RE: "Who Loses an Italian Standoff?" [Last Supper, Jan 29], in which Food Editor Chris Onstad blind taste tested Italian sandwiches from nine sources, including East Side Delicatessen, which received unfavorable remarks.
I think Shut Up and Eat is doing great work. Everything I have had there has been great including the Italian sub—they also make a killer cheesesteak. Bunk's cured meats [are] also a go-to. I must disagree about the East Side Deli comment. While it is not nearly as good as the above examples, I think it is a good representation of what you could get at an average East Coast deli/sub shop.
posted by Yair Maidan
East Side really does deserve some respect, here. Vegetarian sandwiches are getting harder to find all the time, [and] East Side has always been good to me.
posted by Spaceman
RE: The Mercury's Fitness Issue [Feature, Jan 29], in which the authors explored everything from juice fasting to Jazzercise, along with some discussion of Portland's propensity toward junk science (hello again, fluoride!).
There are much easier ways to do [juice fasts]. It is also important to at least discuss this with a nutritionist. Yes, it is temporary, but blood sugar fluctuations beyond the norm can be problematic. I do agree that temporary fasts are a good idea to detoxify. For perspective, I weigh 80 pounds less than the subject, but I have lost more than the seven pounds lost by the subject to make a weight class. Is it great for you? Uh, no.
posted by The Showstopper
The anti-fluoride decision was based on sound science—and economics... No need to spend the taxpayer funds for something completely unnecessary unless there is some kind of cronyism going on.
posted by Mickey Roktska
I believe in anthropogenic climate change and support measures to combat it because of the universal consensus that exists in the scientific community. Likewise, when the entire medical community supports fluoridating public water supplies and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims it to be one of the "10 great public health achievements" of the 20th century, I don't have the hubris to think my paranoid Googling will leave me better informed than the experts. I was born and raised in Portland, love it here, and am never leaving, but our city's strain of pseudoscientific liberalism is giving progressives a bad name! And worse, it's putting innocent children at risk.
posted by Brian Harvey
DEAR MERCURY—Using children to generate pity is a manipulative age-old tactic, and is generally employed when rational arguments to support a cause are few or nonexistent. If we want more bang for our buck, we should approach this as a targeted social policy program: As a public outreach, offer fluoride tablets to that specific part of the population that is perceived as needing it, and at the same time educate their parents about the health dangers of soda pop and other sweet-tooth crappy food, and keep that crap out of our schools. And all of us should understand that there are more subtle health risks in the average American diet: starches. Very revealing is the incidence of smugness and lack of respect on the side of many proponents of fluoridation. Name-calling is the last resort of folks unable to partake in a rational discussion when they perceive their opinions as black-and-white issues. Finally, there is the argument that other municipalities are doing it. As my mom used to say when I wanted to do something simply because my friends were doing it: "If Johnny jumped off the Empire State Building, would you do it, too?"
William Romanelli
Yea... Because hipsters ex fitness. Just keep
posted by starfish
Yea... Because hipsters exude fitness. Cram more American Spirits and PBR down your throats and shut the fuck up
posted by starfish
Fuck your mom
posted by starfish
THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM, starfish! Congratulations for finally spitting that out. While we are pretty sure your heart's not exactly in the right place, we're nonetheless giving you two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater, where you should not spit your vitriol while others are trying to watch a film.
