POISON PIPES
DEAR MERCURY—”Since when is cutting in line not a prick move”? When it’s a health hazard [“Pricking a Nerve,” Letters, Sept 30]. You are enclosed in your car, hardly moving. I’m actually exercising, pulling air deep into my lungs. I’d much rather not be directly behind you, breathing in your poison.
-Justin Burton
BAD EDUCATION
The Round-Up isn’t about education [“Cowboys & Indians,” Letters, Sept 30]. There’s some white people, and some red people, and some other colors of people, and they DON’T. FREAKING. CARE. They’re there to get drunk, and watch someone get thrown off of an angry animal and stomped around in some mud, and then get more drunk. If you’re the one seeing color boundaries, then you’re the one who’s a racist. The Indians aren’t there for some sort of apology, or for anyone to feel sorry for them. Their ancestors are dead, and so are ours; if you’re still dwelling on what dead people did to other dead people, it’s your problem.
-posted by mollymaverick on portlandmercury.com
NIGHT AT THE WEIRD OPERA
HI NED [LANNAMANN]—I just thought I’d write to let you know that I disagreed with your review of the opera [“Two Kinds of Opera,” Theater, Sept 30]. Especially this line, “Still, it’s hard to become engaged by any of this; it feels like an intellectual exercise rather than an emotional one.” With the exception of the part with the snake dancing and slow walking that went on for about 35 years, I really feel that Carmina [Burana] was the part of the production that had the most emotional weight. Even if the dancing was weird.
-Graham Baas
OVERSPENDING UNDER THE SEA
I ate at FIN last week and agree that the food and service here are really amazing [“Under the Sea,” Last Supper, Sept 30]. However, I disagree about it being expensive. I think for the quality of seafood you are getting a really good deal. Even fish and chips at Burgerville will cost you $11.
-posted by Extra Tasty on portlandmercury.com
IT GETS BETTER
And stand up to bullies [“Give ’em Hope,” Savage Love, Sept 30]. You owe it to yourself, you owe it to everybody else, and finally: It’s what the bully actually needs too. Because bullies are cowards, and need to be told that in front of as many of their friends as possible.
-posted by rich bachelor on portlandmercury.com
THE DUD
What’s that smell, you say [“Taking Your Supper to Bed,” News, Sept 30]? “Banding together to lobby for more higher education funding, or business-friendly tax policies, could be seen as a tradeoff for also attacking the minimum wage.” OH, it’s BULLSHIT. There can be no justifiable “trade off” for taking away the small bit of livelihood that people are already struggling to live off of, many of whom have to take several of these jobs to make ends meet. [Chris] Dud[ley] wants poor people to be more poor, to line his pockets. Higher education funding and “business-friendly” anything isn’t going to help these people put food on the table, and probably won’t actually do anything for education, either. People who vote for evil leaches like this don’t know what they’re doing to people.
-posted by mollymaverick on portlandmercury.com
DANG, MOLLY, you’re on a roll! (We’re glad someone else has reclaimed “maverick,” by the way.) For your prolific efforts in the comment section, you get two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish!, where everyone gets satisfied, even mavericky mavericks.
@Justin—How is waiting behind idling cars worse than having them gun their engines to get around you when the light turns green? You’re resting at the light and under a load accelerating away from it, so I’m not really sure what you’re trying to accomplish here.
When the car passes you at speed the air flow disperses the exhaust in a downward direction, cooling it and preventing much of anything from reaching cyclist head height. In contrast, sitting idling the relatively warm exhaust disperses upward and sucks to breath.
Also, when the block is built up air flow tends to be better the closer you are to the cross streets.
I have this vision in my head of the biker you’re thinking of orgengine, it’s some kid standing on their pedals trying to get across one of those giant intersections in Beaverton, buffeted by clouds of smoke. But all examples drawn from Beaverton’s transportation infrastructure really show only how car-centered planning is inevitably self-defeating. That’s my opinion!
If you’re worried about the exhaust, or gamma rays, or extraterrestrials appropriating your brain patters, I suggest you simply craft yourself a tin-foil Hazmat suit. Alternatively, you could just learn to live with a little discomfort and not try to inflate everyday nuisances to tragic proportions. But, hey, its Portland. So do the first one.
Yeah, why would anyone care about things like public health, air quality, and carbon monoxide and other emissions that can eventually build up in cyclists bodies? Why would anyone discuss precautions like avoiding sitting behind exhaust pipes while waiting in traffic, or cycling during lower-traffic hours. Crazy cyclists! Lets put every little thing they do under a microscope, instead of asking why so many people drive alone in their cars all the time, even when they live and work in the city and could easily bike or take public transportation (“prick move,” indeed).