DEAR MERCURY—How can [Sarah Mirk] fall completely for Mike Pullen's $290 million PR scam for replacing the Sellwood ["Election Update! What the Hell Is the Sellwood Bridge Going to Do Now?" Blogtown, May 18]? At least the fine folk of Clackamas County did not fall for the $200 million fraud that ODOT/Multco/PDX is promoting. They make the rest of us look like the skinny tattooed whining hipster fixie freaks we really are!
-Skinny Bridge Fixer
DEAR MERCURY—I must say, for the first time, I was shocked and appalled while reading your article, "How to Dress Like a Gang Member" [News, May 12]. Are there no white gang members in the Portland, Oregon area? From the pictures depicted in your article you wouldn't think so. Do police really think this is the way that gang members look? So, being a race other than white and dressing a certain way should get me scrutinized more closely when I decide to go to the club? Sounds like racial profiling to me.
-Alice Valentine
I am absolutely livid that the Portland Mercury is promoting this racist, misogynistic scumbag's book ["Sex, Justice, and the American Way," Feature, May 19]. Larry Flynt hides behind free speech when he's called out for making his fortune off of exploiting women, jokes about raping children, abusive treatment of women in his magazines, and his pseudo child franchise Barely Legal. Good to know the Portland Mercury takes a "progressive" stand on this issue.
-posted by terristrange
I'm not saying Larry Flynt is a stand-up guy or anything, but WTF does him being a creepy sleaze-merchant have to do with the content of this book, or the content of this article ["Sex, Justice, and the American Way," Feature, May 19]? It seems like you just want to protest him on general principle, rather than any meaningful grievance. I mean, why not set up shop outside Ron Jeremy's sex club and yell at the women who go in? You could tell them how they're gender-traitors who are perpetuating porn culture and harming women everywhere by attending a place owned by someone who made their money in porn.
-posted by Ugh Fugh
I'm a landlord and this makes me very sad ["The Naughty List for Landlords," News, May 19]. I think training and education is a better way to fix this problem than blaming and naming through public intimidation. I treat everyone who walks in my door exactly the same way—under the same circumstances. When I have to be at the bank by 6 pm and someone drops in at 5:45 pm, they are not going to get the same half-hour tour as someone who called and scheduled an appointment. It does not matter to me where they are from or what they look like, but according to [the Fair Housing Council of Oregon], this is discrimination if the person who shows up at closing time is not white.
-posted by CL
As a former massage therapist, it happens, and really when neither party is being inappropriate, it's no big deal ["Bye Bye Boner," I, Anonymous, May 19]. Although I myself would have ended the massage as well once that happened. Even if I KNEW beyond any doubt it wasn't conscious I still would have felt uncomfortable, especially if I were male.
-posted by RayahLynn
BREATHE EASY, RayahLynn, there are no known inappropriate boners operating actively in the destinations we are sending you for your letter of the week. You get two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish! where all the boners are very well behaved.
