In Fact, Take Some of It Away

I just finished reading the article "Pucker Factor" (News Briefs, 6/14). I don't understand why CSEA local president Chris Carpenter and vice president Phil Esparza would have concerns if the Chancellor's Office begins handing out raises based on employee performance and/or favoritism. As a former student of CSUMB who spent two semesters in Tele-Dramatic Arts and Technology, a program which Chris Carpenter oversees, I find it quite ironic that Mr. Carpenter has issues surrounding favoritism. My experience was that the TAT Department was riddled with overt favoritism. I found that if you were not part of the select few, you were unable to achieve the educational experience for which you paid your tuition fees. As to concerns that all raises be based on performance, I can only speak from my own personal experiences and say I feel very few employees or instructors at CSUMB deserve any sort of pay increase at this time.

Just my opinion.

--TODD HURLBURT, MARINA

Oy Vey! The Reviewer?

When I heard that Raymond Napolitano was possibly doing a review of Lenny's Delicatessen, I immediately developed a small case of acid reflux disease. My gut instinct provided me with an intuitive excursion through New York Jewish Neurosis (commonly known as neurotism), probably because I was anticipa- ting all that he could slam us for. Then I was immediately reassured by many that our product is great and there is nothing for me to be concerned about.

But we might have some short-term problems, such as new employees being trained and the amount of food we are producing from scratch. These problems may surface while he is writing the review, but NOOOO!!!!!! He chooses the RYE bread, the one item which, since March when we began using it, has received more compliments than the amount of electricity that could be provided by Niagara Falls.

Also, he memorialized Moe's Delicatessen and his experience as a kid as the basis for comparison. This is disappointing for me to be compared to a memory 27 years ago, not to mention the two years of exhaustive research and the two dozen delis studied from Los Angeles to New York to Miami. The food at Lenny's, except for the pastrami (considered the best in New York), the Kosher hot dogs, and the corned beef (which as of today is done on premises) are made from scratch from time-tested recipes from famous delis and evaluated consistently by our locals, some of whom are transplants from out East. The other comment which reduced his credibility was that "chopped liver are obviously purchased from a quality purveyor." "Quality" is correct. "Purchased" is not correct. Our liver is raised organically and prepared daily on site. Raymond spends much of his time writing from his tuchas instead of being professional and sourcing accurate information.

--KEN SPILFOGEL
LENNY'S DELI

P.S. Thank you for this mostly positive review and the enjoyable walk-through of a time in New York that I have great memories of. I hope that your mother always thinks of you as a mensch.

Live A Little

In response to your article on the Monterey Pop Festival Symposium: "In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation."--Guy Debord, "Society of the Spectacle."

This town needed a symposium about a '60s festival as much as it needed another tourist trinket shop selling dead starfish.

What the organizers and attendees of the Monterey Pop Festival Symposium should have realized is that the soul, music and message of Jimmy, Janice and Jerry still survive. Put your ear to the ground and listen, ask the blooming activist youth population of the world. It's in the music of today--bands like Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, String Cheese, Radiohead, Moby, U2, Ani DiFranco, Spearhead and Ozomatli.

It's simply time we break down the walls of the ego-fed myth of "generations." Music and the communal festival experience should know no boundaries.

There are whispers of a Monterey Pop 2002. Your children and your community, young and old, are depending on you to remember one thing: BE HERE NOW!

--DREW READY, MONTEREY