Just the Facts
I doubt I’m the first, nor the last, to point out Richard von Busack’s boo-boo in identifying Danny Huston’s character in Big Eyes (“The Eyes Have It,” Dec. 31). Huston played San Francisco Examiner columnist Dick Nolan. Von Busack mistakenly cited James Bacon, longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. Not mentioning any names, but some movie reviewers ought to watch the credits before writing about the characters. Just sayin’.
Via Bohemian.com
The Fine Print
This Modern World is one of my favorite features. Now if only it were large enough to read! I’m aware of today’s proclivity for ever-shrinking comics and ever-expanding advertisements, but what you’ve done to Tom Tomorrow is ridiculous! I think the Dec. 31 issue reaches a new low. I have good eyesight and didn’t have to wear reading glasses till I was 60. I can still read without them if necessary. But even with glasses and a magnifying glass, I found it quite difficult to make out This Modern World this time. That’s a shame, because there’s a lot of wit and some information in the cartoon. I’m sure Tom Tomorrow puts a good bit of work into creating it.
May I suggest you put it on a page with narrower ads at the side, thus allowing more room? You can even put it at the back of the Bohemian, if ad-space is cheaper there. There simply has to be a way to give it more space! I’m sure people will find it no matter where you hide it, because others probably feel the way I do!
Let’s face it: your newspaper is crammed with content and to give This Modern World another half-inch of space cannot be all that difficult. Please give our eyes a break!
Sonoma
Editor’s note: Space constraints prevent us from increasing the size of ‘This Modern World,’ and moving it would cause a ripple effect of design changes in the paper.
Cuban American
I read with interest the article on the Cuban food being served at Rumba in Windsor (“Vive Cuba,” Dec. 24). I happen to be an expert on the matter. I’m Cuban and left my beloved island at the age of 11, after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.
I suspect I was a foodie since birth, as I remember very clearly all the fine food I ate there. Our cook, who left with us, was a superlative Cuban cook, and I enjoyed her fine cooking until her passing. I have eaten it on many continents, and have bemoaned that in the North Bay it was basically non-existent. I remember the Cuban sandwiches in Cuba, Puerto Rico (where we eventually settled) and Miami. It was difficult to achieve perfection, but some eating establishments got it right. Too much mustard, lesser quality bread, mediocre Swiss cheese—it would all detract from a potential top score.
Not sure why Mr. Holbrook took the liberty of deeming the Cuban sandwich “Americanized” and wondering if it would be repatriated back to Cuba. A real Cuban sandwich remains . . . well, Cuban. I’m sure that if the ingredients were abundant, the sandwich would be just as perfect and non-Americanized as it was when I left in ’61. A warm welcome to Rumba Cuban Café!
Sebastopol
Walk in Their Shoes
It’s the Israeli occupation that’s at the root of the Mideast problem. Put yourself in the Palestinians’ situation for a moment. Walk in their shoes with me. For more than 40 years you’ve been occupied by a foreign power with the most powerful military in the region. They seize your country, move in hundreds of thousands of heavily armed settlers and pen you up either in squalid refugee camps or poverty-stricken cities and villages, separated by roadblocks and patrolled by their military with tanks and machine guns.
When they want more of your land, they just take it, and there’s nothing you can do about it, since they control the courts. If you build a new house where they don’t like it, they’ll just bulldoze it. Or if one of your friends or neighbors does something they don’t like, they may bulldoze both his house and yours, as well as everything on your land, with barely enough warning for you to get out before it comes tumbling down around your ears. If they want to cut off your meager drinking water so they have more water for their lawns and swimming pools, they can do it.
If you demonstrate against these injustices, even doing as little as throwing rocks, you may get shot and maimed or killed. They may close your camp or village and surround it with tanks and snipers, cutting off food and medical supplies. If you get sick and need to go to the hospital, that’s too bad. Pregnant and about to deliver? That’s tough. In fact, they may tear down your clinic or use your hospital for target practice. Got kids who need an education? Forget about it. Even if they let the school open, you couldn’t afford it anyway, since you have no money, no job and very little food.
Palo Alto
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