Letters for June 14 to 20, 2007

When cops taser indiscriminately: Thanks for covering this case. I think Natalie and Wesley Christopher´s story needed to be told, and you did a fine job telling it (¨Plantation 9-1-1,¨ Tailpipe, June 7).

W. Dale Miller, Esq., Assistant Public Defender

Broward County Florida

Hollywood

Best of Second City

You best-of writers wouldn´t know a good pizza if it clunked you on the head: I have lived down here now for three years, and after reading my third ¨Best of¨ issue of New Times (¨Best of 2007,¨ May 31), I am convinced that your entire staff must be ex-pats from New York. Can we please give the New York pizza a rest? Every time pizza is mentioned down here, it is spoken with an obnoxious New Yawk accent! The odd thing about your best-of list is that you gush about Chicago-style hot dogs, but you ignore the best pizza in the world to praise that flat, foldable, ¨crackers and ketchup¨ stuff they call pizza in New York. I lived in Chicago for ten years, and I can count on one hand the number of times I had a Chicago dog. It's the pizza that made Chicago famous, not the dogs!

Why is it that almost every pizza place down here brags about being New York-style? Haven´t they heard? Paper was meant to be folded. Shirts can be folded. Food, however, was not meant to be folded, especially pizza. Perhaps the folding is a way to mask the lack of substance in paper-thin New York pizza. As for me, it really sucks that I have to drive up to Orlando just to get a taste of substantial, authentic pizza at either Giordano´s or Uno´s. If I want thin, flat, foldable pizza, I may as well just go with Chef Boyardee pizza in a box, because that is essentially what New York pizza resembles.

Kurt Kelly

Delray Beach

Let´s get our terminology right: Thank you for nominating my bar, Sail Inn, for best neighborhood bar in South Palm Beach County. It is an honor to be recognized for our quirkiness and diverse clientele. But I have received many complaints from our, as you stated, loud-mouthed lesbians. They prefer to be called overopinionated bitches! Rick Jankee

Owner, Sail Inn

Delray Beach

A pox on everybody: Year after year, you and your readers´ choices for Best of... whatever prove an old ¨Harvey Axiom¨: Most Americans are simply moronic, beer-swilling sloths! Idiots, in fact! To wit, to choose that failed egomaniacal liar Sid Rosenberg as an equal to South Florida radio maven Neil Rogers for Best AM Radio Personality is prima facie evidence your readers must be on good drugs. But then, I see that your druggies chose Jim DeFede as Best AM Radio Personality and I had to think it was merely a case of ¨newspaper nepotism.¨ After all, while DeFede has a face (and body) for radio, he´s lucky he has radio professional Nicole Sandler to not only produce his show but to pull him through hour after boring hour. Only DeFede could waste a middle-of-the-dial, 50,000-watt station on a ¨local district election¨ or on a local water district manager. (For Christ´s sake, Jim, how many more shows on Mayor Alvarez?) Stick to print media, Jim. You´re lousy on the air.

In closing, for the ¨readers¨ to call it a ¨dead heat¨ between pseudocomedian Dan LeBatard and America´s best ¨beat reporter,¨ Ira Winderman, who covers the Miami Heat and the NBA for the Sun-Sentinel, also proves my point that these jerks (the voters) still believe Saddam has WMDs and that the moon is made of green cheese! Just loco!

Simply, your choice and the readers' choices suck! You and the readers have zero credibility again this year.

Harvey Slavin

Hollywood

Valet Attitude

At those prices, the valet should kiss my elbow: I enjoyed your article on Latitudes (¨Bad Latitude,¨ Gail Shepherd, May 3) very much in New Times. I´m sure the Marriott didn´t. We have eaten there three times. Once inside, kind of depressing; once at lunch outside, which was fine; and once outside at night, when some of our children were visiting from out of town. We had a very good dinner that night. I had the steak, and it was quite good. Prices are high, but I guess you pay for the view. Service was, hmmm, OK. Bar drinks pretty good! My daughter and her husband went for dinner a few weeks ago. Not only did they have terrible service and not-so-good food but then they had to pay $12 for valet parking. I think if you have dinner in their restaurant, they could bypass the parking fee. Thanks for a humorous article.

Dorothy Scarpinato

Via the Internet

Untouchable