Your paper certainly knows how to pick the people they choose for awards. Do you really want to support a candidate, Sami Al-Arian, someone who will blow up in your face and rub mud on the wounds? You really don't want to be embarrassed when he is truly exposed for what he is. A leader of a now-defunct organization WISE, one that had active Muslim militants who felt that the U.S. is the great Satan. And wait until we go to war with Iraq — How will Sami feel then? He will be forced to choose between a country of infidels and a Muslim country.
And the union did not back him because he is right in the dispute but because they believe in the same freedom of speech that he would prevent if Muslims became more powerful. Marilyn and Seymour Ginsburg Proud member of PRIMER
After reading the way folk was portrayed in the Best Of issue, I'm thinking about starting an organization similar to that PRIMER guy. Mine will be PRIFMR — Promoting Responsibility in Folk Music Reporting.
Best Acoustic Act: "Singer/songwriter Rebekah Pulley is not, repeat not, a folkie." Best Alternative to the Coffeehouse Circuit: "These men and women have probably always wanted to try their hands at an acoustic set, but knew a) that what they play is decidedly not folk …" What is and isn't folk? Since I've been attending annual International Folk Alliance Conferences and subscribing to multiple Internet music lists and multiple music magazines, what I've learned is that folk is in the eye of the beholder. But the main thing I've learned is that the f-word isn't a bad word.
At the Folk Alliances there are zillions of more contemporary folkies, such as singer-songwriters, than there are traditional folkies. There are also artists presenting world music, acoustic blues, performance poetry, folk-rock, sacred steel and gospel — you name it. It's all there being presented under the very broad folk umbrella. To me, the precise definition is broad and really doesn't matter. What's important is that folk is looked upon as a good thing — not something to be avoided or made fun of.
Gloria Holloway
Via e-mail
P.S. Best Bluegrass Band: Crabgrass Cowboys. Huh? I dearly love the Crabgrass Cowboys, but their music is not, repeat NOT, bluegrass.
It seems to me that Carol Lay should heed her own words. She speaks about the president and his staff as if they were the terrorists. It's people like her who continue to fuel hate and division in this country. The Weekly Planet called the cartoon "a comical yet poignant portrayal" There was not one thing comical about the cartoon, and the only point it made is how ignorant many people in this country still are.
Maybe one day Lay will be able to get along with others.
Dean Growe
Via e-mail
Just read Carol Lay's "Photo-Op" piece. This is an outstanding piece of work! Thanks!
Bill Jenkins
Tampa
Gee gosh Ms. Lay's cartoons were really fun, she draws good and prints neat. I wonder if the readers of WP will be invited to her kindergarten graduation party. I hope it's soon so she can begin to start learning something.
Who knows, she might even develop into a reasonably intelligent adult.
Dan Calabria
South Pasadena
I was a member of the Civil Air Patrol based at A.W. airport from 1952 to 1972. (The CAP is still there, by the way). Even in the "50s, the newspaper was trying to get rid of the Albert Whitted airport. Our guess was that Poynter didn't like airplanes flying over his building. Why else would he try to get rid of a money-making city possession?
Keep up the good work fighting to preserve this asset.
Priscilla M. Hoon, Major, CAP,Ret.
St. Petersburg
It's great to see an unbiased report regarding Albert Whitted Airport. Thank you for letting people know about the unscrupulous tactics of the St. Pete Times.
Steve Tolliver
St. Petersburg
CORRECTION
Adobe Gilas, which we named Best Place to Meet Your Personal Ad Date in our Best of the Bay issue, does indeed have its own bathrooms, contrary to what we stated in the story. And it is Adobe Gilas, not Adobe Gila, as we called it.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2002.