexual acts of degeneracy. So get it straight before you start lying about the church and the Pope. It is always a degenerate who stops at nothing, lies, cheats and lives a disingenuous life, then blames everyone decent in the world for his own disgusting existence. No wonder there are bashers out there. If I was not a Catholic I would be inclined to join them. You are a pig and I am disgusted by you, but praying for your immortal soul.

Anthony Mangan, San Jose, CA

Yeah, Right

Mr. Signorile: It really is a shame that you once again chose the low road in attacking the Pope ("The Gist," 11/21). It must hurt a lot to carry the anger and pain as reflected in your piece. Perhaps someday your hostility will subside into a peace and understanding that apparently has eluded you so far.

Tony Vogrincic, Edmonton, Canada