RE: "Jeff Goldblum's Psychosexual Power" [Film, June 22], Megan Burbank's erotic contribution to last week's film section—a section that, for one beautiful week, was devoted entirely to the life and works of Jeff Goldblum.
Yes. And I appreciate the commitment of the Mercury film section to Jeff Goldblum. (I might have also had a thing for Rick Moranis.)
catbot
What a delight to see the back half of this week's Mercury transform into a Jeff Goldblum lovefest. I too have made it through all these years with generous helpings of the 'Blum. But I was sad to see his most amazing work omitted from your critique: [The 1980 TV series] Tenspeed and Brown Shoe. Not only did Goldblum do voiceover in his inimitable style, his character was a nerdy accountant who knew karate and dreamed of being a private dick. Awesome! Oh, and Ben Vereen was in it too.
Jim Leno
RE: "Good Morning, News: The Brexit's a Thing, Kate Brown's Alarmed by Oil Trains, and Bernie's Voting for Hillary" [Blogtown, June 24]. "Just, wow," Dirk VanderHart wrote. "In the face of good sense, and powered by anti-establishment, anti-immigrant sentiment, Britain has formally voted to exit the European Union."
One thing's for certain with the Brexit: We're going to have good punk music once again. Anarchy in the UK!
pollo
RE: "Here's the $258.4 Million Housing Bond You'll Be Voting on in November" [Blogtown, June 24], Dirk VanderHart's story on... well, the $258.4 million housing bond you'll be voting on in November. "The city estimates the bonds will result in a tax hike of about 42 cents for every $1,000 of assessed value of your (or your unscrupulous landlord's) property," VanderHart wrote. "So for a $200,000 home, that's $84 a year."
This is an incorrect statement. The correct statement is, "A person who owns a property with improvements assessed at $200,000 will owe an additional $84 a year in property taxes."
There are lots and lots of homes in Portland with values of over $300,000 that have assessed values of much less than $200,000. Most of these homes are in gentrified areas where lower-income people have been priced out, and costs for transportation are lower because you can walk or bike to jobs and services. Meanwhile, the lower-income people that can scrape together enough to buy a home get to purchase a $200,000 home that has an assessed value of ~$190,000—in a part of town where their transportation costs will also likely be much higher because they have to drive or travel much longer distances on transit to get to anything.
Cora Lee Porter
Doing more of the same is not going to "burst the bubble." For supply and demand to actually drop prices, you have to have a surplus—but developers don't build what won't be filled, and government officials don't allocate funds to housing beyond simply meeting the point of equilibrium between supply and demand. I'm no economist, but I know if it were as simple as those who read the Willamette Week's front-page article a few months back seem to think, then it would have worked out for other large towns—which it plainly did not.
guidogazz
RE: "Step Aside, Lord of the Rings. Vaxxed Is the Fantasy Epic of Our Age" [Film, June15], Erik Henriksen's review of the anti-vaccination film Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, and last week's letters section [Letters to the Editor, June 22], which was nearly unintelligible due to the kajillion bewildering letters we got from angry anti-vaxxers.
The anti-vaxxers sure get their panties in a bunch when you challenge their ridiculous woo-woo about the dangers of vaccines. It's really a difference of anecdotal information versus a multitude of scientific research.
I know that most of these anti-vaxxers are lefties, which makes me embarrassed for us progressive-thinking people. But then again, the right has Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, so instantly I feel better.
JPo
For his passionate ode to Jeff Goldblum's inimitable Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, we're giving the Mercury's letter of the week prize—two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater—to Jim Leno. Enjoy, Jim—and while you're at the Laurelhurst, please encourage them to host a Tenspeed and Brown Shoe retrospective, preferably with Mssrs. Goldblum and Vereen in attendance.
