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Sad
Hobo
To
the editor:
As
I read the feature “A How-To Guide for the Happy Hobo” [May
7], I immediately noticed assorted inaccuracies and downright
dangerous advice you offered to your readers, plus many omitted
helpful suggestions.
Perhaps you meant the entire piece as a jest?
“The
other . . . white meat”: While “tripas” in Spanish is translated
as “intestines”, it also can mean tripe in the English sense,
which is cow’s stomach, especially honeycomb tripe. I can’t
swear to it, but I believe menudo is made with stomach, as
well as being an ingredient in Philadelphia pepper pot soup
(viz. Campbell’s) and, a sheep stomach features prominently
in Scottish haggis. Intestines are a whole ‘nother thing,
being best when someone else prepares them, what with the
endless washing and hours of cooking that leaves your house
redolent of their former contents.
“Plan
for Emergencies”: You neglected in your mention of the Morning
After Pill to suggest that Planned Parenthood also offers
free condoms (last I checked) to help prevent those emergencies,
as well as to sort of prevent transmission of STDs . . . big
omission!
“Cheap
Community Chow”: For those truly in need of a meal, or some
clothing, and can’t wait for the monthly dinner or annual
gagage sale, the Capital City Rescue Mission offers free meals
every day to Albany residents, and free clothing at their
Blessingdale’s “shop”; just don’t abuse the opportunity and
go there if you don’t really need to, as you’ll be depriving
someone who really is in need. Other organizations offer free
meals on certain days of the week for the truly needy.
“CDTA”:
Make sure you get a day pass ($4), as otherwise you must pay
a fare ($1.50) each time you board a bus . . . no more transfers.
And if you are riding a bike to save the bus fare, be reminded
that in Albany it is illegal to ride your bike on the sidewalk
if you are over 10 years of age.
“One
Man’s Trash”: You encourage readers to “shop” on tree lawns.
While this may be in keeping with the spirit of “reduce, reuse,
recycle,” the city of Albany maintains that items placed on
the tree lawn belong to the city, that to remove them is a
violation called “scavenging,” and that scavengers are liable
to arrest and fines! But, the traditional pastime of collecting
recyclable cans & bottles from tree lawns (Albany doesn’t
want them) and redeeming them (washed beforehand, perhaps
at a spigot in the park?) at Price Chopper, provides exercise,
fresh air, cleaner streets, and a reward of up to $12 a day.
You can purchase quite a bit of food and supplies by careful
spending of that $12.
“Brew
YOB”: The process you suggested for making dandelion wine
seems fraught with possibilities for deadly food poisoning,
other diseases, explosions, and more, and you didn’t even
offer a real recipe! Another jest?
The Albany Public Library offers much more than lectures,
periodicals, books, computers and public rest rooms. There
are free computer classes: Brush up on Word, Internet, etc.
skills to help in your job search; free films from time to
time; workshops in all sorts of engaging and practical subjects.
Monthly bus rider meetings are held there, as well as Literacy
Volunteer help, and free income tax assistance, which can
be extremely helpful when circumstances change radically.
Plus you can find free books on the rack in the basement.
“Viva
la Revolucion” and “Just don’t eat the lead”: If you plant
too close (within 50 ft.) to streets or roads, your veggies
will absorb all those heavy metals and poisons from car exhaust,
and you will subsequently ingest them—ugh! There are community
garden plots available, and food pantries. The local regional
food bank has a farm where it grows fresh veggies for the
food pantries.
“Sock
Puppet Theater”: The Cooperative Extension 4-H summer camp
in Albany is a very very economical (nearly free) opportunity
for activities: swimming, field trips, crafts, lunch. Check
it out!
Free entertainment: Albany in the summer has occasional carillon
concerts from City Hall that can be enjoyed from the nearby
park benches; the “Alive at Five” series of music; the weekly
entertainment at the Ten Eyck plaza fountain at noon events
in Washington Park. Then there are the frequent band and orchestra
concerts at the College of Saint Rose, the free movies at
the uptown and downtown SUNY campuses, the free events at
the Empire State Plaza, free concerts at the Palace Theater;
and lots more.Schenectady has many free events in the park
in the summer, too.
In short, while the article is an attention-getter, it seems
that those multi-authors might have checked out their suggestions
a bit more carefully.
Elaine
Clawson
Albany
Not
My Mommy
To
the editor:
What
is going on with our local government, have they gone mad?
From my perspective, most of them should be thrown out of
office or at least receive some sort of training not to waste
the public’s time and money with these absurdly ridiculous
notions for new laws [“Guns and Buttercream,” Newsfront, May
14]. It seems like they are treating the general public as
if we were children anywhere from 4 to 20 years old, which
in turn makes them look like they are 4 to 20 years old.
Why does the county need to know which weapon a legal and
licensed gun owner buys ammunition for, as if that will somehow
change the mind of some crack fiend from robbing or shooting
someone with an illegal or borrowed gun? Why don’t they put
that money into preventing the crimes from happening in the
first place? They could start by cleaning out all of the corruption
in the drug market in Albany, either by actually arresting
all of the dealers instead of taking hush money, or by legalizing
it.
And the thought of them banning trans fat, what the fluff?
If people want to eat or be fat, let them, isn’t it their
perogative? Sometimes I tell my children they can’t eat any
more ice cream or candy, but Dan McCoy is not one of my parents,
and I am a grown adult capable of making educated decisions
by myself. It’s not like it is impossible to buy food without
trans fat in it, so why impose and inconvenience others by
trying to tell restaurants what they can and cannot put in
their own ingredients? What’s next: ban on salt, sugar, spices,
and then loafers . . . you can’t wear them you might get fungus
on your feet?
I can picture a spawn of all of these illegal trans fat parlors
all over the place. And what’s to stop the restaurants from
just using it anyway, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too difficult
to disguise, then what . . . we will spend a hundred thousand
dollars a year to employ police officers to continuously take
samples of restaurant’s ingredients, take them to a lab, and
analyze them? I can picture a swat team busting into Del Monico’s
with guns running into the kitchen to taste the food. I’m
reminded of that movie Demolition Man.
If these local representatives can’t come up with anything
better than promoting a nanny state, I say tell them to stay
home and shut up. Stop wasting everyone’s time and money with
this garbage, enjoy your undeserved high salary, and leave
us alone!
Chester Gould
Waterford
Metroland
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