FRANKLIN STREET FOUNTAIN?

The City of Monterey is giving away tens of gallons of free water at least two mornings a week. What, you might ask, are requirements to get this wonderful gift? All you have to do is be an early riser and have buckets.

Outside the Monterey Sports Center there is a planted area next to the sidewalk. In this planter there is a broken sprinkler head. For over a month now I’ve witnessed a 20-foot-high gusher of water shooting straight up into the air. Actually, it is quite a sight. It starts about 4:30am and runs for about 15 minutes. During this time, the glorious geyser gushes gallons of water onto the sidewalk then over the curb where it makes a 90-degree angle turn and slips unused, uncollected and unencumbered into the storm drain just 20 feet away.

I have alerted the Monterey Sports Center staff and they have verified multiple calls to the Parks Department. I figure with their lightning response to this limited resource in our county, it must be one of two things: 1) Either nobody gets paid to see if the sprinklers are working correctly or 2) the City of Monterey is giving away free water. I have voted for the second. I just love it when a city wants to give something back to the community. However, they forgot to advertise, so I’ve picked up the banner: “Free Water.” —Michael Doud | Pacific Grove

GOD LOVES VEGGIES

As America is transfixed by Katrina’s and Rita’s horrible devastation, a much deadlier disaster looms. Avian influenza, or bird flu, is growing into a global epidemic deadlier than the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed 50 million people.

The deadly virus originated a couple of years ago in Southeast Asia’s poultry farms, killing dozens of people throughout the region, and has already spread to Russia and Europe.

Avian influenza is but the latest disease spawned by animal agriculture. The 1918 Spanish flu, the 1957 Asian flu, the 1968 Hong Kong flu all originated in factory farms. Consumption of animals also raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other chronic diseases that kill 1.3 million Americans annually.

World Farm Animals Day on Oct. 2 provides an excellent opportunity to replace animal products in our diet with wholesome vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains. These foods don’t promote global epidemics, are touted by every major health advocacy organization, and were the recommended fare in the Garden of Eden. —Shane Zimmerman | Seaside

HOSANA TO SAINT BOB

Did you watch the Dylan docu on PBS? I’m one of those who easily moved with all of Bob’s changes up until post-1975. I’ve only barely dabbled with his new stuff in recent years. I kind of agree

with what he said not long ago in another interview, that he looks back on all that incredible poetry he wrote and put to music and he doesn’t know where it came from. He said he’s

lost that and can’t write like that anymore.

I think that his finest works came out of his early electric era. When he wrote deep existential pieces like Desolation Row, It’s Alright, Ma, I’m Only Bleeding, Visions of Johanna, etc.

Is it therefore any wonder that the late, great Allen Ginsberg proclaimed Dylan to be “the most significant poet of the 20th century”?—Jeffrey Van Middlebrook | Pacific Grove