Homemade Hooch

I think home distilling is a great way to carry age-old tradition (“ Still Secret ,” October 2010). My grandfather and great-uncle ran hooch in the South, and their supertuned Mercury had the bullet holes to prove it. (Typically it was parked off to the side on Sunday mornings at church.) We still find shrapnel on our land deep in the pines where the IRS blew up a still. I find it more funny they blew it up while my grandfather and great-uncle were fighting in WWII.

Fondly I remember fish and hush puppy fries or big BBQs with 30 or 40 of our family members. Celebrations required grabbing a shovel and going to an undisclosed part of the land, then returning with a jewel so sweet no price tag could be put on it.

I don’t brew myself, but I sure enjoy it when I go home [to Georgia]. I can tell you that a fresh peach or a few ears of sweet white corn makes what you find on your local supermarket shelf taste like swamp water. Knowing my grand-father grew the produce and took the time to craft the moonshine makes it almost medicinal.

Holly James
Fremont

MYOB

I’m all for Initiative 1100 (“ Boozy Ballot Initiatives ,” October 2010). The state should not be in the booze business. It’s time for the state to focus on the basics and get out of the extra curricular activities. Let the market regulate itself—it works well in other states and it will work well here. When has the state done anything efficiently or economically? I’m not in the restaurant business nor the distribution business; I just want the state to focus on roads, education, and essential services.

Cheri Johnson
Gig Harbor

Truth in Advertising

Opponents to liquor privatization initiatives 1100 and 1105, which appear on the ballot in November
(“ Anti-Privatization Ads Begin, ” September 7, 2010, seattlemet.com), have been incredibly disingenuous in all of their arguments so far. I find them insulting and full of misinformation.

Rocky
via seattlemet.com

The Almighty Dollar

If the liquor control board truly cared about enforcement, it would not have only about 80 employees enforcing retail liquor sales laws and more than 800 employees selling and marketing liquor
(“ Anti-Privatization Ads Begin, ” September 7, 2010, seattlemet.com). But that shows where its priorities are—it’s all about raising money and charging the highest prices in the country. Anyone who believes the beer companies are pouring millions of dollars into the “No” campaign because they care about safety and underage drinking is being fooled. It’s all about market share.

State government has no legitimate reason to be selling liquor. Get the state out of the liquor business—vote yes on I-1100.

Arthur
via seattlemet.com

Will Work for Booze

I think everyone just wants cheaper and more accessible liquor (“ Anti-Privatization Ads Begin, ” September 7, 2010, seattlemet.com). I wouldn’t mind it, but not at the expense of people’s livelihood…most people don’t realize the thousands of jobs that will be lost, like my boyfriend’s. He happens to work for a distributor driving a beer truck.

Employees of liquor stores, distributing companies, etc. would lose their jobs. Please do your research instead of taking the word of some people who just want easier access to alcohol. The real backing is just Big Business wanting to make even more money by cutting out the middleman.

Sara
via seattlemet.com

Cross At Your Own Risk

I read your article “ Escalation Clause ” (September 2010) with the highest interest. I had an out of the ordinary encounter with a Seattle police officer in Belltown not too long ago.

It was on Bell Street. There was a road maintenance vehicle doing some stuff at the corner of Bell and Fifth. I was crossing the street, on a green light, in the crosswalk, at Bell and Fourth. No sign anywhere that pedestrians could not cross there (I double-checked that afterwards).

All of a sudden, as I was about in the middle of the crosswalk, comes a policeman running toward me (I did not notice him before), yelling, and I mean he was yelling at the top of his lungs: You can’t cross here, there is construction going on. I was so flabbergasted that I said to him, “But officer, that’s happening at the end of this block.” I kept walking and he came toward me with an extremely threatening posture, yelling at the top of his lungs: “If you walk any further, I’ll arrest you!” Obviously I returned to the curb and walk in the opposite direction on the sidewalk, quite shaken up, as far away from this cop as possible. I think he must have been around 30.

By the way, I am an adult, and my looks and behavior are average; in other words I am far from looking like a rebellious person or troublemaker.

Keep up the good reporting. There is more abuse of civilians by our police force. The media need to report more on that!

Anonymous
Seattle

Hoop Dreams

I saw one of the 3BA [three-on-three basketball] test games (“ Turnover ,” September 2010), and it was the most fascinating, well-produced basketball games I have ever seen. I hope this league brings a team to Seattle.

Rudy Hon
via seattlemet.com

Soccer Strife

I having been coaching Premier Soccer for many years now and I couldn’t agree with you more
(“ A Losing Proposition ,” September 2010). At least one or two kids on every one of these teams is being significantly damaged by this competitive atmosphere we’ve created. As one of my fellow coaches says to me often, “Seth, we work in the worst industry in the world. We’re this (holding his thumb and pointer finger close together) close to child prostitution….” Damn right….

Seth Taylor
Seattle

For the Love of Pod

I can honestly say I’ve had way more joy in my life since I discovered Luke Burbank’s Too Beautiful to Live (" Young MC ," September 2010). Life can be absurd and comical, and people take themselves way too seriously. TBTL lets me feel that there’s a magic joy in being alive, one that involves laughing at yourself and others as often as possible. I love, love, love this podcast.

Alissa Coward
Bothell

Coming Back for More

I just renewed my subscription to your magazine, not for the glossy restaurant reviews, but for your extremely interesting and well-written articles. I am surprised to find such a high level of journalism in a local lifestyles magazine. Keep up the good work!

J. Leigh
Seattle

Corrections

In “ The Man Who Loved Seattle Too Much ” (October 2010), Grant Cogswell’s mother worked on Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential, not congressional, campaign. And Cogswell, and not collaborator Cary Moon, crafted the message and the vision for a highway-free downtown waterfront campaign, which he named the People’s Waterfront Coalition.

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