Letters

Best Drain-Hole Avoidance
I just got back in town a couple of days back and found a wonderful surprise: Once again Reggae Beat was chosen by New Times as Best Reggae Radio Program. Many thanks.

This year has found me rather busy, and there has been many a Saturday I could not commit to being on-air at WDNA-FM (88.9). I must thank most sincerely Tony "C" and "Flagga" Dupes for filling in. Without their commitment to keeping the spirit of Reggae Beat alive, I'm sure the show would have fallen down the drain hole many months ago.

Steve Radzi
Coconut Grove

Best Noel Coward Acknowledgement
I have always respected New Times for its high standards, professionalism, and taste, and I have always felt that the paper's opinions were stated with intelligence and honesty. To be included in "Best of Miami" is indeed an honor [Best Actress in a Comedy]. I'd like to thank director Gail Garrisan and the brilliant cast of Hollywood Boulevard Theatre's production of Hay Fever.

Linda Bernhard
Fort Lauderdale

Best Attack on Mommy Dearest
Anita Bock is much more than New Times's pick for Best Boner. She's our area's best "go along and get along" socialist Bolshevik! While crying for more funds to pay her incompetent caseworker drones more than they're worth (isn't even one dollar per hour too much?), she has yet, to my knowledge, to speak out against the insanity known as "family reunification" and all of its socialist ramifications. She doesn't "fight for the people she serves," as Justine Bock wrote about her mommy ("Letters," May 22). She serves the state Department of Children and Families' bureaucracy.

For Justine to accuse the local media of "battering" her is a joke. The Miami Herald bows to her. When she appears on Michael Putney's or Bernie Diaz's shows, she never faces a challenger or gets a tough question. Justine's mother is, in fact, coddled by the local media -- except for New Times.

The state Department of Children and Families sucks, Justine, and your "kind, concerned" mom is a big part of the problem. Do us all a favor and ask her to retire tomorrow. If you really think your mother "is not a bureaucrat and ... she cares," as you wrote in your nauseating letter, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale -- real cheap!

I applaud your support of your mother, Justine. Someone has to.
Harvey Slavin
Hollywood

Best Oenological Screwup
We are mortified to note that we made two mistakes in our Best Restaurant When Someone Else Is Paying item. The first mistake was misspelling the word Bordeaux. The second mistake was that the first mistake should never have been made. Clos de Vougeot is not a Bordeaux, it's a Burgundy.

Irrefutable Proof that Ozzy Osbourne Is for Idiots
Regarding Peter Gross's letter (May 15) about my response to Jim DeFede's article "Coming of Rage" (February 27): What the hell is he talking about? My comments in reference to Israel Kantor were strictly within the context of how some Cubans won't listen to or support a Cuban musician such as Kantor, who happens to play black Cuban music. So Mr. Gross completely missed the whole point! Besides, I'm a black man and I love Led Zeppelin. Ozzy Osbourne, however, is another story.

C. Byrd
Kendall

We Don't Want to Sound Alarmist, Robert, But You Need Help
It's a sad commentary when an organ of information willfully turns itself into an instrument of communist propaganda. It's not only sad, but as Holden Caulfield would have said, it makes you wonder. Wonder a lot.

If Paula Park had taken the trouble to interview anybody besides Norberto Fuentes's lawyer ("Castro's Birthday Bash," May 8), she would have found that the death threats Mr. Fuentes received were not made by irate Cuban exiles; they were made by communist DGI agents working for Castro's Hydra-headed fifth column here in Miami, trying once again to smear the peace-loving exile community.

Why didn't Ms. Park tell the rest of the story -- how caller-ID technology traced the postdawn death threat to a phone on the news desk of a beloved Cuban-American TV anchorman? Is there any chance that the anchorman would have called Fuentes from his own news desk and growled in Spanish: "We're going to kill you and your family members"? It's preposterous!

My advice to Ms. Park and her fellow-traveling staff: Get off your Trojan horse and face reality: No Castro, no problem!

Robert Saba
Miami