Aaron Brashear,
Greenwood Heights
The writer was recently named “the mayor of Greenwood Heights” by The Brooklyn Paper.
Editor’s note: A video tribute to reporter Ben Muessig is posted on BrooklynPaper.com.
Town haul
To the editor,
I just read the column by “The Politicrasher” about Rep. Mike McMahon’s recent health care forum (“On health care, McMahon too conservative for Bay Ridge!” Oct. 23). The article is basically a lie.
This gathering was not a “Town Hall meeting” — in fact, it was secret and by invitation only. People did not know about it except those informed by McMahon.
When he had a real town hall, in Staten Island, it was packed with people opposed to Obama-care. McMahon will get a similar response in Bay Ridge if he has a real town hall.
Owing to the exclusive and selected group in attendance, it was generally supportive of Obama-care. As such, I consider “The Politicrasher” to be a propagandist. And McMahon is a disingenuous fence-sitter.
Bay Ridge is opposed to Obama-care. Let McMahon announce a real town hall in a big auditorium and we will show you.
Thomas Hilton, Bay Ridge
Post haste
To the editor,
I was appalled read in your own paper that you would be distributed inside the New York Post every Friday (“It’s Post time,” Oct. 30). Unless there will be other places to get The Brooklyn Paper, I won’t be reading you any longer. Most of the people I know wouldn’t be caught dead wrapping fish in the New York Post, let alone reading it.
Gersh has found a good home.
Sue Yellin, Downtown
Editor’s note: We have found that the New York Post, like most newspapers, is actually bad for wrapping fish.
Tree-son
To the editor,
I have a lot of sympathy for Richard Mahany’s situation (“GINK-GO AWAY! Stinky conifer gives geezer reason for tree-son,” Oct. 23). I would like volunteer myself to help him cleaning up the ginkgo fruits. In return, I hope I can keep those ginkgo nuts and save the 70-year-old tree from being chopped down.
The ginkgo is one of the prehistoric trees that still survive. It is native to China, but it also has been in existence here in the United States for a few million years. In China and many other Asian countries, gingko trees are thought sacred. They are often planted near temples. Ginkgo nuts are considered a delicacy. Over the past few thousand years, they incorporated those mushy, brown, cherry-sized ginkgo nuts into their cuisine.
In China, gingko nuts appear in any dish with the name “eight-jeweled.” They also found medicinal uses for the leaves, pulp and nuts. Traditional Chinese medicine uses ginkgo nut for treatment of lung diseases, such as asthma and coughs. They are also used to treat frequent urination and involuntary discharge of urine.
Some also consider them to have aphrodisiac qualities and potentially helpful in memory retention.
The ginkgo nuts are not popular here in the United States. The little treasure’s smell may have prevented Americans from eating them.
The term “stink to high heaven” may have come from the ginkgo tree.Jin Sin, Cobble Hill
Word up
To the editor,
I read, with pleasure, each new edition of the Brooklyn Paper, but for quite a while, now I have taken umbrage at the sexual wordplay you are using in your headlines, such as in your recent article on the F train (“What the F? Train troubles are trumpeted,” Oct. 16) or the real estate article about the most expensive apartment in that clock tower building in DUMBO (“Clock tease! Walentas’s $25M dream,” Oct. 23).
Why do you think it’s OK to use such cheap, sexual wordplay?
These are just the most recent ones; there have been many more. Lots of different people, including kids, read this otherwise great paper, and these kinds of headlines just ruin it for me.
Please reconsider these headlines. There are other, more creative and clever ways of titling.
Does anyone else agree?
Bob Milnes, Park Slope