Bravo Gary

Thank you to journalist Gary Singh for the most amazing and extremely well-researched and passionately written feature on Leonard Cohen's 75 years of his sentimentally poetic, vocal and musical journey ("The Poet King," Cover Story, Nov. 11). I must regrettably and apologetically admit that I was not familiar with this extraordinary artist till I was invited by my young nephew to attend Mr. Cohen's sold-out concert in Israel last summer. My Holy Land's annual visit and experience this time was definitely enriched by this concert.

Gary Singh's very informative, intuitive and touching article ignited my renewed curiosity and personal interest to see and hear again Leonard Cohen's performance in San Jose..

Bravo Gary and bravo Leonard!

Lina Broydo

Los Altos Hills

Poet King

If music is the wine that fills the cup of silence, then I was very drunk on Friday (Nov. 13), when Leonard Cohen came to town. Leonard held the audience in the palm of his hand and held it close to his heart.

Greeted with a standing ovation as he walked onstage and before even one note of music was heard, he captured the audience by his mere presence. Nearly every song was followed by a standing ovation. And when he softly whispered his poetry into the microphone with his husky voice, it was as if the audience held its collective breath in utter silence to catch every delicate syllable—moments of intimacy shared by a near-capacity audience. And yet it felt as if you were the only person to whom his heartfelt words were being spoken.

An enchanted evening, held spellbound by the poet king: Leonard Cohen—the Rumi of our time.

Morma Pezzini

San Jose

"Readers can be forgiven for assuming that the arrestee was male, based on the gender-neutral item last week. The correspondent, though, was female and was arrested, jailed and released in her panties. —Editor

Partying in Panties

If the individual writing this rant ("Pantless CUI," I Saw You, Nov. 11) was stupid enough to be drunk in public wearing only his underwear, I'm hard pressed to understand his grievance.

In fact, I wish I'd seen him riding the bus in his skivvies. I would have enjoyed the laugh.

Gilda Vincent

San Jose

Liquidity

Did you know that there are no "new" water supplies? The water we have now is the same water that was here with the dinosaurs. Our blue planet, Planet Water, is comprised of 70 percent water, yet only 1 percent of that is accessible freshwater. Yet since the Industrial Revolution, we have polluted half of that 1 percent! So now globally, our clean accessible freshwater supplies are down to 0.5 percent.

This truly makes water our most precious resource as people are literally dying around the globe for a drink. We need to acknowledge the incredible importance that water plays in our lives, in every organism's life; that water is a lubricant, hydrating the body and planet to maintain functionality. The importance of water needs to be reflected in our built environments. We need to educate ourselves, gain ecological and hydro literacy and take a larger ecosystems view. We need to consider how our actions affect the planet's ability to sustain life, ours and every other living creature. I recently watched an inspiring lecture concerning water by Brock Dolman, and I stress to anyone who loves clean water to do some research and learn about this vital resource.

Summer Swallow

Forestville