Georgiades Hates Girls; Germans Have Some Humor; Lotsa Surly Missives
I don't know who William Georgiades is, but after reading his piece "The Accursed Thong" ("First Person," 1/30), one thing is clear to me: he's either gay or a raving misogynist. I choose the latter as gay men appreciate the female form though they're not sexually attracted to it. My guess is William has been dissed by one too many thong-wearing women, therefore he denounces all thong-wearing women as ugly and evil. I can't figure any reason for New York Press to publish this trash piece other than to incite fury in every female member of your readership, which may be one less. Everyone knows a "real" man is confident in himself, has respect for women and condemns the treatment of women at events like the Victoria's Secret fashion show. My suggestion to the author: William, go into your bathroom with your back to the mirror and hold another mirror out in front of you. Take a good, hard look at your pimply, moley, hairy ass and be glad you're not subjected to the scrutiny of a society, culture or profession dominated by gutless males such as yourself.
Dina Di Maio, Manhattan
Komisch Blindfisch
Jim Knipfel: I'm German and my stomach still hurts from laughing over "The Germans Keep Asking Me About Borges" ("Slackjaw" 1/23). Cool article, really, you have a real good picture of us Germans. No need for excuses at the end of the article. I just wanted to let you know that we even may have some humor here in Europe. Or at least some of us. I will buy your book as soon as possible. I am just not sure if I should buy the original or the translation.
Christian Hueller, Nuernberg, Germany
Of Course
MUGGER: I have to say I am really getting tired of Michelangelo Signorile's weekly derisions. Plus I really enjoy the "The Mail" that New York Press gets, or at least I used to. Unfortunately, it seems now that half the mail is devoted to Michelangelo Signorile's rants. MUGGER, you might consider that a good thing and proof of Signorile's writing skills and worthiness of his views but I don't. For example, as much as I detest Falwell, the religious right, et al., comparing them to a murderous regime like the Taliban is reprehensible ("The Gist," 1/9), no matter how noble he may think his point is.
His latest rant against Andrew Sullivan (1/30) is just useless. There are plenty of reasons to detest the hypocritical Paul Krugman other than the $50K he took from Enron. Krugman's explanation that he "didn't do anything for Enron" for the money is downright laughable, but his archaic economic views and his near constant and normally unjustified lambasting of the Bush administration has really worn thin.
Michelangelo Signorile is a rapidly approaching addition to my list of columnists who are hardly worth reading anymore. The list is headed, of course, by Maureen Dowd and Richard Cohen. I would add Krugman, but he is too worthless to even bother with.
Steve Hume, Canton, MI
High on "Smoke"
If the publishing world of New York doesn't get William Bryk's "Old Smoke" columns assembled and published, they're hallucinating.
Tom Paynter, Las Vegas
Unholy Alliance
Michelangelo Signorile: Good to see someone else notice this alliance ("The Gist," 1/30). Andrew Sullivan should be paying Howard Kurtz as a publicist. I recall e-mailing Kurtz a while back, wondering why he devoted so much space to Sullivan's views. He responded with something like, "I find him interesting and provocative." I could use terms like that to describe hundreds of pundits. I first noticed Sullivan as a regular on Hardball and developed a healthy distaste for his opinions then. Like you, I found his attack on Paul Krugman shallow. Thanks for continuing to point out his double standards.
Keith Frohreich, Anaheim, CA
Sanctimonious Sullivan
Mike Signorile: I am a heterosexual male, but I find the bleatings of this supposed spokesmen for gay America disgusting. I am glad you have been an outspoken critic of this sanctimonious twit. The media seems to be enamored of people like Sullivan because he is a safe gay man. You are not alone! Keep it up!
David Bishop, Manhattan
They Call It Corn Now, Huh?
Lovely Alexander Cockburn piece on Todd Gitlin ("Wild Justice," 1/30). I suppose treating one's enemies as subhuman is all in good fun. Reminded me of the days when he was describing overstuffed plutocrats and New Republic owners in terms he must have told himself were the written equivalent of a George Grosz painting but that more closely resembled those hysterically unfunny Pravda cartoons of the Brezhnev era, aka the "golden age." Three cheers for "Cornfed" Cockburn!
Michael Robertson Moore, Los Angeles
Knipfel's Full of Beans
Jim Knipfel wrote in the "Daily Billboard" (1/29), "Was he?as one friend suggested?too tempted to start humping that hot Justice chippie, the way Mel Brooks did in Blazing Saddles?" Sorry, Jim, but it was Harvey Korman, as Hedley Lamarr, who got it on with the statue. That's Hedley.
Paul Rinkes, Chicago
Flash: NYP Drives People To Drugs
Bravo, Jessica Willis! You have once again succeeded in persuading hundreds, if not thousands, of impressionable readers (as per the ABC audit) of the so-called glamour and mystique of drug use. Articles like your review of Nick Tosches' The Last Opium Den ("Books," 1/30) are a big part of the reason why the United States struggles with a drug-use epidemic that has no foreseeable cure. People, especially younger people, read reviews of this nature and are seduced by the false romance you impart to taking drugs. The truth is that drug use is nasty, brutish and short. It is also true that if people like you continue to write about drug use, it will never go away. The only solution is a complete moratorium on all mention of drugs in the media. I urge you to please take responsibility for your words, and eschew any and all drug references.
I had always wondered who was the bigger drug fiend, Willis or Melissa de la Cruz, but it appears the question has been answered. And the apologist Cockburn is hardly better.
Jabairu Tork, Boston
Queasy About Dick
RE Jessica Willis' review of The Last Opium Den: Are you paying your contributors by the belabored metaphor? I haven't felt this embarrassed at any single collection of words since I was forced to attend a writing workshop as a college freshman.
Speaking of freshmen, most of them know that the seed pod of any flower is the female part. But then, Ms. Willis couldn't have gotten so much mileage from such gems as "sap of heavenly dick" and "poppy cum." Please, make it stop.
Name Withheld, via e-mail
Ma-ri-a Bar-ti-romo!!
George Tabb: Why bother reviewing the Joey Ramone record ("Music," 1/30)? Who's gonna be the coldhearted sonofabitch (especially in New York) who's gonna give it an honest assessment? It'll never happen. I couldn't do it if I wanted to, because I haven't heard the thing. But come on. "Punk" songs about real estate, suburban livin' and hottie CNBC anchors? If anybody else released this stuff, it'd be laughed off your pages as transcendentally worthless yuppie crapola. And as for the gratuitous shitting on Blink-182 and Sum 41?who the fuck cares? Anybody who's gonna buy a Joey Ramone solo album already doesn't like any band that started after Black Flag turned into Black Sabbath, so why bother insulting bands that are perfectly serviceable at what they do? (Hell, I'd argue that Sum 41's "Fat Lip" video was one of the great punk moments of the last half-dozen years?it perfectly combines Jackass and Gummo and shows me a world I'd like nothing better than to live in, if I was 16. Which is exactly what the Leave Home album did for me when I was 16.) What Blink-182 and Sum 41 do doesn't even relate to what Joey Ramone was about, and everybody involved (the members of Blink-182 and Sum 41 included) knows it. In short, it's good that George Tabb got to remind people once again that he's a middle-aged guy who still likes to put on his leather jacket and bounce around. But does his review serve any purpose, as rock criticism? No.
Phil Freeman, Elizabeth, NJ
Wrong Lane
Listen, I'm not even going to try to be clever because I know I'll just get shut down, but Lane Lipton is just awful. Can you please do better? At least get someone who knows food, and can write too? Is that too much to ask of a restaurant reviewer?
Jules Sforza, Brooklyn
Boos for Heimy
RE Adam Heimlich's feature, "2002: Hiphop's Year One" (1/23). The article is nothing more then a piece of unorganized bullshit. Heimlich portrayed the artist Nas as if he was not ill?as he is?and the comment about his album, Stillmatic, is everything but true. It is one of the greatest rap albums out currently by one of the best MCs of all time. The article also portrayed Jay-Z as if he was so great, when he isn't, and as if he was an angel, and all his records were outstanding. The article might have had one or two sentences, make that a little paragraph, about how Jay-Z fell off, but I know it could have said more.
Amber Hay, Detroit
They Miss You, Cranky
Whither Andrey Slivka? So many men and women of good will have been disappointed to see his disappearance from the pages of New York Press. So many current events cry out for his unique and learned explanations.
In fact, I am sure Andrey Slivka could shed considerable light on the Enron fiasco and the mysterious suicide of Cliff Baxter. Was I the only one to notice the post-post-post-American apocalyptic architectural style of the Cliff Baxter McMansion? Only Slivka has the mind and imagination to put the deracinated landscape of "SugarLand" Houston, TX, into proper perspective; namely, its intrinsic relationship to the nature of money-crime and 0-balance sheet, third-party, energy-derivatives trading. One look at his kidney-shaped in-ground pool, you knew the F.A.S.B. would have to fight some creative accounting.
Also, Slivka's absence has left me baffled trying to understand the cultural landscape of Hockey Dad/Rink Rage. Left-leaning friends have suggested the hype surrounding that oinky trial was merely a setup for Time Warner to exploit all of its media properties in a synergistic fashion. CNN wanted to exploit each sick element of that ugly Boston bruiser for its bottomline potential and get the unprofitable Afghan War off the tube.
I think Slivka would have provided a far more nuanced and sophisticated analysis of Mr. Junta and his trial. He would have incorporated, with due irony, learned references to physiognomy, phrenology, commuter culture, diet, suburban sprawl, etc. He is a great writer and he is missed.
Tom Phillips, Manhattan
Got a String Up Your Ass?
William Georgiades' thong article was so dull ("First Person," 1/30) I couldn't finish; yet so bad I had to write. Miserable people write miserable pieces. Realize that and your paper improves.
Ken Bersen, Manhattan
Getting Enroned
MUGGER: I enjoy your essays and agree with you most of the time. As a matter of fact, I agree with you here that campaign finance reform is not needed. (How about a simple solution of immediate and full disclosure of campaign money?and let the voters decide if a particular candidate is worthy of a vote.) I just have to take issue a bit with your cavalier attitude toward those responsible for the Enron collapse and those who lost their 401(k) savings (1/30). Capitalism is the best system going?no doubt about it?but it is not perfect. When those in charge of huge sums of money are corrupt, all bets are off. There are "shit birds" in every endeavor of life. And in this case we know who they are. And they are not the hardworking employees of Enron.
John Brechue, Lakeland, FL
Russ Smith replies: There's no doubt that many employees at Enron (and any number of corrupt companies) got screwed. But it's not my attitude that's cavalier, but rather those who receive 401(k)s and then don't pay attention to them.
The GOP's Rules
MUGGER: Why was it soooo correct to have Clinton either turn over documents or face contempt charges (1/30)? I guess Mr. Cheney is Snow White. And, by the way, Enron execs blocked removal of funds from 401(k)s?duh.
Howard Gleichenhaus, Delray Beach, FL
IRAte
I agree overall with MUGGER that, if Enron employees had taken a more active role in checking their portfolios from time to time, instead of treating the 401(k) benefit as a don't-worry-be-happy perk, not as many would've gotten burned (1/30). But I don't think it's the whole truth, and blames the victim a bit. What about the employees who did keep a close eye on the company stock and would have liked to have ditched it, but were prevented from doing so while it tanked for a period of, what, eight weeks? A retirement fund is not a winning lott