Contempt for call girls?

[Re: “Banging for Big Bucks,” Cover, Nov. 6] Please tell Chris Barry that if he needs to display his puerile contempt for sex-trade workers, he can always hire one. But allowing this contempt to dominate his interview of one such worker—while using her image on the cover to attract readers—is just bad journalism.

>> Rachel Burman

Starring Natalie McLennan on your cover is about the equivalent of voting for Sarah Palin. Put aside the fact that she had to suck dick for so long to get her book deal, I’d like to know why she merits a deal in the first place, over the thousands of other Montreal prostitutes hobnobbing with the rich and famous. What is it about servicing the genitals of the upper echelons of society that makes her story an interesting read?

Do we really give a shit about how she needs something “fun” to do like snowboarding, or the fact that she’s due for a “lightbulb moment?” Shallowness and boredom suffocate the story as this woman sums up her N.Y. whoring experience as eating in nice restaurants and hanging out with friends. Natalie McLennan’s biography provides a perfect example of the idiocracy within which our society is steeped and the tabloid-style trash proliferating (most of) the publishing world.

Can’t wait to spot my new Mile-End neighbour around. What’ll she do next... eat bagels?

>>Bernice Davidson

Treasure in trash

[Re: “Junk hunk,” People, Nov. 6] The interview with Paolo Di Pietro was informative. In our wasteful, fast-paced society, a number of people, through carelessness, undue haste or sheer ignorance, throw valuable art, family heirlooms, rare books or magazines and sometimes even expensive jewellery in the garbage. It takes sharp eyes and a lot of luck to retrieve treasures from the trash before it is too late.

Consider the case of one eagle-eyed Elizabeth Gibson, who, in 2003, while walking to a coffee shop, spotted a strange-looking painting next to a dumpster in New York City. She instinctively picked it up and took it home, just 10 minutes before the garbage truck arrived. After some research. she discovered that the painting was a lost 1970 masterpiece called “Three People” by Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo. The painting fetched more than $1-million at an art auction.

Moral of the story: Before calling the junk man or putting the garbage on the curb, people ought to check what they are discarding at least once.

>>Manish Patwari

Woe is metro

It is a real shame that the metro system in Montreal is so old and inefficient! In 1978—such a long time ago!—when the population of the West Island was nothing compared to what it is now, the last metro station available to residents in Pointe-Claire, Beaconsfield or Baie d’Urfé was Angrignon.

Now, when so many people depend on the metro, and both Highway 20 and 40 are always overcrowded, the metro has not expanded a single bit. Lack of interest on the part of politicians and administrators, lack of respect for West Islanders. There are not enough buses, they’re uncomfortable and it takes hours for West Islanders to reach downtown. When will politicians think of giving residents who pay such high taxes a better quality of living? Why do they decide to expand Dorval airport, bringing pollution and more traffic to the area, instead of a real decent means of transportation that would benefit so many? Almost all decent cities in the world have a metro straight from the airport to downtown areas, at the very least.

>> Vera Tavares

POW or enemy
combatant?

[Re: News, Angel & Insect, Nov. 13] You refer to David Frum as “Canada’s neocon shame.” You also referred to a National Post editorial where Frum argued that McCain had more character than Obama due to the suffering he experienced as a POW in Vietnam, compared to the privileged lifestyle of Obama.

Shouldn’t McCain’s captivity bear the label of “enemy combatant,” rather than Prisoner of War? Of course, this term hadn’t yet been “invented”—Geneva Conventions notwithstanding—but an enemy combatant is someone who is fighting without a declaration of war. The Vietnamese never declared war on us. Moreover, they never even addressed us with any type of hostile language.

Understandably, McCain lost much weight while a “POW”—he wasn’t getting his usual breakfast of steak ‘n’ eggs before his bomb runs to, as they said, “kill a gook for Christ.” He was receiving the same subsistence as his captors: a bowl of rice and a cup of tea.

Let’s face it, an enemy combatant is simply a lousy person who is without justification for inflicting violence. But, of course, we’re the good guys in Iraq and Afghanistan, while they’re the enemy combatants.

>> Edward Abramic

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