Food Snobs
Neither in New York, where I grew up, nor in the United States, where I spent my many adult years, have I ever encountered such a Classy set of snobs as those described in your July 25 issue by Hatsune Amano [Food]. Real Amuricans like me would agree with the poet who wrote, "There's no place I'd ruther be than right here with my Red neck and White socks and Blue ribbon beer." Ms. Amano has clearly been associating with the wrong (upper?) Class of people. I suggest that she find a new Class of friends.
Reglar Fella
Henry Hirsch
Sports Fans
Mr. Carter,
I am writing in response to your article "Foul Ball" in the August 1st issue of AceWeekly [Sean Carter, Sports]. After reading the article, I reflected for a moment, and then came to a few conclusions. First, this article is misplaced. This strikes me as a legal review using an example currently viable in the sporting world to make a socio/economic/political statement.
The argument springboards from Baseball into RICO and that is where the juice of the article lies. After all, the only subject that gets any historical backing is RICO. All points are valid, albeit laden with vague attempts at humor, your ability to communicate a complicated legal issue to the masses is admirable. You follow the old writers sentiment of the end is in the beginning well by looping back to Baseball and closing the article. However, after the read I thought "Is this guy stroking his legal phallus?".
"For those of you educated in the public school system, 'treble damage' are not what happens to your hearing when you crank up the car stereo volume." I will be brief; I have met the Lexington Catholic, Trinity, Sacred Heart, Sayre, Model, Covington Catholic, University Heights, Andover, Exeter, Centre, Brown, and Randolph Macon Woman's College graduates over the years and those of us subjected to sharing books, slates, and have a limited exposure to the "classics" turned out just fine and follow terms like treble damages. Do you like the run on sentence?
Although, the explanation was well timed and as you put it "in baseball parlance" helped you get out of the legal and back into sports. As you said you are not a Major League fan, I want to hear fans write. That's like hearing George Bush discuss the best direction for Islam to go. I want to hear a fan gripe because a game he/she holds so dear is heading downhill faster than Lance cruising out of the Alps and into Paris.
One reason I check the Ace Weekly sporting page is because one writer named K. Faris always offered heartfelt opinions about something he cared deeply for: SPORTS
Ally Holsen
Kevin Faris has been on vacation, and remains Ace's primary contributing sports writer, occasionally relieved by former contributing sports writer, Jeff Zurcher. Ace columnists are not hired as fans, but as critics.
Home Away From Home
Hi,
I appreciated Ace while I lived in Lexington, and I appreciate the online version even more now that I live in Minneapolis, MN. Thanks for keeping me current with local happenings there. Maybe someday I'll come home...
Pete Sherry
Minneapolis
Letters Policy: Ace LOVES to publish our mail (250 words or less please); please include name and daytime phone. No photocopies. No bulk mail. First come, first served. We may edit for space and grammar; we will limit frequency; and, on popular issues, we may print one or two letters to represent a segment of public opinion. Private correspondence should be labeled “NOT FOR PUBLICATION.”
Mail: 486 West Second St , Lexington, Ky 40507
e-mail: editor@aceweekly.com
Reach out
In accordance with 330 families obtaining homeownership, REACH (Resources Education & Assistance for Community Housing) will be celebrating, Friday, August 9. 3pm in the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Building ballroom.
Apply here
As a result of the tobacco settlements, The Kentucky Tobacco Settlement Trust Corporation was established in 1999 to provide direct payments to tobacco quota holders and growers in order to offset losses incurred from industry changes. Applications for compensation will be mailed to approximately 118,000 Kentuckians in the coming week. Who receives the application is determined from past application cycles from years 1998 through 2000. Payments are made to tobacco growers, quota owners, and tenants who produce tobacco. An estimated $130 million will be paid out in December of this year.
It's standard policy
Friday August 9th, the Agricultural Development Board Blue and Red Project review committees will meet. 9 am in the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy Conference Room. Open to the public.
Stay on the straight and narrow
Kentucky has been chosen to particpate in a federal campaign in an attempt to crack down on drunk driving through Labor Day. The campaign-"You Drink and Drive. You Lose"-is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Efforts will include traffic checkpoints and "saturation patrols" in high-crash areas to help identify and arrest impaired drivers. Kentucky is the only participating state within an eight-state southeastern region selected by NHTSA. The reason for selecting Kentucky was partially because of the state's new drunk-driving laws, which have been amended recently to lower the legal blood-alcohol limit and to prohibit open containers of alcoholic beverages in motor vehicles. Kentucky State police say 5,853 crashes and 172 highway deaths in Kentucky last year were alcohol-related. Also, drunk driving arrests totaled 48,892.
Good things in small packages
A recent study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has shown that some small and mid-size cars are just as safe, if not safer, as their larger SUV counterparts. This study rebuts the hypothesis that the bigger the car, the safer the driver. So don't be so quick to run out and drop 40Gs on the biggest, gas-guzzling SUV you can get. (Although, you can exclude the 19-foot long, 10 mile per gallon Ford Excursion. It has been slated to go out of production in the year 2004 due to poor sales.) The report also concluded, that above all, design is the most important factor. (It didn't mention the fact that the Excursion turned out not to fit into a lot of standard-sized American garages.) Don't spend all those gas savings just yet though, the cars that rate highest in safety tests often come from high-end, high-dollar manufacturers. Their repair bills for dents and dings also often rank among the most expensive.
Go on, don't be bashful
There are some people at parties that are posted up in a corner by themselves. You've seen them. We call them wallflowers. There are people who meekly look down when talking to someone. We call the shoegazers. Some people really have trouble socially unless they have a few drinks first, to "loosen up." And although, while some are great in a group setting, they seem to hem and haw when it's just them and another person. And then there are some people who are just out and out antisocial. Well, if you're interested in honing your social skills, the Jesse G. Harris Psychological Services Center at UK is offering an Interpersonal / Social Skills Therapy Group. This should help you overcome whatever it is that troubles you in social settings. For more info, check their website at www.uky.edu/AS/Psychology
To submit an advocacy/activism activity or event for Quickies, email rkirkland@aceweekly.com, or editor@aceweekly.com.