Priorities

After reading Ms. Jenny O'Connor's letter (March 29-April 4), I felt compelled to respond. With respect to Ms. O'Connor, I will not degrade myself by being insulting. However, it seems that she just does not realize that the state of our military, in general, is weak. We need to support the military as Americans. Defying their plans is to consider yourself non-American. What I believe is that America needs to keep itself ready, in season and out of season, meaning that we are not exempt from war, even on our own soil. Yes, the environment is very important, but we must not forget the military, who have fought and died so that we can enjoy the environment--in America.

Michael Dionne,
Salinas

Puh-lease!

The choice of Thomas Kinkade Galleries as the "best art gallery" on the Monterey Peninsula just goes to show that H.L. Mencken was right when he said: "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people."

Helen V. Ogden,
Pacific Grove

Brew Minus

We are writing in response to Catherine Fallis' article "Making Sud Sense" (March 8-14). While we applaud her attempt at educating the non-craft beer-drinking public on the nuances of beer, her attempts at generalizations yielded many inaccuracies. Here are a few of the basic inaccuracies stated in her article:

--All, not "most," beers are either an ale or a lager.

--Ales and lagers are not differentiated by color or alcohol content; both can range the full spectrum of colors as well as alcohol content.

--Not all stouts are served at room temperature. In fact, Guinness Stout, probably the best known stout in the world, is served lightly chilled.

The article would have been much more informative if readers were told that beer could not be summarized into such a short article and were informed where to go if they are interested in finding out more about beer. Michael Jackson's (not the gloved one, the beer expert) beer guides are great resources to learn more.

Think globally, drink locally...

Merideth Canham-Nelson and
Chris Nelson, aka Thebeergeeks, Seaside

Corrections

In last week's story on local high school poets, a portion of a quote by Khalid Hussein was lost in space. His complete response to a question about method should read: "It's a strange process. First I write a line, or first I think of a tone. Then I sleep on it, slowly develop on that. A poem goes through many stages before the finished product. It's generally more subtle, more lyrical, more emotional than other kinds of writing." Our apologies.

Also, in the issue of March 22-28, we incorrectly identified the artist showing at Monterey Peninsula College's "Specific Gravity" show as Hap Sakwa. The artist is Lynda Watson. Sakwa photographed the art. Nostra culpa.