Letters

--Sabrina Venskus

Board Member,

Ballona Wetlands Land Trust

Playa del Rey

CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE

DEAR EDITOR:

The September 10­16 issue of the Weekly had an article by Johnny Angel titled "Left Meets Right in Granada Hills" in the OffBeat section. I spoke at the meeting of the Granada Forum about water fluoridation. My name is Doug Cragoe, not "Don Kreigel." (Since I sat in the small audience for some time after I spoke, Mr. Angel could have easily asked me how to spell my name, instead of just guessing.) I was not introduced as "head" of Citizens for Safe Drinking Water, so I don't know where he got that idea. He also wrote that I "passed out copies of the Impeachment Roll Call and [recounted my] recent journey to Area 51 and a subsequent UFO sighting." This is false. I spoke only about fluoridation, then I sat down.

Johnny Angel writes well about the lives of criminals, and I think he may want to stick to that, since making things up and getting the story wrong may matter less in that type of writing.

--Doug Cragoe

North Hollywood

CHECK THE FACTS MA'AM

DEAR EDITOR:

In Skylaire Alfvegren's review of a recent Ted Nugent show at House of Blues [Music Reviews, September 10­16], she manages to spell drummer Tommy Aldridge's name wrong ("Aldrich") and list his credits as Rainbow and Black Sabbath, when he was never in either of those bands. The fact that he played in Whitesnake (another Deep Purple "splinter" act) and with Ozzy Osbourne (former and current singer of Sabbath) makes this a "close but no cigar" situation. Please be more careful.

--Damon Shezza

Los Angeles

SOURCED

DEAR EDITOR:

I just wanted to write in appreciation of John Morthland's wonderful article on our CD set The West Coast East Side Sound ["Poquito Soul," September 3­9]. I am sure that Eddie Davis would have been proud to be remembered in this way. I would, however, like to correct one statement: "These four CDs are drawn from old 45s rather than master tapes." This is simply not true. Our disclaimer reads, "Every effort has been made to use the best source material available. In those cases where original master tapes did not exist, disc transfers were used. Therefore, sound quality may vary."

Thank you again for a great article and review.

--Hector A. Gonzalez

Owner, Rampart Record Group

Maywood

HOUND DOGS

DEAR EDITOR:

I would like to thank Siran Babayan for her mention of Hatikvah Music in "Back to the Source" [September 10­16]. However, I should point out that while Jerry Leiber did work here (when the store was called Norty's Music), Mike Stoller did not -- although they did originally meet here.

--Simon Rutberg

Hatikvah Music International

Los Angeles

DOG RESCUE

DEAR EDITOR:

Thank you for running the article on Ardis Munck and Doberman Rescue ["Dog Ma," September 3­9]. Ardis has been a close friend ever since my husband and I got two of our dogs from her (neither of whom, by the way, is a Dobie), six years ago. I would also like to commend John McCormick for capturing the spirit, courage, humor and good common sense of this amazing woman. It's my hope that your article will expose people to the incredible work that Ardis and other rescue people do, as well as to the deplorable situation for so many abandoned companion animals, who have been so frequently disappointed by those whom they've trusted most, their owners.

--Candace Lawrence

Long Beach

THE THORN IN THE ROSE

DEAR EDITOR:

In her otherwise incisive review of American Beauty ["Blue Velour," September 17­23], Ella Taylor confounds the reader with her reference to "one unfortunate scene that implies it's okay to sleep with an underage slut but not with an underage virgin . . ." Summoning every critical faculty I possess, I am still at a loss to understand this interpretation of the scene. True, Lester doesn't act on his initial intentions in this scene, but it's not because he's reluctant to deflower the "American Beauty" he believes will redeem him from his own inertia; rather, Lester withdraws because the reality of Angela's identity (as opposed to the "Everyman's Lust Fantasy" persona she markets as a survival mechanism) snaps him back into the reality of his own inner core of decency. With his tender decision in this scene, Lester resurrects something of the nobility we know he once had before it evaporated into an evanescent suburban haze. As in classical tragedy, this realization comes too late to save Lester, but it's important to recognize the scene as a vehicle of Lester's self-revelation, not as an "unfortunate" take on the hackneyed "madonna-whore" prototype.

--Mary Beth Culp

San Pedro

CORRECTION

Part of the credit for last week's Best of L.A. cover, featuring the artwork of Matt Groening and the folks at Futurama was omitted in many of our papers. It should have read: FUTURAMA^TM& © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.