The good news is that alleged Grim Sleeper serial killer Lonnie Franklin Jr. has been arrested. The bad news, according to Christine Pelisek (“Missing the Grim Sleeper by a Hair,” July 15), is that the LAPD had staked out a house three doors down from Franklin's in 1988, but failed to come up with anything.

Weston says this sort of disappointment is just a part of police work: “Near misses by law enforcement are more common than many of us would like to believe, and rarely is the public privy to that information. While the investigative work leading to an arrest often comes out in court when a case is being prosecuted, the woulda, shoulda, coulda is kept in the files. While kudos for a successful investigation are well deserved, the applause is for the result. The investigative process, as your article suggests, is not always as worthy.”

But a reader going by the moniker Input is a little more disturbed: “How ironic that the sign on Franklin's fence reads 'Beware of Dog' when in fact it now looks like it should have said, 'Beware of Human.' A stray dog will kill to eat, never out of malice. A human being, however, will kill for the thrill, for power, for money, for sex, for love. And we are supposedly the more intelligent of the two.

“As for police work,” Input continues, “they may not have had the modern technology, etc., available today but that's no excuse for the good ole-fashioned brain work of connecting the dots. After reading this article I am shocked at how much was apparently not done.“

LegalZoom thinks we're all making too much of this story: “This happened in 1988. Bradley was mayor. We were four years from the Riot. Rampart was a decade away. If you're looking for bad things to say about police work, you don't have to go back to the Stone Age. But maybe you'll get 30 seconds on FOX, which I guess is the point. Way to milk it for all it's worth.”

Pelisek is, of course, the Weekly's intrepid staff reporter who has been widely honored for breaking the Grim Sleeper story back in 2008. So we have no problem with a little splashed milk, or with this comment from a reader called Babamoto: “Bravo, Christine Pelisek! Bravo, LAWeekly!”

IS CHRISTOPHER NOLAN CONFUSED?
Millions of us have been confused (and entertained) by Inception writer and director Christopher Nolan, but maybe he's just a little confused in his conversation with Scott Foundas (“Inception: Dream Weaver,” July 15). Reader Eric Baldetti: “I just want to respond to Christopher Nolan's question about why, when looking into a mirror, 'left and right are reversed, but up and down are not.' The reason, I believe, is really simple. Left and right are not reversed. When staring at yourself in the mirror, your left hand actually remains on the left side of the image and your right remains to the right. The only thing reversed/confusing is our own preconceived expectation that if our reflected image were a real person facing us, our left arm would be that person's right arm. The mirror flips nothing and only reflects the world exactly as it is. But, alas, it is not a person and only our self. Reality, as it is, confuses a lot of people; perhaps that's why Christopher Nolan makes movies about dreams and fantasy.”

THERE'S BREAST IMPLANTS IN THEM THAR HILLS!
No wonder the long-running reality-TV show The Hills is finally ending: No one cares! Except for reader MK: “This show needs to come to an end. Seriously, it's the day of the finale, and Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are furiously trying to suck up the last moments of their '15 minutes' by taking to Twitter. It's sick in so many ways. Sadly, I think we haven't seen the last of any of these people.”

TAT THAT!
David Heller didn't much appreciate our June 19 cover story, “Chefs With Tattoos.” Never mind Amy Scattergood's lovely prose, it's the body art that got Heller's goat: “It's got to be a slow news week in L.A. when tattoos (or cartoons) adorn your cover. Calligraphy? I've seen scarier artwork on a cereal box. How original, 7 roses, 3 roosters, 3 skulls and a clown. 'The tattoo as a preferred expression of individualism.' Maybe in 1945. It's about as original [now] as getting your hand stamped at a club and not washing it off. Chefs, prisoners, soldiers, NBA players? Try high school kids, grocery clerks, soccer moms and my mailman.”

GOOGLE, ELLA, GOOGLE!
Ella Taylor's interview with filmmaker Lisa Cholodenko (“The Kids Are All Right: My Generation,” June 10) did not come up to reader Jen's Internet-search standards: “Eh, Cholodenko's domestic partner is not just 'a composer' — she's guitarist and singer/songwriter Wendy of Wendy & Lisa, famous for playing in Prince's band the Revolution. Ella Taylor might have Googled Wendy and mentioned that, don't ya think?”

WE MAY ALREADY BE WINNERS!
The Weekly cleaned up at the Alternative Weekly Awards in Toronto last week, taking home more awards than any other paper save for The Boston Phoenix. (Hats off, chowderheads!) We took the top two honors in the Arts Feature category; first place went to Randall Roberts' story on Ozomatli's tour in Southeast Asia (“On the Road to Burma: Globe-trotting With Ozomatli, Unlikely U.S. Diplomats”), and second place to Gendy Alimurung for her cover story on gay-romance novels (“Man on Man: The New Gay Romance, Written for and by Straight Women”). Jonathan Gold won yet another first prize for his restaurant reviews. Full results can be seen at altweeklies.com/aan/awards.

LETTERS
You write 'em, and write 'em well, and we'll publish 'em. It's as simple as that. Give us your name and a phone number, and we'll be happy. To readerswrite@laweekly.com.

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