The bicker team

If our local politicians were
to play on a soccer team, here is what the lineup might look like:

The coach: The
people of Monroe County.

At forward: David
Gantt, who will play only if we use his ball.

At midfield: Jack
Doyle, who passes only to his friends or to those who have contributed huge
amounts to his campaign.

On defense: Bill
Johnson, who is playing well but is frustrated by the lack of teamwork from his
teammates.

As subs: The
Sports Authority, who not only won't enter the game, but will not talk to the
coach.

Needless to say, the team is winless. The coach has tried
to arrange a practice with the Rhinos to learn teamwork but can't get them to
stop bickering long enough to get to practice.

Roy Maratta, North
Winton Road, Rochester

Applause

Observations on two items in
the July 3 City:

ï Allow me to weigh in on the letter taking City to task for putting a photograph of
an obese man in a bathing suit on the cover of Summer Guide.

The letter-writer accused City of poking fun at a way-overweight man. I've been a journalist
for more than 30 years, and I've always considered myself sensitive to how I
and the media in general, portray people. But I think the letter writer doth
protest a bit too much. By putting an obese man, instead of some chiseled boy
model, on the cover, City
demonstrated a sensitivity for reality.

Look around. Wake up and count the calories. Americans,
by and large, are too fat. A recent study of obese youngsters shows that one
out of every seven children ages 6 to 19 is severely overweight, an increase of
nearly 300 percent since the '60s.

Just today I read a newspaper article online about a
coroner outside of Chicago who is being forced to buy hydraulic lifts and larger
storage facilities because of the huge bodies his office increasingly is
handling. In the last 18 months, the coroner has had to cope with seven corpses
each weighing more than 500 pounds, including one that weighed 700 pounds.

ï Props to writer Tim Goodwin for a marvelous profile of
the Full Circle hip hop events at Java's coffeehouse in downtown Rochester.
Kudos to Goodwin, and City, for
providing a glimpse into another important piece of this community's rich
cultural mosaic.

Richard Zitrin,
Rochester

Praising Popick

Jon Popick has taken a great
deal of heat lately, both warranted and unwarranted. Let me add a bit of praise
to this maelstrom. The synopsis of Spider
Man running in the "Film Clips" sections has been the highlight
of my week. The insane scenarios such as Peter Parker as heir to the Parker
Brothers game empire or "picking pickled peppers" have left me in
stitches.

My only disappointment is that the latest issues ran the
real synopsis.

Kendall Phillips,
Kendrick Road, Rochester

Simple quotes

I found "Living Without,
Living Within" (July 3) an interesting account of some contemporary
efforts to achieve a proper balance between the material and spiritual aspects
of daily life. This is the primary theme of "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau, referred
to in the article. In fact, the quote ascribed therein to Ralph Waldo Emerson
is actually from Thoreau, an often-quoted line from "Walden": "... a man
is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let
alone."

Thoreau echoes and amplifies his own pithy phrase in his
concluding chapter when he says, "In proportion as he simplifies his life,
the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be
solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness."

Thoreau's account of his "experiment" is still
relevant today whether one calls it "living deliberately" or
"voluntary simplicity."

Dennis Ford, North
Main Street, Manchester

Jack Bradigan Spula
responds: Thanks for the correction. The mistake was mine entirely. My
source, Duane Elgin's Voluntary Simplicity, credits the saying to Thoreau while
discussing Emerson and Transcendentalist thought. I went with the wrong sage.

A clarification

I appreciated Jack Spula's
recent coverage of the Voluntary Simplicity movement. It's a topic that
warrants attention as rampant consumerism continues to shape social, economic,
and political structures. Little encouragement is given for people to examine
their lives to see if their lifestyle is really congruent with their deepest
values.

However, I would like to clarify some points:

First, as far as I know, the University of Rochester does
not offer a course in Voluntary Simplicity. The course referred to (called
"Community, Earth, and Body") deals in part with issues of sustainability and
voluntary simplicity and is offered to U of R students through the Dance
Department. However, eight-week discussion courses in Voluntary Simplicity are
available to any interested folks through the Earth Native Network.

Please contact me at gleason@frontiernet.net for more
information.

Mary Gleason,
Audley Way, Rochester

Poetic justice

The truth about
white-collar crime / is offenders will rarely do time. / They're in bed, you
see, with the powers that be, / who'd turn a blind eye for a dime.

Please don't call them corporate crooks, / because it is
not as it looks. / After working each deal, / it's hunger they'd feel, / and
that is why they cooked the books.

Lee Strong, Gates