Valley View To the Editor, I love reading Emil Franzi's comments in The Skinny. Franzi is usually correct in his views of local politics. But his perspective of Oro Valley Mayor Cheryl Skalsky selling out to the development community is way off (The Skinny, Tucson Weekly, October 30). In the last two years Skalsky has been mayor of Oro Valley, she has voted along with me to impose impact development fees, increase water rates to high-volume users like golf courses, increase water hook-up fees, prohibit the use of ground water on golf courses, turn would-be high-density developments into parks, impose the strictest grading ordinance in the state, and create acres of open space. Is this a shill for the Growth Lobby? I think not. There is a big difference between a school and owl crap, and that is the debate. Amphi School Board member Nancy Young Wright and her so-called neighborhood coalition are virtually against anything and anyone that is opposed to their squirrel-headed notion that maybe there is an owl somewhere in Tortolita. The Amphi School District needs a new high school now. Let Wright and her neighborhood "inquisition" search for dolphin in our riparian areas. That brings up the next issue: What is the difference between Oro Valley annexing would-be Tortolita land and Tortolita screwing Casas Adobes by annexing their land? I guess that depends on who is doing the annexing, right? --Paul Parisi Vice Mayor, Oro Valley Emil Franzi replies: Councilman Parisi apparently thinks dispensing Band-Aids is the equivalent of surgery. Sorry, Paul, but the trivia you brag about has not exactly brought the Growth Lobby to the mat in Oro Valley. And there's some major differences between Tortolita's proposed annexation of 100 acres from Casas Adobes and the massive annexations of bleeding chunks of Tortolita by Marana and Oro Valley, which you supported. The 100 acres had no effect on Casas Adobes ability to be a town, while the Oro Valley and Dogpatch annexations would have literally destroyed Tortolita. They also differ on a simple principle you do not seem to grasp or support. The Oro Valley and Marana annexations were requested mostly by out-of-town landowners in opposition to the wishes of the current residents. The Tortolita annexation involves requests made by real people who actually live in the affected area. Once again, you and Mayor Cheryl Skalsky side with land speculators against homeowners. You also fail to grasp the real issues with regards to the Amphi school site you slavishly support. Forget the owl problem, Paul--it's a lousy site acquired at a ludicrously high price and with no appraisal, all due to the sleazy actions of a real estate crony of a school-board member with a massive conflict of interest. The most rational advice you could give the current Amphi Board is to back off and pick one of the other sites instead of playing cheerleader for their incredibly stupid and/or incredibly corrupt decision. That will ultimately get a high school built quicker and cheaper somewhere else. That Nancy Wright and her friends give you and Skalsky crap in Oro Valley is a rather shallow and irresponsible reason for you to side with her opponents on the Amphi Board. And your cutesy attitude toward the pygmy owl betrays your utter lack of environmental sensitivity. Screw those little owls--bulldoze 'em, destroy their habitat, bag some ironwoods and saguaros while you're at it, seen one, seen 'em all. Hey, we need more tract homes up here and schools for the kids they bring with them. That's what really counts, right? Gee, Paul, now do you know why some of us think you and Mayor Skalsky have degenerated to Growth Lobby water carriers? Uh...Whatever To the Editor, Didactic letter written in the style of a Tucson Weekly article: Once again, the jerks over at the Tucson Weekly have fallen into their usual trap and have written another stupid issue full of name-calling, dirty words and generally churlish behavior. They don't seem to be able to get it through their thick skulls that if they continually bludgeon the reader over the head with this kind of heavy-handed literary lambasting, callous contumely, crude calumny, and vitriolic vituperation, their writings will become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal or a screaming siren, and it will cause eventual total journalistic desensitization! Now this is a shame, as TW articles often put forth the good and the true, if you can ever get past all the crap and separate the gold from the chaff. Completely lost in this volcano of verbal vapidity is any dramatic effect of subtlety or inference. (As in the cartoon I saw somewhere where this guy is looking at a little brown pile on the ground and he says, "So is this stuff Shinola, or what?" Now that has much more impact than saying, "Boy, this guy is really stupid. He doesn't even know...etc.") How many of you saw The Princess Bride, one of the great movies of all time? Not a bad word in the entire movie until near the end, when Inigo Montoya says to the bad guy, "I want my father back, you son of a bitch!" We are shocked by this sudden surprise, and the emotion of the scene is brought to us with double force. Now take a recent article by Jeff Smith where he analyzes the battle of the Little Big Horn by saying that Custer stepped on his dick. In this one short sentence Smith has triumphed over five generations of historians, who have been unable to express Custer's actions as well in eighteen gazillion words. But did we see the shock value, the impact, the very drama of the sheer effrontery of this single naughty word? No, because its effect was lost in the expectation of the usual disgusting drizzle of degraded drivel. Simply put, the feces obscure the theses. Now we're all grown-ups, and we know we can say bad words and run people down anytime we want to. We're allowed. But as they say, a word to the wise is sufficient. The staff of the otherwise well done TW are fools if they do not mend their ways at once. Maybe they should all step outside the back door and scream all the common obscenities 100 times, and get it out of their systems. But we fear that the fate of the TW is inexorable: its prating of petty putrescence can only lead down the road of mediocrity, rejection and complete surrender to a sickening slide into the malevolent miasma of stylistic slime. (The above is irrelevant when the writing achieves the status of great art, however. I was about to send this letter when I read the October 23 issue. In the Skinny, the phrase "festering pustule on the body politick" occurs. Now are we suddenly thrust onto a vastly higher literary plane than the TW's usual Silurian gruntings. This is writing. This is journalism. In a word, I wish I had said it. The TW has turned the corner and a bright future now awaits as its staff strides boldly into the bright light of the journalistic future, faces radiant, hair blown back.) --Carl Noggle Ragin' Pagan To the Editor, Does Kevin Franklin consider New Year's Eve's "significance... hazy at best?" If so, chances are he wouldn't write an article dismissing it as lacking significance. If not, then he shouldn't tell me that my New Year is unimportant. Yes, I'm referring to Samhain, or Halloween as it's now called. Pagans around Tucson (and the world) celebrated this holiday on October 31, myself and friends included. We celebrated the cycles of life and nature as our year came to a close. Perhaps it seems too soon for the traditionalists, but it's most appropriate to us. Kevin, please do some research before you try to blow off an entire religion in one sentence. --S. Rhodes Tom Terrific? To the Editor, What did Tom Danehy do to deserve three articles in the October 2 edition? His regular column, great; a feature on a worthy local football program, fine. But a music feature on mediocre Phoenix rap act--what the hell is that? Danehy thinks he's down because he knows a little rap and listened to Parliament 15 years ago, but playing hoops with non-white folks and dissing all the cheesy oldies stations doesn't exactly make him the Mack-Daddy. Besides, how cool is it to "discover" NastyBoy Klick the same week The Arizona Daily Star does? Must have used the same press kit, eh, Tom? What's next, Danehy Dines Delicious? Tom Talks Theatre? Finally, Danehy must be beside himself that he has the finely honed comic talent to make fun of both ASU and lawyers in the same column. What a rapier-sharp wit! I'm attending law school myself; I must have missed the "Divesting Oneself of All Human Dignity" class. Reviewing a middling band because he got excited about getting a free CD hardly puts Danehy in a position to talk about professional dignity. --Todd McKay Ballot Busters! To the Editor, I listened to the local media, I read the Star, I poured over my ballot and even perked up my ears when a TV spot came on regarding the issues. But in all that, something was missing. The Star objective? Hardly! I could find no in-depth information on a side of the issue they disagreed with, unless you count the letters to the editor. Local media was just as bad. Finally my ballot came and I opened it for objective comments in opposition. Mostly what I got where "No arguments against Proposition X were submitted to the City Clerk." How disappointing. And in regard to the proposed amendments to the City Charter: I knew there was more "behind the scenes" (call me suspicious) with these changes than meets the eye. Finally, I had a brainstorm and pulled up that "other paper" I had read a few times while visiting a local deli. Tucson Weekly finally gave me the other side of the picture (Tucson Weekly, October 30). Thanks for the down and dirty. It's too bad Tucson citizens have to search so hard for both sides of the story. --David Thomas So Sioux Us To the Editor, In his column, "Uh, Happy Halloween" (Tucson Weekly, November 6) Jeff Smith writes, "I thought it was pretty rich when I heard that Sioux Falls, Iowa, was getting pressured to change its name...." I thought it was pretty rich to read this as Sioux Falls was in South Dakota when I used to live in that state and last I checked the map, it was still in South Dakota. Perhaps Smith meant Sioux City, Iowa. Doesn't anyone check their facts before printing? --Gordon McGirr Captive Audience To the Editor, Your "hyperdynamic efforts" are shocking! I read the Tucson Weekly today, first time ever, and was amazed, shocked and flabbergasted! I had to look at the front page repeatedly to believe it was printed in Arizona! I am down here from a foreign territory called Yavapai County where we don't tolerate such smut. Such horrible garbage you print! Sexually explicit pictures, perverted sex ads, articles not complimentary to the establishment, and even insulting political incompetence! The nerve of you! Don't you know that is pornography? You should be prosecuted. Children have access to that rag! You should be ashamed of yourselves. To me that looks like public immorality, child abuse and low-life trash. God forbid. Keep up the good work. --John Polut Tucson Prison We Want Letters! Thrilled by our brilliant insights? Sick of our mean-spirited attacks? Need to make something perfectly clear? Write: tucsonweekly@tucsonweekly.com

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