Letters to the editor

[March 21st, 2007] plaid pantry got a bum rap

Can't you find any real rogues? I was baffled by your choice of Plaid Pantry as Rogue of the Week in your March 14 issue. Are you unaware of the extensive street-drinking problem in Portland? Plaid Pantry has made an honest effort to help reduce the negative impacts of street drinking on neighborhoods. The residents of Portland are the beneficiaries of this policy, not Plaid Pantry, which only loses revenue as a result of its restriction. The real rogues are the businesses who sell alcohol to anyone, including those who are already inebriated or obvious street drinkers.

Do you hold the same objection to the common "no shirt, no shoes, no service" requirement posted at many businesses? Plaid Pantry's policy is much less onerous. After all, its policy only prohibits the sale of alcohol. On the other hand, street drinking degrades health, safety and quality of life in Portland. Vomit, urine, feces and broken bottles in doorways should not be a common occurrence, but in many neighborhoods they are.

Perhaps, instead of pointing a critical finger at a business which has demonstrated a strong commitment to work with neighborhoods to lessen the impact of street drinking, Willamette Week should take a closer look at the problem of street drinking and propose its own solutions.

Christine Heycke

Southeast 25th Avenue

You, like, stretch or some shit...

The cynical and incorrect slagging of Rolfing in this column listing (It List, WW, March 14, 2007) demands a response...even though it pretty much damns itself by revealing such ignorance. Rolfing is a series of deep tissue stretches and manipulations that can heal not only present injuries but those suffered in the distant past.

Thousands of folks have been helped by this non-woo woo modality and to disrespect it in such a mean and stupid fashion is simply absurd, not based in fact and just an embarrassment to the writer...and his editor for letting it past. But, hey, who cares about veracity? Let's just pop some more Tylenol and E and make fun of things we're too lazy to even try to understand.

"I heah they's some folks around who stick needles in people and call it healing too...heck, they're next"!

In disgust,

Jay Harris, Ph.D.

Northeast 24th Avenue

CORRECTIONS: Last week, we incorrectly reported in "Betting Both Sides Now" how the Oregon Lottery's ad spending is limited. The Lottery Commission voluntarily limits ad spending to 1 percent of revenues. In another March 14 story, "Temporary Insanity," we incorrectly reported how soon laid-off city Parks employees return to their jobs as contractors. The city requires a 60-day interval before allowing the workers to return as contractors. WW regrets the errors in both stories.