The Mail

Assembly Language

I write in response to your editorial "Goin' Off The Rails" (The News Hole, 2/9), which takes issue with my proposal to ensure that our transportation infrastructure is protected against possible future terrorist attacks.

You correctly point out that the cause of the recent track fire was not terrorist-related and likely due to the aging nature of our transit system and the lack of necessary funding for maintenance and improvement. What you fail to do, however, is explain why we should ignore a serious public-safety threat while we continue to fight for more dollars to repair and modernize the system.

Over the last several years, I and many of my colleagues from New York City have been tireless advocates for increased support for our subway system and relentless critics of Governor Pataki's efforts to shortchange our mass transit needs. I will continue (as you suggest and as I have been doing) to go to Albany and demand that more money be allocated to repair and upgrade the subway system's crumbling, century-old infrastructure.

But your suggestion that we cannot walk and chew gum at the same time is short-sighted. It also leaves the same system you value susceptible to destruction at the hands of those who have already proven their desire to harm our city. You would be hard-pressed to find any public-safety expert who would not agree that our mass transit system is among the most attractive targets to anyone who has designs on crippling New Yorkers' ability to live and work in the greatest city on Earth.

We would be better served if publications such as yours continued your important advocacy for improving our infrastructure and joined me in my effort to ensure that the most heinous among us do not exploit the vulnerable nature of our subway system. Ignoring the danger is only a recipe for disaster.

Michael N. Gianaris, Member of Assembly,36th District, Queens

Tale of Two Scandals

Does anyone know the true market value of the Atlantic Yards? Show us readers how much of a scandal the no-bid deal with Ratner truly is (The News Hole, "The Brooklyn Rats," 2/9). Do the negotiations (or lack of) compare to the West Side Jets stadium saga?

Don Doe, Brooklyn

Monkee See

I am so sick and tired of the "Free Tibet" crap; I'd like to rub Zach's, Bono's and Gere's face in a pile of cashmere goat excrement (J.R. Taylor, "Welcome to the Monkee House," 2/16). The country was ruled by the monks in much the fashion of medieval Europe. Peasants who tried to escape the obligation to the monastery would be placed in stocks and had their eyes put out; the country had no hospitals or universities, and sexual abuse by the clergy was rampant.

Hey, there's an idea-maybe these celebrity meatheads can campaign for Father Shanley to get his job back!

Paul M. Whalen, Hollywood, FL

One World, One Love, One Murder

Knock off the lefty carping about how tragic it is that so much more attention is paid when a black teenager shoots and kills a white woman, instead of the usual target, another black teenager (The News Hole, "All the Pretty Victims," 2/9). Blacks killing other blacks is much less of a story because you don't have worlds colliding. Here, you do, and it's in a way that white media consumers (probably a majority, even in New York) take note of. The demand for equal media reaction is as ridiculous as the demand for equal racial outcome anywhere else.

But hey-you guys have a media operation yourselves. Why don't you dispatch your team to write up the guy shot in Bed-Stuy? Just watch out you don't get shot yourselves.

David Wilson, Brooklyn

Amazing Grace

I was not Nicole Dufresne's oldest or dearest pal-I'll make no claims about that. She was a friend and fellow actor in college, and I regrettably didn't put forth the effort to become a closer friend when we were both in New York. She wasn't a stereotypical "aspiring actress"; she was damn amazing. I adored and admired her, crushed madly on her, lost touch with her and too late I have realized that I was just a lousy friend.

My relationship to Nicole aside, I want to thank you for Christopher X. Brodeur's comic ("Dirty Secrets About Nicole DuFresne's Murder," 2/16). Of course I was frustrated when both you and the Voice decided to run stories on how her murder garnered so much attention. Yes, this is a problem. It is also the most tired, most common, most discussed problem in journalism. "Why does x get so much ink when y was just as important?" Why do celebrities get five-page obituaries? Why is there more news about Iraq than, say, the Congo? I am tired of hearing it. Nicole didn't ask for it, her family didn't ask for it and her friends certainly didn't ask for it. It was a goddamn travesty, and it sickens my heart.

As usual, it takes a cartoonist to bring up the important issues. Thank you for taking the mayor and the governor to task about the pathetic state of the New York Department of Corrections. Let something good come of this. I would think you would all be more vocal about this, as it is something that affects everyone. Not just "pretty, white, 'aspiring actresses.'"

Nick Capodice, Brooklyn

NYC2212, Please

"Olympics Go Home" (2/16) was hilarious. You even made my wife laugh out loud. And me, too.

Dennis Gronim, Brooklyn

Somebody's Looking for a Job

I was searching the web for reviews on VietCafe, and came across Gabriella Gershenson's article ("Viet Bland," 1/12). I was surprised because I had eaten there this past weekend and absolutely loved it. Normally I'm too lazy to bother with this stuff, but I'm writing now because I think Gabriella did the restaurant an injustice.

I am Vietnamese, so I think I can judge Vietnamese cuisine. The food was spot-on: tasty, subtle flavors coming through each dish, not to mention beautifully presented. Vietnamese food is not Thai food, it is not Chinese food-the food is not doused with MSG or hot or heavy sauces. There are layers to the food that come from yummy marinades that enhance the flavor of the dish. I found the caramelized salmon to be reminiscent of how my grandmother used to make it, savory and sweet at the same time (which for the life of me, sweet and sour chicken at Chinese restaurants can never do right; all you taste is a sickening-sweet syrupy sauce). The jicama rolls were amazing, and I dare you to find any other Vietnamese restaurant that even serves this dish, let alone this good.

By the way, I am spreading the word on my own, so don't be surprised to see my compliments on blogs, etc. Question is, do you have the guts to print this reply, or do you guys just like the trash talk?

Bich Trang, Manhattan

Koyen: Carrying the Handbasket

Jeff Koyen: I heard you on Howard Stern this morning, and I must say, you're probably the biggest idiot he's ever had on the show. People like you are part of the reason this country is going to hell.

Get your facts straight before publishing more horseshit. I'm sure you've succeeded in losing the respect of millions of free-speech advocates by your stupid comments.

Keep up the good work. I'm sure your newspaper will go far.

Christine Oqu, San Francisco

Koyen: Fucked by Self

To respond to your opinion of Howard being a pussy: Why didn't you help him against the fight against censorship? If he's such a pussy, what are you? You're just a jealous piece of shit. Go fuck yourself.

Michelle Myszka, Waterbury, CT

Republican is as Republican Does

You pretentious, oogley fucks! I was an avid reader until 10 months ago when you gave Howard Stern a bum rap. I hate our past and present mayors as much as the next New Yorker, but it's exactly what's wrong with this country when you give a man shit for his own political leanings (and Stern is not a Republican) when they don't fit comfortably into your own.

Stern has done more for free speech than any current cultural icon, and if people and organizations don't get behind the people fighting the fight because of personal or political conflict, free speech can never win. Get over yourself!

Deirdre Drohan Forbes, Carrick, NY

Stern's Got Dittoheads Too

New York Press' preachy shit-list "50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers" gave yet another glimpse into your paper's obsession with condemning the lives and lifestyles of others, as if your own moral values were impeccable. Even more revealing and pathetic was the call from one of your staff (I don't remember his name) to the Howard Stern Show this morning trying to trash Howard for very poorly understood reasons. Your guy spent about five minutes screaming at Howard for not doing enough to fight the FCC until Howard set him straight and told him that, in fact, he has been putting it to them for years and years.

Then the real reason for the hating came out, which turned out to be loosely linked to the fact that Rudy Giuliani and Bloomberg are trying to screw independent papers, and Howard is a supporter of theirs. Apparently this makes Howard just as much of an oppressor as either of them? He didn't appear to know anything about this issue and even less about how he figures in to it.

If your paper can only come up with such limp-dicked reasons as these for putting big names in the pages and making a big stink about them, then you don't deserve to have your boxes out on the sidewalks of NYC anyway.

Max Krauss, Burlington, VT