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There’s aThirdPossibilityI found Jake Austen’s casual useof the phrase “cliche ghettowhore” [“Movin’ On Up,”November 4] extremely disturb-ing. I was fascinated by its inclu-sion in his critique of AaronMcGruder’s Boondocks, repeat-edly scanning the paragraph forsome justification. Finding noth-ing, I was left to wonder if theauthor was just another absurdlycliche sloppy journalist aimingfor cool, streetwise prose, or if Imissed the point altogether.

Cultural insensitivity (letalone wanton ignorance) at thislevel of journalism reallydeserves better editing.

Clarke Johnson N. Spaulding

Taxing DirtyTricks“Are You Taxing Yourself?”[November 4] Excellent article.I will mail today this article toFrance, where there is a similarsystem, usually voted late atnight or immediately before avacation. Thanks.

Jacques

A TortureFan WritesHey, JRJ [“A Fine Line,” October28], I liked the first Saw fairlywell, and I graduated from agood college—in fact, I was theleast-educated person in thegroup with whom I watched themovie at Brew & View!

BTW, they done tore downmost all the Arby’s in Chicago.Sucks.

Aaron S. Uptown

It’s thePrincipleDear Reader,

I read your October 21 storyon Thomas Yancey [“This ManIs Not a Sexual Predator”]. Whyare you wasting precious front

page space on this creep?(Heavy emphasis here.) He tooka precious life! I believe a mur-derer is lower than a sex offend-er, as sex offenders have a men-tal illness and are the slime ofthe earth. But a murderer isinherently evil, especially whenthey are so young and do so inthe commission of a crime (hererobbery). If he murdered some-one to defend his family of dan-ger, that’s different, and not thecase here.

To the Unhappy MurdererHe nipped out a life like a

smudge on a ragSo let him wear the consequence

in life with a murderous “tag”If he’s misclassified as a sex

offender while another losttheir life too, too, too bad

But not for him as he is so, so, so sad!

J. BlandN. Wacker

MarinaPoliticsIf I may, let me let you in on oneof the best-kept secrets inChicago. The best beach isArdmore Beach. What makes itso good is that there is no park-ing, and there is no beach house,and it’s hard to park on the sur-rounding streets. And all this ison purpose. You see, it keeps theriffraff out.

A short while back, when thePark District was building newbeach houses at North AvenueBeach and at Foster AvenueBeach, they asked the Edgewatercommunity if we would like oneat Ardmore. We declined theoffer. We like that this beach isours. Sure, the lakefront is sup-posed to belong to all the citizensof Chicago, indeed to everyonewherever they may be from. It’snot like Wilmette, Evanston, orNew Jersey, where they makeyou buy a token to use the beach.

So Ardmore is effectively oursbecause it’s too much hassle foranyone else to use.

So I know just how DonGordon and the people in RogersPark feel about their beach wellnorth of Loyola University andDevon Avenue [The Works,October 28]. I don’t own a boat,and I never see myself owning aboat. A marina I don’t need. But Ido own a car. And I ride a bike.My car I drive regularly throughDon’s Sheridan Road up toEvanston; I and thousands of oth-ers. Only they drive through ittwice a day. Of course I can’t real-ly ride my bike because of all thattraffic. I’m surprised, though, thathe puts up with the traffic. Maybeit’s because he doesn’t also haveall the people driving in via Ridgeand Peterson like I have throughmy neighborhood. It’s like livingin the middle of an expressway,when you stop to think of it. I’msurprised that he hasn’t stoppedto think of it. But maybe he liveseast of Sheridan Road in thatenclave alongside the park andbeach. Maybe he doesn’t have tocross busy Sheridan Road as apedestrian, like we do inEdgewater to get to the el orshopping, because he driveswhere he needs to go.

Then too, his neighborhood isnot nearly as park poor asEdgewater, so he cares not aboutmore lakefront park space. Justnot on his radar, not in his back-yard, so to speak. That is certain-ly his attitude toward the mari-na. Not in my backyard, thankyou, you park planners, withyour hidden agendas.

So he is not moved by the factthat greater goods for more peo-ple are served by marinas andpark space and moving traffic offneighborhood streets and into asunken, two-lanes-each-waypark drive.

And one more thing: HarryOsterman is my neighbor aswell as my representative. Ican’t say as I blame him for tak-ing a parochial stance on this

“AaronMcGruder’ssharpest tal-ents—a quickwit, boldness,individualism— are muffledin a medium asdeliberate andcollaborativeas animation.”—Jake Austin,November 4

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NOVEMBER 11, 2005VOL 35 | NO 7 Letters

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12 CHICAGO READER | NOVEMBER 11, 2005 | SECTION ONE

Letters

issue. After all, Ardmore Beach,now Osterman Beach, wasrenamed for his late mother.

Jeff Wegerson

PS: Don Gordon, I’m postingthis on soapblox.net/Chicago ifyou would like to respond. I’llalso post a link to one of the“hidden agenda” designs by asmall local architectural outfit.Stop by and engage in a debate.

You Try ItAnn [Sterzinger],

In response to your review ofthe Horrorpops [TheTreatment, October 7]—and I

would first say of course that Iam a fan—but to say they have“dirt-stupid lyrics” is ratherunfair. Example: on the song“Hit ’n Run” I really like thelyric “I’ve gotten the ‘Wouldn’tyou rather be friends’—I guessthat could make sense if wehadn’t kissed; if you hadn’tmade me feel like I could neverbe missed.” Actually, I couldhear Chrissie Hynde doing this,and it even sounds like aPretenders song. And I alwaystry to remember these folks arewriting in their second lan-guage—have you ever written areview in Danish?

Respectfully,

Lincoln ZimmanckLos Angeles

InMemoriam,Richy FlashOn October 18, Richard Wilson[“Hey, Richy Flash-Flash,”August 13, 2004] succumbed tocomplications from AIDS,against which he had struggled,both physically and politically,for many years.

Richard was a man of manytalents, most notably a genius forthe art of photography. He pos-sessed a peculiar ability to renderhimself invisible, a valuable skillfor a photographer seeking can-did shots, especially shots of

celebrities in less-than-flatteringsituations. He was neverthelessaggressive with the practice of hisart, as he was with the practice ofhis life. One paparazzi colleaguerecounts the tale of having thelabel of his Canon embossed onhis forehead when Richardknocked him to the floor at Studio54 in the 1970s; woe unto himwho got between Richard and hisshot. And woe unto anyone whogot in the way of Richard’s politi-cal agenda. From the Stonewallriot in the 60s to the Act Updemonstrations in the 80s,Richard was always in the thick ofpolitical causes which provokedhis refined sense of justice. Butconsistent with his many contra-dictions, his aggressive practicesprang from a fundamentally dis-

passionate perspective. A seriousBuddhist, the delicate, almost lov-ing art he crafted belied the cun-ning skill required to produce it.

A small-town boy from cen-tral Illinois, Richard moved atthe highest levels of New Yorksociety, but the midwest alwaystook first place in his heart.

Openly gay before it was evensafe to be out, Richard fatheredthree sons who, together with hisgrandson, were the pride of hislife. Deeply introspective andseriously bookish, he could shoutdown the best his adversarieshad to offer. His personalityencompassed the wild extremesof human behavior, a feat whichsome at least consider the markof true genius.

Many of his friends from his

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CHICAGO READER | NOVEMBER 11, 2005 | SECTION ONE 13

later years in Pilsen and Champaignwill remember Richard as a profes-sional pain in the ass. And we thankour lucky stars for professional painsin the ass like Richard. Richard madethe world more honest, more real,more terribly, beautifully human. Wewill miss you, Richy Flash. Thanksfor sneaking up on us and blinding uswith your stunning beauty.

Jerry Boyle Pilsen

Pun IntendedIn his review of my play The UneasyChair [“The Wrong Engagement,”October 14] Tony Adler writes,“Smith’s comedy was almost certainlynever meant to be anything morethan a frothy exercise in creativeanachronism,” and later, “I can’t sayfor sure whether Smith consciouslybuilt hell into The Uneasy Chair.”Well, as the author, I can say defini-tively that I did consciously build hellinto The Uneasy Chair, that I didhope that it would be a bit more thana frothy exercise in anachronism, andthat Mr. Adler was spot-on in his ref-erencing of Beckett’s Endgame. It wasmy intention to have my charactersdrift from Victoriana into absurdism.The play calls for a set that continual-ly shrinks, like something from Alicein Wonderland, but so far very fewcompanies have had the budget,space, or design technique to makethat happen, and so the absurdistquality is often lost. I am delightedMr. Adler and some audience mem-bers nonetheless felt it so forcefully.Lest anyone think I am retroactivelyand opportunistically claiming thisdistinction, references to Beckett doappear in some of the Writers’Theatre’s promotional materials.

Thank you and best wishes,

Evan SmithSavannah, Georgia

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