Pastoral-progressive

No doubt, the vegans came out of the woodwork, inundating you good people with inflamed retorts to Clark Wolf and the bait laid for us ("Heritage for the Holidays," Napkin Notes, Nov. 7). Here's one more. Save these special birds—by killing them? That is, by paying a little more to outsource the killing-plucking-gutting to someone with a smaller flock, someone who hosts 4-H tours, someone who's pitching a fresher and more progressive fantasy about America's pastoral good ol' days?

As Wolf notes, "stewardship of our Eden" does require a thoughtful balance between the needs of self and the needs of others, but nature's self/other distinction is pretty fuzzy. Nature is us: turkeys, slaughterhouse workers, waterways fouled with manure, even the E. coli and salmonella hitting the headlines with every frozen-crap recall. I like the Slow Food movement and Mr. Wolf's promotion thereof, but why can't we take the next logical step down the food chain here? Because meat tastes good? Because your mama made it?

Is that all you've got?

Anyone who can cook worth a damn will be giving thanks this holiday for side dishes and gravy anyway. And I'm confident that the plants on my plate—be they heirloom, organic, shaped like a can, whatever—weren't scurrying away or shrieking before the man came around.

Jason Weaver

Guerneville

Would someone please explain to Jason where gravy comes from?

Stage review prompts letter!!!

I read David Templeton's review of Loading Zone's Macbeth ("Fair Is Foul," Nov. 7), and I couldn't agree more. I was at the 9pm show on Halloween knowing I couldn't make it through the midnight show. It was truly an amazing production. If you see only one production this month, it must be Macbeth at the Loading Zone.

Holly Vinson

Santa Rosa

North Bay corp.'s other sides

Do you know that North Bay Corporation is involved in the development of a solid-waste landfill in a pristine foothill area of southwestern Colusa County ("Again and Again," the Green Zone, Aug. 8)? The proposed landfill will be in four steep canyons, with watershed that flows down into the creeks that cross Sacramento Valley and into the Colusa Basin and then to the Sacramento River. There are also seismic faults within 200 feet (less than a football field length) of the landfill. Additionally, this landfill is in an area that is exclusively agricultural.

North Bay Corporation formed a subsidiary, Cortina Landfill Company, to be the developer/manager. North Bay, one subsidiary of the Ratto Group of Companies Inc., also has options to buy 50 percent of Earthworks Industries Inc., a venture company in Canada whose subsidiary, Cortina Integrated Waste Management Inc., has the lease on 423 acres of a 640-acre rancheria, the lands of the Cortina Band of Wintun Indians.

Sure, North Bay can recycle, but they don't mind destroying a pristine environment to gain more dumping ground.

Vernette Marsh

Davis

Puff Puff

I am an on-and-off-again smoker. I can't seem to quit but can't smoke steadily, either. [Regarding the outdoor smoking ban in Santa Rosa], car exhaust causes about the same health problems that secondhand smoke causes: asthma, bronchitis, blah blah blah, but a lot more than 20 percent of Santa Rosa is addicted to their automobiles, so the largest group of monkeys wins and gets to feel self-righteous. We sure sent the message across about how strongly we feel about public health! Now, when we sit outside at a cafe with our latte or cappuccino, all we have to inhale are carcinogens from burning petroleum, not burning tobacco. Yay! What a pretentious joke. If people were really concerned about public health, we'd all have healthcare.

Evan Swan

Santa Rosa

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