Letters

I stopped working for Doug Chrismas 26 years ago and spent more than a few moments after that dreading I might run into him. Recently, I did. He was dressed in his usual starched uniform and having lunch in the American Rag café. I introduced him to my daughter knowing that, at 17, she would not offend him with drooling or other baby behavior. We reminisced for a minute about the party we threw for Andy Warhol at Mr. Chow’s, and then, as I left, he flashed some goofy hand signals. ‰

Somehow, the revelation in McKenna’s piece that his father was an Alberta car dealer cheers me.

—Linda Forman Silver Lake

BEST OF THE BEST

I loved the new L.A. Weekly “Best of L.A.” issue [October 17–23] and wanted to congratulate you on a spectacular job!

—Sirin Caliskan Pasadena

I just wanted to thank John Dentino for putting in print what I’ve been feeling for a long time now — KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic is mediocre. (On the other hand, KXLU’s programming has always been great and seems to be getting better.)

I have been an avid listener for years (still am), and have come to realize that the show encompasses less and less of anything truly new and underground but caters more to the corporate flunky who fancies himself cool or artsy. The show is quickly becoming a vehicle for major labels and their “indie” sub-labels to showcase new, corporate talent under the guise of the “underground” in the hopes of selling records.

—P.J. Bloom Los Angeles

IN THE REALM OF THE APOCRYPHAL

Greg Bishop’s “Best of L.A.” characterization, in his piece on Jack Parsons, of L. Ron Hubbard as a tool of Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientalis is utterly false. Mr. Hubbard was sent in by U.S. Intelligence to disband Parsons’ black-magic group. Those associated with the OTO had become a serious security threat to the nation’s atomic-research program, with suspected Nazi sympathizers among them and scientists from Caltech and Los Alamos (Manhattan Project) suspected of engaging in rituals involving sex and drugs. Clearly a security nightmare.

Mr. Hubbard succeeded in his assignment. In 1946, Parsons’ lodge of the OTO dispersed. Parsons lost his government security clearance in 1948, and other scientists involved in his group were among the 64 stripped of their security clearances after the war.

It really is time for the L.A. Weekly to reassess its perspective and policy regarding such attempts to denigrate Scientology, the religion of tens of thousands of people in your readership area.

—Lissa Uvizl Manager, L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition Hollywood

CORRECTIONS

Due to an error by the editor, The New Republic editor Chuck Lane’s surname came out “Lang” in the headline for Ella Taylor’s review of the film Shattered Glass.

Last week’s Deadline Hollywood column [“The Queens of Hollywood,” October 31–November 6] reported that Carina Chocano was a freelancer at Salon, where she was a staffer, and that she had written two books when in fact she had written one and contributed to another.