WW welcomes letters to the editor via mail, e-mail or fax. Letters must be signed by the author and include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Preference will be given to letters of 250 words or less. HOT FRONT Yowsa! Daria O'Neal is the goddess you wrote of in the Best of Portland ["Best Use of Breasts in a Weather Forecast," July 19, 2000]. Never before have I looked forward to viewing the weather portion of a broadcast. It is wonderful to see a beautiful, smart and charming woman who also happens to be confidently sensual. I applaud the WB for having the guts to show that a delicious woman can be taken very seriously as a true professional and not degraded into some conservative puppet barking out the tragic events of the day. True, Kelly and Cam are beautiful women as well, yet it seems after every news bit they must look over to the male sitting next to them for some weird form of verification. One can almost hear the male saying, "Yep, what the little lady is telling ya is true." Yeech. Let's not get into a huge debate about whether Daria's being manipulated by men and society and all that. Everyone, male and female, is manipulated, but if she chooses to show her gorgeous body while telling me of the coming rain then I see no point to argue. Humans are very sexual beasts, and it is so refreshing to see a true woman who is proud to be a sexual being, as opposed to being afraid of her sexuality as too many in our society are. Daria, you are a goddess. Keep up the great work. Brian Toye Southwest Dakota Street SEMI PRO In his rush to bitchy art crit, Steffen Silvis missed the major point of the "Truck Farm" project in his review of the exhibition Taking Space, Making Place: Transforming Urban Experience [July 12, 2000]. This "odious" project, with its alleged "tacit support of freeways, something the artist hasn't bothered to consider," is a proposal to put roving community gardens onto a fleet of flatbed trucks. My letter "pandering to Freightliner, to use his idea as PR," was actually my request to use their trucks for use in the public realm--an elementary schoolyard, a shopping center parking lot, etc.--by an appeal to their sense of civic responsibility. (Perhaps Steffen detected the vast profit potential that public art projects like this realize!) In our culture, the majority of urban public space is "leftover" space--the streets and the gaps between developed property. These spaces are the matrix where this exhibition's artists choose to intervene. "Truck Farm" would be a gesture to reclaim that space by colonizing the very vehicles that consume our environment, creating transient greenspaces for our mobile population. Vegetables growing on the back of a semi-truck. A more attentive reviewer would hardly have to read between the lines of the project's presentation to see that the point is to focus attention on the connection between our food supply and its transportation. Wasteful agribusiness promotes non-localized food production, carries it great distances from corporate farms and distribution centers, all at great cost to the environment through polluting emissions and resource consumption. In his recent crossover from drama reviews to attempting visual-arts criticism, Steffen should read his program notes a little closer, so he doesn't miss major plot developments like these. Brian Borrello Northeast Alberta Street READER BITES DOG Dog lovers can help the rest of us out ["Gone to the Dogs, WW, July 4, 2000]. 1. Don't force your dog's presence on the allergic. 2. Quit breeding dogs to be mutants with short legs, bowed spines, heavy jowls, and manifold and manifest distortions of many other types. 3. Realize that not everyone thinks of a dog as a relative. 4. Sink your money into helping the human children who live in poverty, abuse, despair and ignorance in our country. Larry McKinney Southwest Cheltenham Street PPS: WE LOVE YOU The hiring of Ranee Niedermeyer by the Portland Public Schools was a smart move by Ruth Ann Dodson [Murmurs, WW, July 12, 2000]. Contrary to your statement regarding Brady Adams' support for Portland Schools, the legislative Republicans have provided nearly a billion more dollars for K-12 than John Kitzhaber has requested since he became governor. Ranee will continue successfully promoting the interests of Portland Public Schools. Randy Miller State Senator (R-West Linn) YOU'RE THE CREEP, YOU'RE THE WEIRDO First, I'd like to say that everyone is entitled to their own opinion... no matter how fucked up it may be. And Scott D. Lewis, while absolutely unimpressive, is at the same time full of fucked-up opinions. I am, of course, referring to his "write-up" of the Travis/Leona Naess show [Music Listings, July 12, 2000]. First things first. The shit about Radiohead: What was that? For fuck's sake, Scott...who in the hell do you think you are? Is your job as a writer for the Portland "music scene" so cool that you've forgotten what real music sounds like? Have you been washed away with the gobs of other Portland scenesters in that river of lo-fi indie crap that pollutes the city? What, does Radiohead actually have lyrics that are hard to figure out? Is it just that you have something against slobbery coffeehouse chicks? Or are you just content to sit and listen to your radio? It's like you sat down to write your little blurb with the intent to change minds...Ha! Yes! And as for Travis...imposters? OK. Sure. You are probably right. Yep. Whatever you say, Mr. Reporter. And actually, I'm pretty sure that Fran and Thom are the same people. Congratulate yourself for uncovering that mystery. But you did say something mighty interesting in your write-up: Travis is Radiohead "minus the flash, fun and freak-outs." Even this simple phrase states the obvious: You don't know what in the hell you are talking about. What you had to say about both Radiohead and Travis was complete uneducated bullshit. Listen to an album, get your facts straight. You'll thank yourself for it...or maybe you won't. Whatever's the case, keep on rockin' in your lo-fi indie world. Jami Spiesman Northwest Everett Street HITTING THEM WHERE THEY LIVE How unfortunate that the only "area residents" quoted in "Case Foreclosed" (July 12, 2000) were Fred Stewart and Michael Dolan--two people that stand to benefit from the dissolution of PCRI. Yes, King, Woodlawn, Humboldt and Piedmont have improved dramatically, and now those that stand to make a financial gain from this would like to see PCRI go away. It is exactly because of this, because of the rising real-estate values and gentrification, that PCRI is needed now more than ever. Should low-income people not be allowed to live in a vibrant, safe, prospering community? As Steve Rudman pointed out, many low-income people are moving to East County. Well, folks, I highly doubt people are being lured to East County by its vast richness and beauty. They are going there because they are being forced out of their neighborhoods by investors and those who can pay far more for where they live. Dolan, by his own admission in The Skanner, "fixes up old houses in the area." Fred Stewart is a real-estate agent, so his potential gain if PCRI were to dissolve is also self-explanatory. How lofty of Stewart to mention that PCRI's properties should go back into the hands of low-income people. Back? These homes are already in the hands of low-income people--people who could not afford to live there if it weren't for PCRI. Susan Barrett Northwest Glisan Street