Love-Hate Mail
Clothing optional
I
could not avoid writing to advise of my disgust concerning your use of
the American and Tennessee flags as togas for Bubba and his friend in a
photo on your most recent cover (“Country Boys Can Survive,” Sept. 20).
These flags are symbols of unions, organizations and ideals and are not
intended to be worn as clothing. And, as if we weren’t well enough
aware that the fellow on the left was wearing nothing beneath his
toga—as well as...um...tweaking himself—we turn inside to the contents
page of the paper to find an even further revealing black-and-white
photo. Yuck! Talk about TMI.
I
read the article enough to know these guys are in some way politically
involved, and maybe wearing the flags was the point, but next time,
wouldn’t red, white and blue tie-dyed T-shirts work just as well? I am
not easily shocked, and it takes quite a bit to disgust me.
KEVIN CARSON
kevintn@webtv.net (Nashville)
Park placation
As
a downtown office worker, I read with interest Christine’s Kreyling’s
article on the deconstruction of the pocket park at 6th and Church
Street downtown (“Church Street Follies,” Sept. 20). I fully expected
Ms. Kreyling to flame Metro Parks director Roy Wilson’s absurd
justification for the elimination of all of the trees and shrubs in the
park as being an attractive nuisance for birds. Yes, there were birds
in the park, and they left droppings, but the birds (and the rats) were
attracted not by the trees but by the tremendous amount of food waste,
trash and excrement left behind by the homeless people that congregated
there. For reasons of political correctness, I assume, the city is
unwilling to give us an honest explanation as to how this area evolved
from attractive public green space to health hazard. Our community will
not be able to effectively address the intractable problem posed by the
homeless population if we can’t bring ourselves even to have a
forthright conversation about it. Matt Leber of the Nashville Homeless
Power Project is quoted as being critical of Metro for a “lack of
engagement with the homeless users.” How about an engagement with the
city’s taxpayers who funded the park in the first place and pay for its
ongoing maintenance? The advocacy for the homeless in this particular
instance is misguided, and the influence of these advocates over public
policy is exaggerated.
JOHN CLAYBROOK
jdclaybrook@yahoo.com (Nashville)
Bad taste
As a longtime resident of Nashville, the Nashville Scene
has been a habitual source of reading entertainment. In fact, I pretty
much read it from front to back. That being said, I have seen writers
come and go from the Scene and, for the most part, have always
been impressed with the writing staff. My concern is with your current
food critic, Carrington Fox. I feel that from the last few reviews, she
does not relate well with the “normal” readers and is boring. Her
vocabulary is way too extended, and the overall opinion I have gotten
from others has been the same. She never says anything about the
service, and her last review on Whitfield’s focused too much on the
neighborhood, Belle Meade (“New Neighbors,” Sep. 20). We, as readers,
want the full experience of the place chosen for the week. I have eaten
at Whitfield’s many times, don’t live in Belle Meade and find it an
amazing little gem in this city. I miss Kay West.
SHAWN CARNES
shawncarnes2002@yahoo.com (Nashville)
Raise a bowl of chili
I
would like to sincerely thank all the wonderful friends who have
written about my father, Frank Varallo, including Carrington Fox on the
Scene’s food blog Bites. To many, he was a restaurant owner with
a heart of gold, a wonderful husband and a good friend. But to me, he
was my dad.
I remember growing up in that old restaurant, and all dad’s friends were like my family, but the one thing I remember most about my dad was that he was real. He sincerely loved people. From the richest to the poorest, he treated everyone equally with honor and respect.
I remember dad giving his last dollars one day to a poor beggar man who had no legs. Scooter, they called him. Mom protectively fussed, saying that the man was taking him for all he was worth. My Dad’s comment: “Mom, what that man does with the money I gave him is between him and God. What I do with the money God gives me is between me and God.” That was my Dad.
The
world just is not quite as good a place without him. Thank you all for
the kind words and the love you gave to him. We all will truly miss him.
VERONICA VARALLO
varallov@mac.com (Nashville)
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