Letters To The Editor 

-- David Ferebee, Wilton Manors, Florida

Stung
I loved Susan Shackelford's article "Home Team" (CL, August 7). It was an excellent look at the root of the problems that face the Charlotte Sting. It implies that the Sting's low attendance by male sports fans is caused by a "prejudice against women's basketball" and disappointing attendance by women is a result of women having "so much going on in their lives." She then suggests that people will fall in love with the Sting if they just took the time to give the Sting a "look see." The article inspired me take a "look see" at a Saturday afternoon game of the Sting vs. the Liberty (the Eastern Conference champions). Unfortunately, after watching just a few minutes of the game, in which the two teams combined to shoot 3 for 13 and a handful of turnovers, I was quickly brought back to reality. Then I remembered that I have sampled numerous WNBA games since its inception and I fail to get hooked every time. The reasons are always the same: the WNBA players are relatively unathletic, the game lacks creativity, the shooting is horrible, and the pace of the game is unbearably slow. I watch the NBA as opposed to high school basketball because I enjoy watching a fast-paced game being played at the highest level. I wouldn't watch men pass the ball around the perimeter several times before jacking up a brick from the outside and repeating that same process over and over again. However, I admit that I may not watch the WNBA because I'm prejudiced -- I'm prejudiced toward slow-paced, sloppily played, boring basketball.

-- Kevin Dudley, Charlotte

A Treasure
Thanks for the great story about the Sting. These women are one treasure of our city that the citizens should pay more attention to. Ms. Shackelford rightfully pointed out that it's hard to find too many men at the Sting games. Most men around here think they have too much macho image to lose if they admit that they might enjoy watching women play basketball -- how dumb is that? Get a clue, people, there's an exciting team in town, and they're headed to the playoffs. See you at the Coliseum.

-- Cassie Purdue, Charlotte

More Nipples
Thanks to CL and Scott Lucas for taking up the cause of Charlotte artist Leslie Bivens ("Full Frontal," August 7). Her pieces are wonderful and, nipples and all, should be shown out on the streets. Thanks, however, to Ce Scott and McColl Center for Visual Art for providing an exhibition of Leslie's next round of Bitches. Go, Leslie!

-- John Clark, Charlotte

Elvis Sighting
The article "Eat Like A King" (by Gene Lazo, August 14) needs to be corrected. In the last lines it states that there is no picture of Elvis hanging in Lupie's Cafe. If I'm not mistaken (which I'm not), there is a portrait of the "King" hanging near the restrooms. I believe it's in a wooden frame, and he's wearing a red outfit. Just thought I'd let you know.

-- Michael, Charlotte

Complaint Out of Bounds
I am sorry for Karen Player Futrell's recent loss. But her attack on Tara Servatius' excellent column "A Needless Tragedy" ("Column Out of Bounds," Letters, August 14) was out of line. When she quotes Partnership for a Drug-Free America propaganda calling marijuana a "gateway drug," she is repeating the same anti-drug hysteria that has led to tens of thousands of otherwise law-abiding taxpayers being heavily fined and incarcerated for using a controlled substance that happens not to be part of the alcohol/tobacco/caffeine legal stimulant monopoly.

Trained law enforcement professionals' lives should not be expended in fruitless aerial surveillance and attacks on marijuana fields. It is time for all 50 states to seriously consider decriminalizing cannabis. The resulting sanity will mean less lives needlessly sacrificed, taxpayer dollars directed toward more productive tasks, and a lot less hypocrisy in our legal system. --Michael A. Clark, Charlotte

Estrogen Archie
Regarding "Cooking With Martyr Stewart" by Lucy Perkins (CL, August 7): Watching an old All in the Family episode made me realize just how much things have changed. Mike contended that Archie's idea of freedom was "anyone's free to say or do anything they want, as long as Archie agrees with it." Thirty years later, along comes Lucy Perkins telling the rest of us how to raise our families. Lucy's most perturbed by women who choose not to dump their kids into daycare. It seems "choice" is no longer all that popular.

Lucy contends that staying home is a cake-walk. (Her assessment of hands-on family rearing: "playing house." Stay-at-home moms: "all you do is sit around the house cooking and cleaning. . ."). Thankfully, I've been blessed with a wonderful wife who's chosen to stay at home with our three children. During the course of any given day my wife works much harder than me -- at a job much more important than mine.

Lucy heralds this as the great "age of feminism." Yet just two paragraphs earlier she deems a large portion of her sisterhood so inept that, if they don't follow her decree, they'll wind up "secretly hating their husbands' guts. . .and running off with guys they met on the Internet." What incredible confidence she has in a woman's ability to think for herself! I guess feminism no longer asks that the choices and intelligence of all women be tolerated and respected.

Way to go, Lucy -- the pendulum has swung. Your intolerant name-calling would make even Archie proud.

--David L. Bisese, Huntersville

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