Rating: NNNNN
Secret wife-beater
I am writing to respond to Zenya Sirant’s profile (and promotion) of the Annex shop Secrets from Your Sister (NOW, February 10-16).
This shops carried wife-beater shirts with pictures of musicians who beat their wives. The company that makes these shirts use images of violence against women to sell its products.
Jennifer Klein, the owner of Secrets from Your Sister, has been asked repeatedly by Toronto women and women’s groups to stop carrying the shirts.
She defends the company, saying it is her friend who makes them and that the money is being donated to women’s group.
Well, Klein is profiting from their sale.
Mariza Moss
Toronto
Dowler a downer
Re Andrew Dowler’s dvd column (NOW, February 10-16). Where did you find this guy? It used to be a pleasure to read the DVD reviews. Four Ns for Ray? Thieves’ Highway gets the same rating as Boxcar Bertha? Please ditch Dowler before you lose the credibility Harkness spent years building.
V. S. Dobbs
Toronto
Love is the loneliest word
I did a quick read of your sex survey (NOW, February 10-16) but didn’t find any love. That word “love” is the most difficult word in the English language. It’s a word to live by.
Joseph William Lea
Etobicoke
Condi cut-up crass
Re Like white on rice (NOW, February 10-16). What a racist piece of trash. You guys should be ashamed reprinting it.
David Mason
Toronto
Malice in Dallas
Jered Stuffco’s recent review of Dallas Green’s solo act with Raising the Fawn (NOW, February 3-9) proved an interesting read. There was definitely a sense of arrogance evident throughout the article. Poor professionalism may be the key to such an uneducated and fallacious review.
The fact of the matter is, Green has been performing his solo act for far longer than he’s been with Alexisonfire.
You only have to look back to 2001, when Dallas performed at the Scene Music Fest before Alexisonfire had formed.
The reviewer’s unfair attempt at tarnishing George Pettit’s image as an artist who genuinely shows appreciation and affection for his fans – “Pettit was too busy denying fans autographs and making frequent trips to the bar” – was audaciously rude and presumptuous.
This can only be described as a cheap shot.
It would at least seem fair for some formal apology to be made to both Green and Pettit in the near future.
Sean Power
Toronto
Miller’s not so clean sweep
As a conservative, I’m left scratching my head by Toronto city council these days. City council passed a bylaw from the NDP caucus to remove the homeless from public spaces (NOW, January 27-February 2). The next day, the police quickly moved out the street beggars from downtown.
Is this what Mayor David Miller meant by his broom during the election? Sweeping the poor and other “problems” out of sight?
Now I’ve seen David Miller on television saying his TTC fare increase will not hurt the poor.
So if I want to continue voting for conservatives, does this mean I should be voting for the likes of David Miller? I’m confused!
Michael Miller
Toronto
Losing face on public space
I wonder if the author of the piece concerning the homeless (NOW, January 27-February 2) is the same Hormoz Nabili who lists on his Web site clients such as National Geographic Magazine, Rodale Inc., Curriculum Concept, Zellers, 2 Dimension Advertising, IBM Canada, SpinMaster Toys, Irwin Toy, En Route and National Post Business. If it is, it would appear that he has contributed to the “blight” of advertising in our “common spaces.”
Steve Janke
Toronto
Jerks give gays bad name
I am a 30-something straight male and belong to a gym in the Yonge and Bloor area. Like letter-writer Peter Zed (NOW, January 20-26), I have noticed that my gym seems to be a popular spot for gay men to “cruise.”
If it weren’t directly interfering with me and my workout, I’d have no problem with it.
However, I’ve had to deal with everything from indecent leering to the shower curtain being flung open and closed before I could open my eyes and spot the “peeker.” (This has happened to me on more than one occasion when there were many obvious indicators that the stall was occupied.)
It seems that these guys think this gym is their own private playground. Wrong. The bottom line is, male or female, gay or straight, at best this behaviour is an intrusive nuisance at worst, it’s harassment. These jerks are giving gay guys a bad name.
S. Beresford
Toronto
Apparel hysteria
Re Pushing kiddie porn (NOW, January 27-February 2). It was predictable that the back-page ad from American Apparel (NOW, January 20-26) featuring a gorgeous young woman in a swimsuit would immediately bring out meddling prigs like letter-writer Deborah Cochrane with their mass hysteria about child porn and pedophilia.
But the woman is neither “a child” nor is the picture pornographic, unless one wants it to be. The woman’s sin is that she is beautiful. Were she ordinary, no one would have noticed or complained.
O.G. Pamp
Tweed, Ontario
Valentine smile
I read Megan Mccoy’s article regarding Valentine’s Day (NOW, February 3-9) and thought I’d say good job! I enjoyed reading it and thought it was funny. Out of curiosity (and I’m not asking her out), I was wondering what McCoy had planned this Valentine’s Day?
Tony Chan
Toronto
See Jane gag for air
Re Car-free crash (NOW, February 3-9). Councillor Jane Pitfield says in explaining the demise of Car Free Day that “many people would have felt it was forced on them and would have tried to make sure it never happened again.”
Who are these people, and how out of touch are they? Open your eyes!!!! Smog alert in February!!!!! Ride a bike!! Walk!!! Take the TTC!! The GO!! Ever been to Mexico City? Apparently, we’re trying like hell to achieve their air quality (NOW, February 3-9). Shoot for the moon.
Jay Kift
Toronto
Rush-hour lane insane
So it seems LRTs are the better, more cost-efficient way to move citizens through Toronto (NOW, January 27-February 2). If only those goddamn single-occupant cars weren’t in the way, blocking the 100 passengers that a streetcar can hold.
A downtown section of the King streetcar line already has a ban on vehicles being in its lane, only it’s for a mere four hours a day, during the so-called “rush hours.”
Mayor Miller and his council could start by actually enforcing this law. That could be followed by maybe even adding an express car and more TTC staff to speed loading and – presto! – a dependable route that riders are sure to use.
Fred Spek
Toronto
Kilmer unmasked, vol. 2
A photograph was taken at our gallery during our street art show Unofficial Languages, which NOW rated as #7 in the top 10 best Toronto art shows of 2004. Some Val Kilmer pieces can be seen in it. The artist was there, in person. Could this be the secret artist behind the anonymous Kilmer art popping up around the city (NOW, January 20-26)?
Cathy Mancuso
Shift Gallery, Toronto
Ajax not going down drain
I was rather annoyed by the Up Front item McGuinty Plays Ontario Hold ‘Em (NOW, January 27-February 2).
In it the author writes that the Grits are allowing slots in Ajax and Belleville, “economically depressed areas with plenty of desperate people looking for an easy way out of their troubles.”
According to the 2001 census by Statistics Canada, the household income of Ajax residents is 38 per cent above the Ontario average of $74,112.
In future, it would be wise of your writers to perform more thorough background research before making such false and inaccurate remarks.
Stephanie Bubis
Canada-Ontario Business Service Centre, Toronto
Flotsam and Nelson
Having recently been most excellently entertained at Donald Carr’s one-man show, The Full Nelson (NOW, February 3-9), I was struck by a rather odd thought. If Donald Carr married actress Minnie Driver, would she become Minnie Carr Driver?
Peter Hardy
Toronto
Resto assured, it’s dipshit
I enjoy your restaurant reviews, with one complaint. The writer overuses words that should never be used in the first place. I’m talking here of resto, boîte, ‘shrooms, spuds, plunk and nosh. Please pack them in a fake Prada bag and give them to the next dipshit metrosexual you spotlight in My Style.
Ivy Ethier
Toronto
