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YUMMY MUMMY
Thank you for feeling my pain as the Mom of Scary (“Son of Scary,” Nov. 1). Yes, it was my 5-year-old boy, Quinn, running with the scissors after his older brother. The good news is Quinn was honored as a Student of the Month last week. However, he got busted for roughing up the school's bully today. It is never a dull moment with a kid whose favorite band is the Ramones and whose first concert was Motrhead (he fell asleep). Dana Wildes
via e-mail ANTISEPTIC PLAGIARISM
Your review of 8 Milewas laughable and seemed almost somehow antiseptically plagiarized for “coolness” (John Powers' “Get to Know Your Rabbit,” Nov. 8). Obviously knowing nothing about Eminem, Powers must have stolen some song references from articles in better publications. Me and my friends, who attend a large university in the area, are sick of Eminem being ignored. Jesus Christ, can't you find anyone remotely interested in writing half-assedly decent reviews about a contemporary iconic artist? All we find is old professors writing about what they think is popular and cool, reviews of ridiculous clubs and post-hot spots, and the constant raving about the same politicians. Everything you guys write about died in the early '90s. Welcome to the 21st Century. We're all sickened by you guys—and tired of it. Jonathon Wells and friends
Long Beach/Costa Mesa/Irvine/Fullerton WE GET THE 'BULLSHIT' PART
Cornel Bonca's “A Pin-Downable Derrida” is both hilarious and brilliant (Film, Nov. 8). Having studied linguistics, I once read about two pages by Derrida on the Greek letter “alpha.” It said nothing about phonetics and phonemics and the Greeks' most important contribution to writing: the use of surplus Phoenician consonant letters to represent vowels. It also did not say anything about how the traditional order of the alphabet led to an easy way of organizing information in dictionaries, encyclopedia and phone books. It was full of commentary similar to Derrida's conceptions of the first-person singular pronouns being nothing but “pure passageway(s) for operations of substitution.” (He also said many other things about them that are nothing but hypnotic cant.)
Perhaps Derrida meant that when Bonca says, “I want a glass of water,” it means something different from what I mean when I say it. He also could have meant that people change over time. But I don't think that when I said, “I want a glass of water” at age 5, it meant anything different from what it means when I say it now. As the old saying goes, “If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with bullshit.” This happens a lot in the humanities and social sciences. It also earned Derrida a comfortable retirement job at UC Irvine.
Harleigh Kyson Jr.
Long Beach COMMIE GIRL, INTERRUPTED
Granted, a red-blooded girl's gotta find a straight guy somewhere (Rebecca Schoenkopf's “Writers on the Storm,” Nov. 8), but if Commie Girl keeps hanging out with Rebuplikans she's gonna have to start calling herself Fascist Girl. John Turnage
Santa Ana FLIPPED OFF
Daniel C. Tsang's glowing review of the film The Flip Side used such adverbs as “superbly,” “impressively,” “ably” and “exquisitely” (“All In the Family Pinoyed,” Nov. 8). But not once during my limited (since we walked out) exposure to the Delacruz family did I witness anything like that. The acting was atrocious.
But this is my question for Mr. Tsang: Is that really what you think of us? Do you really think all Filipino moms do is cook to make their family happy and gossip with their friends on the phone about the sin that is birth control? Do you think all Filipino guys are either militant Pinoy Priders or just straight-out thugs? Do you think Filipino girls can only get dorky, fat, white guys and all need nose jobs? I understand the movie is supposed to be satire, but neither the cast nor the script were strong enough to convey the intent. If Tsang's ardent promotion of this film is his way of making this into the next My Big Fat Greek Wedding, can he please kiss my big, fat, Filipino ass? Seriously.
Christine Sevilla
Long Beach
To the Weekly editors, from this real-life fellatio ex-boy: whoever changed my correct spelling of “fellatio” and left out an “l” in my review of The Flip Side needs a stern lesson in proofreading—and more. I'm offering my services to the culprit.
Daniel C. Tsang
Irvine BOMBS AWAY
Thanks for covering my “modest proposal” (Nick Schou's “An Immodest Proposal, Nov. 1). I especially liked Schou's adoption of Swift's style to get my anti-war message across.
While I think the logic of Bush's war plans and larger U.S. foreign/terrorist policy are as flawed as Swift's plan for solving the Irish famine, the alternative of unending sanctions that kill thousands of innocent people per month is hardly much better. I did not publicly describe the folks at MERIT as “lunatic right-wing Jews.”
Mark LeVine
UC Irvine DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS
Matt Coker tried to make a lame joke at the expense of Arnold Schwarzenegger by citing a film called Seven Days(A Clockwork Orange, Nov. 8). The actual Schwarzenegger movie was The Sixth Day. Seven days is how long The Sixth Day seemed to most viewers.
Comedian Bill Maher did not appear at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) national conference in Anaheim on Nov. 8-10 (Calendar listings and Coker's This Week in Bill Maher Sightings, Nov. 8). Maher's appearance had been announced, but the MPP lineup later changed. You can catch him Nov. 23 at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles pimping his new book, When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden.
