Mail 23 PUTTING THE ITALS BACK IN ITALIAN I was very glad …

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PUTTING THE ITALS BACK IN ITALIAN

I was very glad to read Adam Heimlich’s comment about our Palafreno wine (“Fancy-Pants
Pizza,” 6/2) at the close of such a spicy piece about pizza. His fervor in taking sides about
what should and should not be done in a pizzeria recalls the authentic Italian spirit for intense
conversation. I like the idea that our Palafreno was part of the experience, and a positive
one, for that.

I hope he’ll have some time to spare, next time he visits Tuscany, to walk
the vineyards where the grapes that make Palafreno are grown. It would be a pleasure to have him.
I can only look forward to some heated conversation about food and wine.

Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni, Greve, Italy

WHEN WHITE WRIT LARGE?

As a regular reader of the online version of New York Press, I have
a query about Armond White’s film reviews: Do you know if there are any plans to publish his work in
book format? After the excellent collection of music and film reviews that were published in White’s
book, The Resistance: Ten Years of Pop Culture that Shook the World, I would like to see more
of them collected in print, particularly his film writing from the mid-to-late-90s, which is not
available on the website.

Martyn Bamber, London

MISSED THE EXIT

Rat bastards! The bard of Red Hook is dead. But no mention of novelist Hubert
Selby Jr.’s passing in New York Press. What gives? Surely the man who gave us Last Exit
to Brooklyn deserves a mention. You are the chroniclers of our age in ways the mainstream tabs
and broadsheets dare not be. Yet silence here. I learned of Selby’s death in the Boston Sunday
Globe “Ideas” section. I expected more from you.

Steve Lindsey, Nelson, NH

SMOYER’S LAUNDRY LIST

Congratulations on a masterful article on the very real problem of fossil
fuel dependence worldwide (“The Coming Energy Crunch,” 6/2). Aaron Naparstek did a wonderful
job of laying out the case in plain terms for our urgent need to change our energy policies. More importantly,
he exposed the stupidity of the presidential candidates’ use of the high price of gasoline in their
brain-dead campaigns and argued that a rallying cry could be made instead calling on Americans
to protect their future. Gas is $2.50 a gallon; call out the National Guard? Please. Let’s hear how
much you cry when we don’t have enough food and water because the fuel we use for productions, purification
and distribution is too expensive and scarce.

Why don’t you publish more articles like this one? These are some of the
most important issues facing us. Why not more stories about the roadshow known as the 9/11 Commission
hearings? They should call it “Warren Commission Revisited,” because the cover-up game was clear
from the beginning, and the Giuliani love fest in New York City was sickening.

Finally, why can’t you cut off Russ Smith? He sold you the paper, didn’t
he? Why must we read his crayon-written nosebleeds passed off as op-eds? He has never exhibited
an ounce of journalism nor shown he can research and analyze data, then use it to support a conclusion.
Anybody can take notes on the Limbaugh and Hannity shows and put them into a nice set of paragraphs—that’s
all he does.

One more thing: What the hell was that, Matt Taibbi (“The Breakthrough,”
6/2)? Normally you’re worth reading, but come on! If you’re not feeling well enough to write one
week, don’t harm your reputation by phoning in some worthless shit that’s supposed to be funny.
Presidential haiku? You could have at least included something about a goat, instead of a dog and
toast.

Michael Smoyer, Hoboken

WHAT ABOUT “WARM-HEARTED AND ENDEARING”?

On Matt Taibbi’s “The Breakthrough” (6/2): Too damn funny was just
one of my thoughts—sad but true is another. Scary is still another. I could
go on and on, but that’s the beauty of “The First Haiku of George Bush”—it was subtle and says
it all! Thomas Jefferson wrote, “People who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was
and never will be.”

Sandra Q. Woosley, Cincinnati

SPREAD THE WORD

Thank you for running this story (Aaron Naparstek, “The Coming Energy Crunch,”
6/2). We need more attention paid to the grossly under-covered subject of energy and its far-reaching
influence on our lives. Please do not assume that Americans are necessarily averse to stories such
as this. Also, please communicate this to your colleagues in other publications.

Justin Martin, Anchorage

MANHATTAN CRUDE

Aaron Naparstek’s end-of-the-world-vision (“The Coming Energy Crunch,”
6/2) is an enormously ignorant piece. For starters, any solution that requires people to change
their lives by fiat is a nonstarter, as is any solution that requires personal virtue and thrift.
Personal virtue is crap, and imposed personal virtue is an invasion of privacy.

The military is a humongous consumer of petroleum: B-52 flights from
Guam and B-1 flights from Oklahoma use more oil products than a gazillion SUVs. Before we have to
carpool, somebody should do the math. Carpooling is a terrible idea, next only to compulsory living
where you work. People do not live near those they work with, personal convenience is very important,
money is fungible and time is finite. Consider two kids and the groceries and theater tickets and
picking up the dry cleaning all by carpool. Consider it and commit suicide.

The future of energy economics can be found in poor countries. There
are more two-wheeled motorized vehicles than cars in many parts of the Third World. Why not here?

Martin Heilweil, Manhattan

ALL TOGETHER NOW: PREVIEW REVIEWS!

Is there a reason why your film writer, Mark Ames, never refers to things like
plot, cinematography, actors’ performances or direction in his “reviews”? I’ve read what he wrote
for several movies: 13 Going On 30, The Chronicles of Riddick and most recently
Mean Girls. I still don’t know anything about these films. Just asking.

Ebony Ellis, Manhattan

ALWAYS IS, ALWAYS WAS

Judy McGuire’s “Dategirl” (6/2) was wonderful, funny, wicked and so true!

Grace Nelson, Pendleton, OR

ORAL SEX ED

First of all, the whole meaning of “date” is very ambiguous and in my experience
is used euphemistically (Judy McGuire, 6/2). Concerning the guy who wrote the letter where you
mention four or five dates: Do these dates include sex? It seems that you do include sex in the definition
of “date” as you mention blowjobs. The whole confusion as to the geezah’s nihilistic outlook may
hinge on this. If he went on four dates without a blowjob (in my case, I would’ve required a blowjob
on each date), it’s no wonder he’s a pissed nihilist.

The broader question is: Do the women he’s dating generate any interest
beyond the blowjob? In my experience, women begin to expect the surrender of all free will and personal
dignity in exchange for sex, and even start hinting that you’ll eventually be obligated to financially
support them for life if the blowjobs are to continue for an extended period. Dating, we see, is the
extension of bourgeois, even feudal, property relations. Further, the tedious and humiliating
activities and banal conversation, coupled with amateur attempts at psychological manipulation
one must endure in order to fuck in this society don’t foster the feelings of respect and affection
that assure a longer-term relationship. Maybe the nihilist’s attitude stems from his anger at
bourgeois prostitution. I suggest he pursue women from outside of the U.S., where women are more
healthy sexually.

Finally, your assumption that people who don’t fit into your definition
of an oppressed class have no right to be angry or depressed is extremely fascistic. Those of us who
have lost jobs due to nepotism and racial bias are not allowed to be angry about it, or synthesize
our experiences into a worldview? Anyway, what does any of this have to do with sexual attraction?
Healthy people act on their attractions and impulses without discussing their educational, class
or employment backgrounds. I would have thought that liberation and “feminist” struggles of the
past liberated sex from bourgeois property relations and repressive social prejudice. Maybe
it is many women’s adherence to reactionary social mores and their desire to be ultimately nothing
more than breeding drones and housewives that make many of us angry and bitter.

The unthinking adherence to superficial, silly social constructs
that constrain rather than liberate sexual activity hinders your ability to give healthy sexual
advice, and I would hope you purge your mind of suburban 1950s prejudices before fostering the alienation
of any man who doesn’t conform to them.

Michael O’Donnell, Manhattan

WOULD YOU PREFER A WHIMPER?

“The Earth may have begun with a Big Bang, but no one vested a handful of mortals
with the right to decide that it should end the same way,” an excerpt from A Common Sense Guide
to World Peace, written by Benjamin B. Ferencz, a former prosecuting attorney at the Nuremberg
war crimes tribunal.

The potential travesty from which there may be no return lies in the hands
of terrorists and nations who, in their misguided understanding of the consequences, may choose
to employ nuclear weapons to attain their objectives.

How to deter or possibly avoid this potential nuclear holocaust? We,
the inhabitants of this planet, with the power to change the course of the inevitable, must demand
that all nations come together in an effort to bring peace to our beleaguered planet and avoid the
otherwise inescapable Big Bang, which would bring to an end all that we cherish in life.

Let your voices be heard!

L. M. Perlman, Sun City West, AZ

NTBCW PHILLIP MICHAEL THOMAS

John Carroll’s holier-than-thou attitude knows no bounds (J.R. Taylor,
“Up in the Hollywood Shills,” 5/12). A couple of years ago the L.A. Times published an article
on “Michael Thomas.” They basically called him a fraud. Thomas had been awarded the Silver Star
for action during WWII. The Times, however, said that everything in his bio was made up.
Fortunately, Thomas was able to afford to hire my company and others to research and find the documents
and witnesses to verify his story. We were able to find soldiers that served with Thomas and documents
that proved his veracity. Many would not have been able to fight the L.A. Times the way Thomas
has. Unfortunately, now that the evidence is clear and incontrovertible, the paper will not retract
its article but instead now claims it was a humor piece.

Steve Jones, Vienna, VA

UNCLE SAM, UP IN SMOKE

I propose that in the interest of the Iraqi people we put an overlooked natural
resource that the U.S. is producing in great quantity in Iraq to use. When burned as fuel, a human
body can produce a large amount of energy. Of course, the body must be properly dried out, but considering
Iraq has quite an amount of desert this should be no problem.

America is already producing great amounts of dead Iraqis. Would it
not make more sense to burn them to produce power? Yes, the Bush administration is shortsighted
in energy production methods. This is more evidence of this administration’s lack of imagination,
to “think outside the box.”

Ken Usavage, Manhattan

PIZZA CRUSTIES

As the owner of Franny’s, I am quite surprised at the lack of professionalism
in the article given that you work for an established newspaper (Adam Heimlich, “Fancy-Pants Pizza,”
6/2).

First and foremost, the photo of the pizza is not our pizza. That
is clearly a misrepresentation of our restaurant. Secondly, there are a number of factual errors
in the piece that need to be corrected:

1. There is no potato in our gnocchi.

2. There is no butter in our bucatini.

3. Our house-cured meats are not smoked.

You did have the courtesy to have a fact-checker call us. Unfortunately,
he did an insufficient job. I would appreciate a correction in next week’s paper as per these misleading
factual errors on your part.

Francine Stephens, Brooklyn

ETCHED IN PLASTIC, BUT YEAH

Matt Taibbi, I hope you sent this article etched in stone to Kirk (“Souls on
Ice: Kirk Cameron, Lefties and the Politics of Self-Hatred,” 8/13/2003).

Cameron M. Colson, Sunnyvale, CA