News

Letters from the Issue of November 1, 2007

"Calling an illegal alien an undocumented worker is like calling a drug dealer an unlicensed pharmacist"

The Anti-Immigrant Song

We need more like her: "Joyce Kaufman Hates Immigrants!" (by Amy Guthrie, October 25) is a great story! In a market where local radio content is almost unheard-of, Joyce Kaufman is a breath of fresh air, and her show is the only worthwhile one on WFTL-AM.

Get rid of bigots like Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingraham, and Glenn Beck, and dump all of those Air America Marxists. Give us more talkmasters who intelligently cover local and national issues, as Kaufman does so well.

Why do some people have such a difficult time understanding that you can be against people who have entered the country illegally without being against immigration per se? Like Kaufman says, if the law is enforced, and they can't get jobs anymore, illegals will leave voluntarily.

Calling an illegal alien an undocumented worker is like calling a drug dealer an unlicensed pharmacist.

David Citron

Via South Florida Radio Pages

Bravo!

You get it! You really get it!: Thank you, Brandon Thorp, for "Reality Bites" (October 25), the theater review of In the Continuum. Thank you for your compassion. Thank you for getting it.

Mesha Lenn

Via Web commentary

Dazed and Confused

Where was her editor?: I am confused by Elyse Wanshel's article "Octo-Beer Fest" (October 18). Is it meant to be a beer review? Is it meant to be a facetious story? Did the author bind and gag her editor and then lock him or her in a broom closet? This is the only reason I can think of for anyone letting this article go to print.

The author had the brilliant idea to share her ramblings with the world. One of the tasty tidbits is when she describes my friend Q as "a large man with gray whiskers who looked like James Earl Jones — if he were playing a garbage man." I think the author must not be from Miami. Anyone really from Miami has been through a hurricane. Anyone who has been through a hurricane knows that garbage men are at a level of deification superseding the venerable James Earl Jones.

Other people tell me that what the author really meant was that Q is black. Still others think the author was trying to be humorous. If he or she had not been locked in a broom closet, the editor might have reminded the author that the purpose of being a reporter is not to perpetuate racial stereotypes as humor.

So what really was the point of this article? It seemed to be this: The Abbey is a small American microbrewery decorated with two 42-inch flat-screen TV sets. It is not German. Oddly it is the month of October and there's an all-day event reducing the price of gold-medal-winning, locally brewed beer. Sadly the author openly admits she can't remember the name of the beer, nor could she say or spell it. But she does admit concern for a man in a bar trying really hard not to stare at her chest.

Let the editor out of the broom closet.

Stacy Kilroy

Miami Beach

Sugary Society

Some people have it sweet: Isaiah Thompson's "Sugar Daddies" (October 18) is a great story. South Beach is full of sugar daddies and sugar babies. If you are a cute girl, why work if someone will cover all of your bills?

Want to see a real high-class whore? Check out the society wives in New York and Connecticut. A marriage without a prenup is worth $100 million-plus to them — per marriage. The writer, Mr. Thompson, has a great future.

Tim Balsam

Via Web commentary

In a World Out of Whack ...

Information is key: Congratulations to Chuck Strouse on his column "Runaway Reporter" (October 18), about Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and oppressed journalist Gonzalo Guillén. It is just and fair and very relevant to what's going on. How and when will the unbalanced powers of the world ever get equalized? I just don't know. But the more we read about stuff like what's happening in Colombia, the more our perspective grows.

JL

Miami

Upscale Delayed

White tablecloths started sooner: In Lee Klein's review of Talula ("Upscale Downplayed," October 11), he stated that fine dining "changed in the Nineties, when a young generation of chefs reconfigured the parameters of upscale dining." Perhaps it would be more accurate to have pushed back the revolution of white-tablecloth dining to the early Eighties, specifically in California, where chefs such as Wolfgang Puck in Los Angeles and Jeremiah Towers in San Francisco were saying their goodbyes to what Mr. Klein so perfectly described. Incidentally Miami began its own reconfiguration as early as 1987 with a restaurant situated (believe it or not) in Kendall, named Toby's.

By the way, thank you for the insightful reviews Mr. Klein always writes.

José Rodríguez-Dod

Miami

Thaaaaanks

Join the team: God bless Janine Zeitlin. I want to thank her deeeeply for "Guarimba!" (October 11), detailing the 2004 revolt Robert Alonso led against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. It has further enlightened me in my own movements to save this world in which we must live. We should unite our forces.

Arnold Hernandez

Via Web commentary

Guide to Goya

We should give college credit: Thank you to Carlos Suarez De Jesus for the best writing about Goya in a long time ("Goya Storms the Freedom Tower," October 4). I was in Spain a few weeks ago, and Goya's art really is some of the world's best; Mr. De Jesus's words made it that much better. Everyone should see this show and take his article with them. It would be like a semester's worth of college to anyone interested in art.

Gary Ingram

Lake Placid, Florida