Keep prostitution secret

Why does Montreal need a red light district to take care of a phenomenon that has always been considered hidden or private in the extreme? Why change a closet into a circus? Must we tolerate overt prostitution on certain designated streets because we still haven't required it to operate as discreetly as possible?

Especially today, with the existence of phones, exclusive agencies and restricted publications, we can finally keep the selling and buying invisible rather than obnoxious.

--L.S. Cattarini

Sasha and sex in the city

With all due respect to Sasha, I do believe she missed the point in last week's letter to "Out to Dry" ["Nipple impotence," March 30]. "Out," it seems, was miffed because the oral attentions he was lavishing on his female partner were not being returned.

When Sasha responded with some very uncharacteristic psycho-babble, I immediately thought of the excellent HBO Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle, Sex and the City. In last week's episode, Carrie (Parker) lay back, received a good licking, then told the licker, much to his chagrin and dismay, that she had to get back to work. The rationale? Parker's voiceover said it all: "I had done it; I had had sex like a man."

Presumably she meant that she had gotten her rocks off with no further obligations.

As a man, I can see her point, even if I don't agree that the woman does the lionesse's share of the work in that regard. But I must admit that I'm a little afraid that this might be a catching thing. Next thing you know, you'll be all ready for some post-cunnilingus activities and your bedmate will announce she's quite satisfied as she rises to leave, leaving one standing high and dry, so to speak.

This is one trend the demographers failed to recognize. Maybe they had their heads under the covers...

--Patrick

Cruelty to tragedy

Regarding your report on the QPIRG-sponsored McGill debate on animal experiments ["The pros and cons of animal agony," March 30], it should be said that humans, too, can be direct victims of these tragic experiments.

Several years ago, a friend of mine was a lab assistant at a drug company doing animal research on lymphoma. She accidentally pricked her skin but was told that what was deadly for the animals couldn't affect humans. A few years later, she died from cancer of the lymphatic system.

It would be hard to imagine someone telling her: "Well, it was for the good of humanity." Yet that is what we, in effect, tell the millions of sentient creatures who are killed in lab experiments. Must we kill in order to cure? Dr. Ray Greek showed that this is unnecessary from a strictly medical point of view.

But the most powerful arguments were given by the two speakers from the Fauna Foundation, a shelter for chimps who had been victimized by lab experiments (www.faunafoundation.org). One of them, Arryn Ketter, spoke very movingly about the need to reject all animal experiments on the basis of cruelty, just as we must reject all types of slavery, uncompromisingly. If my friend was somewhere watching, she would have more than agreed.

--Shloime Perel

Oi on!

Hi, I'm responding to Dave of the Discords.

I just want to say that me or my fellow bandmates had nothing to do with the organization of the Oi! Fest nor did we have a say on which bands were asked to play.

Personally, I think all the local bands who are involved in this scene should have been there. You guys (the Discords), Streettroopers etc. But putting down four bands (three of whom you've never even heard) 'cause you didn't get to play, or because you have a problem with someone, is just wrong and serves no purpose. Hope all goes well in T.O. for you guys. Oi!

--Fred from the Generatorz/Shocktroops