Aaronson is crystal-clear: Trevor Aaronson's story on Tom Feeney ("Pulp Nonfiction," February 10) was great! It pleases me to see a journalist and a publication with the balls to talk about the truth. Aaronson is no Jeff Gannon -- and for that I applaud him.
Jeffrey Holmes, a.k.a. Master Jeffrey
New Orleans
Yes, Edna Buchanan
Face down that corpse: What a great series of articles on the murders in Coral Springs ("Unusual Suspects").Why doesn't Bob Norman write a novel on the case? His articles have been great, well-written, and interesting. Maybe he will be able to solve the mystery.
Mary Taylor
Tamarac
Surely an Intrepid Traveler
Get that ex-wife a tab or two: Jeff Stratton's great LSD story ("Acid Again," January 27) took me back many a year. I would love to get together with Thomas Lyttle and Scott Wollman.
I first tried LSD back in '68 or '69 and loved it from that day forward. I feel like I somehow know these guys. Blotter was great; I also loved windowpane, tab -- it didn't matter. Before LSD, I first experienced hallucinations with glue. I had to try it because of all the hype on TV and the newspapers. My folks used to wonder why it took ten tubes of glue to build one model.
I think everybody should have at least one experience with tripping. I still remember the stuff I saw; when I explain this to people who have never tried it, they don't believe me and think I'm making the stuff up. There was the time I looked down into the toilet and saw the Earth below getting smaller and smaller as I soared high above it. I could watch movies on the wall without a TV or movie screen. My head detached from my body and stretched down to the end of the bar to talk to someone.
My ex-wife could never understand why anybody would want to see things that weren't real and hallucinate themselves to complete laughing hysteria; I just told her I've always loved to travel. Hope to hear back from y'all.
Thomas Quick
West Palm Beach
Absolutely a Poet
Get him a cesta: I just want you to know someone out here appreciates and respects the work Sam Eifling did on his jai alai story ("The Swift and the Dying," January 20). I think it's beautifully written and well-organized. Interesting. Informative. Readable. Intelligent. Thorough.
I just moved to the area from the great (and cold) state of Maine and was interested in and curious about jai alai. When I saw the New Times cover story, I was immediately interested. Upon reading it, I was not disappointed. Eifling provided a great feel for the sport, the players, the venue. I'm looking forward to seeing the action.
Incidentally, I spent 20 years in the news business and wish I could write as well as he does. Nice job.
Bill Johnson
Coconut Creek
Decidedly Crazy
Particularly the local, car-driving variety: In response to Jeff Stratton's January 20 story, "The Punching Bag Punches Back," as a "snowbird" whose year-round home is bike-friendly Washington, D.C., I've been horrified at the way bicyclists are threatened in this area.
Never having been hurt in my home base, though I bicycle long distances, I've had serious accidents in Broward County -- one in which I was struck by a hit-and-run driver who conveniently smashed my bike and -- before I could get her license number -- backed up and sped away. Just ten days after this article appeared, another near-tragic assault: this one, unfortunately by a teenaged ruffian who appeared from nowhere, passed me on the path, lost control of her bike, and crashed immediately in front of me. I took a bad spill. I've had my bike dismantled while stored in its "safe" spot. I've found it dismantled while chained up. My husband and I narrowly escaped death when a reckless driver drove onto the sidewalk. Every year when I winter here, I pray hard that we'll escape intact.
Ironically, the reason we come to Florida each winter is that it is too cold for us to bike back north, and that's our favorite exercise and activity. We're horrified to find this area so bike-unfriendly. We've been cursed at by pedestrians, honked at and screamed at by auto drivers. What is wrong with people in this part of the country?
Arline Brecher
Coconut Creek
Go West, Young Writer
Or at least to the 'hood: Why does Jonathan Zwickel hate on Mike West and talk kinda bad about his single (Subtropical Spin, December 30)? He has made a following here. He's the only rapper from Lauderdale who's holding it down for us.
I've known about Mike since '97. My suggestion to Mr. Z is to take a closer look at the artist and his music before judging him. You must really not know Fort Lauderdale, Mr. Z. You must be a new writer that New Times just picked up from left field; you must not know about Parkway, Deep Side, Wilton Manors, Sunrise, Shallow Side, and Sistrunk. Because if you don't know those areas right here in Fort Lauderdale, then you don't know Mike West.
Maybe his single is called "Don't Know Me" because you really don't know him! It's not all about the beaches and oceanfront scenes and shit. It's a whole 'nother life on the other side of that bridge. You should go and see.
I've seen Mike West around and about with a couple of artists like Daz, Luke, the Outlawz, even Trick Daddy. Let me ask Mr. Z a question: Do you come to the 'hood?
Won't you go and seek out Mike West and get the real deal rather than write a bullshit review on him and his single? Do what writers are supposed to do: Go get the real story!
Kevin Blade
Fort Lauderdale
Erratum
The Tailpipe column of February 10 misreported the relationship between Knight-Ridder, the Miami Herald's parent company, and the Knight Foundation. The two are independent of each other.
