Laurels for Luanne
Re: "Not Child's Pay" by Francis X. Gilpin (Feb. 6-12)
What exactly is the Big Deal? Someone believes $115,000 a year is too much for her to be paid? Did anybody read the article? Did they pay any attention to how much she does: How many personal sacrifices she's made? How dedicated she is? Luanne Panacek could make twice the money, working half the hours, in another job in the private sector where she would be more than qualified. I'm surprised the Weekly Planet wasted so much time and space.
Jan Fender
Via e-mail
Tainted Sources
Re: "St. Pete Weakly" by Francis X. Gilpin (Jan. 31-Feb. 6)
I have known Dean Capone for the past 15 years. I advertised in the St. Pete Weekly, and actually paid for my advertising. Capone had a good idea; what he didn't have, was the business savvy to pull it off. I can't blame him for that; it happens in business all the time.
As I write this, I see in the Trib a seminar company has been ordered to pay a local printer $141,000. The printer had to fire most of its staff because of the unpaid bills, but have the fired employees cried to the Planet? Your story and Trigaux's story reek of one similarity: The stories' sources and those sources are tainted because they have a score to settle with Mr. Capone.
I am also sure Aaronson fully disclosed to you the unsigned faxes he sent to all of the advertisers in the St. Pete Weekly, undermining any attempt for Capone to pull the publication out of the hole. If he didn't, allow me to tell you as a business owner in the area, I found it insulting to receive a copy of some obscure judgment against Mr. Capone. Does the judgment have anything to do with the publishing business?
Aaronson and Waddell go whining to the Planet and the Times with a judgment from a failed business and you guys figure you have unearthed the next Kenneth Lay.
My first question to them would have been this: Do you have employment agreements, contracts or anything that presents written guarantees?
So, Dean Capone is a bad guy because his publication failed and a few writers are without income for a few weeks. I am not saying that Mr. Capone is without guilt. I am still out my advertising money, with no hopes of ever seeing it again. My question to the Planet, Mr. Gilpin, the Times and Mr. Trigaux is this: What good did the story serve? Capone is broke, Aaronson and Waddell will never see a penny, and the publication closed down. Strong story. I am sure this is going to win somebody a Pulitzer.
Edward Lewis
Via e-mail
Not Buying It
Re: "No Land's Man" by Rochelle Renford (Jan. 24-30)
How could someone from a foreign country enter the United States (Illinois in 1975) and attend classes in Massachusetts (as in "spend summers") taking his first class in the summer of '76? He completes his undergraduate work in three years and gets into a graduate program at North Carolina University; takes part in a panel University of Michigan and somehow finds his way to Tampa. During this time he marries and has three children.
Helllooooo? How did little Sami pay for all this? Who was paying for it? How the hell could he have afforded it and/or survived? Here we have an arguably very bright, intelligent, foreign young man able to find his way around a complex higher education system, traveling and attending schools in at least two or three different states, getting married, having three children and you would have us believe that he was unable to complete a simple voter registration card?
Ms. Renford, you insult the reader's intelligence. Sami tried to game the system and cast an illegal vote and that's why he is no longer eligible for U.S. citizenship — thank God — because he does not deserve it. And because of this, his track record and his many obnoxious statements, none of which he has disowned or apologized for, he should be deported to any place that will take him.
Dan Calabria
South Pasadena
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When one chooses to say "Death to Israel" and call for holy war, one cannot then deny or explain away those statements with credibility. Al-Arian's hollow denials and explanations that "death to" does not really mean death are absurd. His later statements that Israeli soldiers and settlers are legitimate targets speak volumes to his real intentions and desires.
The author's credibility is called into question by the numerous misstatements of fact in the article. Just a couple examples:
Al-Arian recalls being told Palestinians were not allowed weapons under the British mandate. When the fighting began, they were not equipped for it. "While the other side was being armed on a daily basis with even tanks and heavy armaments."
A quick reading of history will show you that the British had a very effective embargo on arms to the Jews in 1948. While the British were beginning to disengage from the mandate, they had administered in the Middle East, they often turned their own armories over to the local Arab organizations. Israel, on the day of its founding, was not attacked by a ragtag group of Palestinian citizens; it was attacked by the combined armies of the Arab world, supplied with tanks, fighter planes, artillery, and small arms. British officers advised and often led the Arab armies in this conflict.
ICP was formed in response to the first intifada, or uprising, which began on Dec. 9, 1987, when the killing of four unarmed Palestinians by the Israeli military sparked a movement. This was before the time of suicide bombers and other terrorist acts that we read about today.
This incredible assertion is absurd on its face. Again, one has to merely review history to note that Arafat and his Fatah organization staged numerous terrorist attacks in Israel, including invasions of Tel Aviv apartment complexes in which scores of innocent women and children were slaughtered. In fact, one can look to the slaughter of Jews in Hebron, and the destruction of the ancient Jewish quarter of that city by their Arab neighbors in 1926. This was 61 years before the 1987 intifada, and a full 22 years before Israeli statehood. Add to this the hijacking of El Al airliners in the 1960s, the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, and the numerous bombings and grenade attacks in 1974, the worst of which killed 11 and wounded 51 in Jerusalem.
Israel is a strong, sovereign nation; it is a reality that the Palestinian Arabs must accept. Arafat and the Palestinian Authority have squandered in cowardice historic opportunities to preserve for Palestinian Arabs a homeland as envisioned by the UN in 1948.
Jerry Nepon-Sixt
Tampa
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I find it laughable that USF can justify anyone's dismissal by saying that, "they were a disruption on campus." I supposed that if a civil rights supporter who just happens to be a professor, or A.I.M. activist, etc. dared to open their mouths, they too would be fired. (That would mean even Jesus Christ would be fired I suppose since he created quite the ruckus in his life.) The real reason should just have been stated. It was politically expedient to do what they did behind closed doors and kiss up to the higher powers. Why not just tell the truth and stop blowing smoke up our backsides?
Keith Privette
Via e-mail
Northern Exposure
Re: "Boon for the Boonies" by Sara Kennedy (Jan. 31-Feb. 6)
Funny, we don't feel boonie. Ms. Kennedy is doing a stand-up job as your new food editor. She's a keeper. However, we north Tampa residents really tire of feeling excluded from everything that matters. I'm sure I-75 exists partly to get people who live in Tampa Palms to south Tampa as quickly as possible, but still … come on.
No doubt Primadonna is all that and more. We've been meaning to try it. Those of us who have managed to survive (somehow) in the culinary wasteland north of Kennedy Boulevard have found a few gems of our own over the years.
If SoHo folks are ever trapped out here with an accident blocking the portal back to the safety of south Tampa, try some of the places north Tampans love.
Some of our favorites:
Villaggio Restaurant, 102 Flagship Circle, on U.S. 41, near Winn-Dixie, Lutz. Low on pretense, high on taste. After the evening rush, the owner often emerges from the kitchen and sits down to share a bottle of wine with favorite customers.
Ristorante Francesco, ("Frankie's Place" to the north Tampa crowd) 1441 E. Fletcher Ave. Many Italian-Americans say this is their favorite place. They even have valet parking.
Benjarong Thai, 14402 N. Dale Mabry. Small, with gorgeous carved wood on the walls. Awesome menu, including a large selection of Thai Macrobiotic dishes. Heaven for vegetarians.
Angithi, 2047 E. Fowler Ave. If you are accustomed to Indian food the way it is usually prepared, this will be a different taste, but wonderfully delicious. The lunch buffet has an array of items with which you can create your own authentic Indian meal of goodies.
East-West Foods & Madras Cafe & Chaat House, 11136 N. 30th St. Family style tables, buffet and good place for a quick masala dosa; located inside an Indian grocery.
Saigon Bay Vietnamese, 2373 E. Fowler Ave. Delicate, wonderful, full of flavor.
Trang Viet Cuisine, 1524 Fowler Ave. E. Another strip mall jewel, known as a USF favorite. Dishes topped with fresh leaves from homegrown plants you've never heard of.
Vallarta's Mexican Restaurant, 9255 N. 56th St., Temple Terrace, and 13731 N. Dale Mabry. White melted cheese on the nachos, the best (grilled) mushroom quesadilla you've ever had, and they'll make you practice your Spanish.
Jean Caldicott
Via e-mail
This article appears in Feb 13-19, 2002.