CROWNING JOY

DEAR MERCURY—Thank you for the picture of Brokencyde [Up & Coming, Nov 12]. I was having a hard time crowning while I was on the toilet and it really helped me out.

-Jason Lopez

DOUBLE DIP

DEAR ANN ROMANO—YOU, my dear, are the dipshit [One Day at a Time, Nov 12]. Have you READ the new health care bill? NOOOO of course not, you know why? Because it's 2,000 FUCKING PAGES LONG. Simply going along with something because it has the headline Health Care Bill is for lack of a better term, ignorant.

 -Stefanie Pinniger

NO NEED FOR SPEED

People continue to speed through because they don't give a fuck and neither do police ["Protest for Pedestrian Rights," Blogtown, Nov 10]. I live a few blocks on in a far more residential setting, and drivers do the same thing. I always wonder what it will take—someone's child being killed while they're walking to or from school, maybe—to make someone pay attention, but that's apparently not the case. It's appalling to hear that, despite these recent and awful incidents, and despite the protest and vigil going on tonight, people continue to drive like complete morons—at 80th and Foster and, it would seem, everywhere else.

-Posted by Bob-Jim on blogtown.portlandmercury.com

LIFE CYCLE

HELLO MERCURY—Sarah Mirk's article on the lack of vehicular homicide laws in Oregon makes an excellent case that drivers are getting away with murder and that the laws need to change, and I thank her for writing it ["Getting Away with It," News, Nov 12]. However, while I am leery of using the tragedy of my friend Kipp Crawford's death to make a political point, it frustrates me to see yet another in a long line of heavily reported-on cyclist deaths in Portland fail to change the dialogue away from the flawed ideas that facilitated them. Changing the laws Miss Mirk reported on will only allow us retribution. And regardless, whatever the laws of our state or country may say, they are not the laws of physics, which make it indisputably clear that if a car hits a pedestrian or cyclist, no matter if it's negligent, deliberate, or a genuine accident, the person will be seriously injured and likely killed, while the car and driver will likely remain undamaged. There is only one way to save lives, and that is to abandon the ridiculous notion that we should "share the road." We must ask ourselves how many people were hit and killed on the Springwater Corridor last year? The answer is none. If we look at other cities in the world like Amsterdam and Copenhagen that are considered more bicycle friendly than ourselves, we find that they are so because they have wholly separate roads and lanes of traffic for cyclists, separated by medians or concrete curbs that cars can't simply drift over, or absentmindedly make a hard right through. I've heard drivers complain that this sort of policy would be a waste of money, but it benefits them not to hit and kill cyclists every bit as much as it does for the cyclists not to be hit and killed. This is not to mention that cyclists are also taxpayers whose interests have been ignored for too long. I realize this letter is long, contains no hip new slang, and doesn't deride any of your critics for their views [on] whatever piece of genius/crap was unleashed on an unsuspecting city this past week. Still, I hope you listen. Kipp Crawford was, as everyone has repeatedly said, a deeply talented musician and a really great guy. If the tragedy of his death is fated to be used as fodder in an ongoing political dialogue, then the best way to honor him would be make it the tipping point where real action will finally be taken so that no one else has to get the phone call so many of us received last week.

-Josh Gross

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOSH for winning this week's prize—and thanks for the smart thoughtful letter. Josh will receive two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish!, where you can fuel up on a hot meal for the ride.