MOST ILLOGICAL

RE: "'I'm Not One of the World's Great Thinkers'" [Music, Oct 18], an interview with Noel Gallagher.

DEAR ANDREW R TONRY—Am I the only one who noticed how much Noel Gallagher looks like Spock in this picture?

Isaac Hudson

GIRL, YOU BETTER WORK

RE: "The Sexism Tax" [Sexual Politics, Oct 18], in which the author addresses the persistent wage inequality among the sexes.

DEAR MS. [SARAH] MIRK—This problem seems to me to be not only intractable but also imminently solvable. So start a campaign, take to the streets, ask politicians what they're going to do. If 57 years have gone by and the law by itself hasn't changed anything, clearly additional measures are called for.

Daniel Luke, Columbia River Correctional Institute

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE

RE: "Trouble in the Road" [News, Oct 18], addressing recently released crash reports that indicate Portland's green bike boxes may be doing more harm than good.

Intersections are dangerous by their very nature. Three things to minimize harm, or worse, when approaching an intersection in the bike lane: (1) Assume the vehicle ahead of you WILL turn in front of you. (2) Stay behind the vehicle and in [the] driver's line of sight in the rearview mirror. (3) When safe, and if necessary, merge into the middle of the car lane, staying in sight of the driver's rearview mirror through the intersection.

Curtis Partridge

IT WAS THE '70s, MAN

RE: "Worst Mayors Ever" [Feature, Oct 18], rounding up the worst mayors in Portland's history in an attempt to make people feel better about their options in the election.

Before we leave Neil Goldschmidt at the pillory for one more bout of public shaming, it should be remembered that without his activism as community organizer and then as mayor of Portland (1973-1979) it's doubtful there would be such a thing as "bike lanes" here today. But this important history has been cast aside and forgotten. All that seems to matter about Goldschmidt today is that starting in 1975, he had sex with his 14-year-old babysitter for three years. Remember how filmmaker Roman Polanski got into some trouble over an underage girl too at about the same time? My point is that back in those long-gone days, the West Coast was literally crawling with underage girls from "nice" families looking for free love and free drugs. I'm not excusing Goldschmidt's behavior. I'm arguing for a sense of proportion about it in terms of the sexual climate of his times and his legacy as the sort of mayor [who was a] champion of people other than [the] real estate developers and corporate suits we haven't seen here since.

Gerhard Magnus

BIG CREEK, BIG STINK

RE: "Desperation Row" [Feature, Oct 18], the Mercury's endorsement issue, in which we encourage readers to vote against a move to ban gillnetting.

I am forced to believe, dear Mercury, that you have definitely NOT done your homework, especially when it comes to Measure 81, concerning gillnetting in our rivers. When I first met my boyfriend, three years ago, he took me to Big Creek, a well-loved creek with a healthy salmon run on Highway 30 between here and Astoria, when the coho were coming in full strength, this very time of year. The next year we went to Big Creek again at the beginning of October to catch a fish—it was a tradition. For hours we stood and waited—nothing. We went to the mouth of the creek where it runs into the Columbia and found a fishing vessel of the gillnetting persuasion. We went back to the creek this year and got exactly what we expected. No fish in the creek, and the same gillnetting boat at the mouth. Next time do your fucking research. I am so disgusted I want to cover your building in diarrhea and put heaters all around it so it will be like when you fart in the shower and the smell is magnified, only so bad your staff will not be able to think straight. You infuriate me. If I wasn't so fucking mad I'd send my pitbull to bite off your balls—too bad he wouldn't be able to fucking find any.

Jocelyn Kazebier

DESPITE THESE truly unpleasant-sounding threats, Jocelyn, we would like to award you letter of the week for the very best use of diarrhetic imagery in an angry threat leveled at us in at least a year. You win two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater, where gillnetting is already prohibited.