This week's feedback

Corrections

Our Feb. 13 editorial, “Economic recovery just around the corner,” was incorrect.

Also, in the March 16 issue, David Silva incorrectly described City Councilmember Carl DeMaio as “a Chinese-made Xualong hunter-killer automaton, whose ‘annihilation’ program is set to activate whenever hotelier Doug Manchester says ‘Chocolate Strawberries.’”  In fact, DeMaio is a Republican.

Also, our March 28 issue contained the wrong answer to our March 27 “Count the Number of Marbles Remaining in Bill Horn’s Head” reader contest. The correct answer is 5. 

Finally, next week’s editorial, “Economic recovery—we told you so!” will be incorrect.

Food for thought

I’m a total foodie and love the regular culinary column written by Candice Woo. Her thoughts on caprese salad are both witty and enlightening, and the way she describes Salisbury steak—wow! I could almost taste it thru your pages.
What a sad surprise it was, then, when I saw her in person at Hilda’s Peruvian Seafood Emporio in Spring Valley last week. Not only did she demand that the bill for her party of eight be comped, but her table manners left a lot to be desired. She ate with her hands, scarfed down her Cow Heart Anticucho in one whiff, talked with her mouth open and at one point discarded her empty oyster shells on the floor, causing a man in a walker to slip and fall.
Her response? A belly laugh followed by the comment  “Hey, who ordered the greasy geezer?”

Needless to say, my soufflé, as far as Candice Woo is concerned, has flattened, and no amount of aired-out egg whites perfectly folded in will ever make it rise again. I took video with my cell phone, and I’m attaching it to this e-mail as proof. Shame on you, Candice! You’re a tasteless critic, indeed.

Editor’s note: Upon reviewing the video, we at CityBeat can assure that said woman is not Candice Woo but, rather an elderly Salvadoran woman who has been posing as Ms. Woo at several local eateries.

Huh?

Kudos on your March 11 cover story, “El Cajon: We’re no more redneck than Chula Vista, Oceanside or Escondido.” Quite the good read!

Editor's note: Are you sure you mailed your letter to the right paper?

Comma tose

I must express my concern over what I consider to be grammar bigotry in your sparse use of the jazziest of punctuation marks, the exclamation point.

My obsession with all things orthography and typeface began at an early age, when my grandmother took me to see a Dallas regional theater production of Oklahoma! Days later, I started a not-so-popular pro-exclamation group called The Admirals! Bullies taunted me and called me names like “I before E except after sissy,” and used to say that I was hung like an asterisk. Many a night I cried myself to sleep wondering why supermarket express lanes are designated as “10 items or less”  and not 10 items or fewer.

Every week I go though the pages of your paper to see the anti-exclamation campaign rear its ugly head. The obscene amounts of ampersands, guillemets and even interrobangs that taint your pages is astounding! I blame your writers Edwin “The Duke of Italics” Decker, Aaryn “The Apostrophe Harlot” Belfer and D.A. Semicolon for this. My nana and I will keep a close watch in following weeks to ensure this letter is taken to heart. Let it be known that the exclamation point will no longer be forced to the back of the grammar bus!