MAN OF MANY HATS (OFF)
DEAR MERCURY—Please allow me to highly commend this week's Troubletown cartoon [June 25]. The acronym ROTFLOL is most apt for the Health Care Actuarial Cost-Benefit Analysis, especially the clause "Insurers wept at the poetry of it." Hats off to you, Lloyd [Dangle]! On a different note, hats off to Jim Houser for spending $80,000 a year on health benefits for his employees ["Mr. Houser Goes to Washington," News, June 25]!
Noormohamed
THE REAL DEAL
It is interesting that different cultures interpret "mental illness" differently, too ["Mad Medicine," Feature, June 25]. My sibling has had episodes of manic psychosis, both in the US and in Taiwan. Here, he is usually, eventually, committed to a psychiatric ward against his will and medicated until he acts "normal." In Taiwan, he wound up hanging out with a group of monks, practicing kung fu, and having deep philosophical conversations until he naturally returned to our version of "reality." Which approach is more humane?
posted by brotherly love on portlandmercury.com
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
Sam [Adams] has admitted fraud and corruption ["Alternate Realities," News, June 25]. Why should an admitted liar, and a repeated liar, be believed? Why is the liar's history more reliable than the report of the victim? Why did the AG [attorney general's] investigation take so long to reach its conclusion and lack of findings? Why did the AG revise and moderate its conclusions? Why did the AG avoid placing Sam and others under oath? Why did the AG avoid pursuing other possible sources of testimony? Is the AG protecting the public or protecting Sam?
posted by recall on portlandmercury.com
BARE IT
Children are not harmed by bare breasts (or for that matter, full nudity)—rather, they are harmed by adults reacting badly to them having seen bare breasts ["Tit for Tat," News, June 25]. And then those kids grow up believing that it was the nudity itself that was the problem, so they react badly if their kids see something—so either we need to break out of this vicious cycle or else everybody has to stay fully clothed in public because some people are stupid. As for adults, sure most of them are going to stare at bare female chests because they aren't used to seeing them. They're also going to stare if a peacock escaped from the zoo and started wandering around downtown, because they're not used to seeing that either. And ladies, men's nipples are erogenous zones also, so go right ahead and look at their chests and think about how much you want to play with those....
posted by Strawberries on portlandmercury.com
INTEGRITY
"Leonard said the city needed to have some 'integrity to [its] negotiations'" ["Wheeler Won't Support $15million for Soccer," Blogtown, June 29]. What negotiations? He asks for tens of millions of dollars and you fall all over yourself trying to hand them over. How is that a negotiation?
posted by Blabby on portlandmercury.com
GETING IT TUGETHER
Today on the bus, I was reading my favorite section in the Mercury the other day, which is the masthead. But am I truly to understand that, in the last issue, you spelled the word "Editorial" wrong? Really?! As in "EDITRIAL DESIGNER Nick Olmstead?" (1) If you did this as a joke—amazing. (2) If you misspelled it accidentally—even more amazing! Don't y'all have a spell checker over there? Come guys, let's clean up a bit. Let's get it together.
Nathan Langston
DID YOU CATCH who our "Soils Manager" is in the June 25 edition? We kid, we kid. The sharp-eyed Nathan wins two tickets to the Laurelhurst Theater and Lunch at No Fish! Go Fish! who, like us, thanks you for noticing.
