Letters to the Editor (1/22/20) 

Wrong Crossword?

I read most of Seven Days every week, but my favorite part is the crossword. We work on it together as a family. But the last two weeks have been reruns?! Not nearly as much fun.

Is this a permanent thing, and we'll never see another new riddle or bad pun? Or is your puzzle department taking a long winter break?

Hope there's some fresh material in the crossword to go along with all the other fresh news in the rest of the paper.

Luke Donforth

Burlington

Editor's note: Good catch! We've verified that King Features, our crossword supplier, sent year-old reruns for the first two weeks of 2020.

Better for 'Worse'

Your "Worse for Care" series [November 27; December 4, 11 and 18] shed light on issues that are troubling, to say the least. Thankfully, the deficiencies you cite in assisted living/residential care are the (tragic) exception, not the rule. Nonetheless, there is clearly a need for greater oversight and inspection, which of course speaks to the very real need for additional funding — a need that will only grow in the years ahead.

The growing need for caregivers is a serious issue. We are fortunate at Cathedral Square to have compassionate, hardworking caregivers who treat our residents as beloved family members, just as Malinga Mukunda, the inspiring woman you beautifully profiled, cares for hers ["A New American Finds Purpose, and 'Family,' in Caregiving," December 4]. Some have been with us since we created Vermont's first assisted living residence nearly 20 years ago. Yet although we offer higher-than-competitive wages and benefits, we struggle to fill vacancies.

What people in these critically important positions need — and deserve — is higher pay and benefits. And this requires a higher reimbursement rate from Medicaid, something for which everyone in this field has been clamoring for years, if not decades. 

As noted in your final article ["Carepetbaggers," December 18], we did submit a bid to purchase the Pillsbury properties, which were in receivership due to unthinkable circumstances. We were quite disappointed our bid was not considered, because we thought it was important to bring the homes under local ownership — better yet, by a highly reputable nonprofit.

Your mammoth undertaking in creating the Vermont Eldercare Navigator database is greatly appreciated and a tremendous public service. Thank you.

Kim Fitzgerald

Colchester

Fitzgerald is the CEO of Cathedral Square.

200 Dozens!

As a big "Calvin and Hobbes" fan, I was shocked to read in your recent article ["Strip Teaser," January 15] that this beloved comic strip "ran in dozens of daily newspapers from 1985 to 1995."

"Dozens"? According to Business Insider magazine, "By the time [creator Bill] Watterson ended the strip in 1995, it was appearing in more than 2,400 newspapers." That's thousands of papers, not dozens. Or 200 dozens?

Thanks for Seven Days' ongoing support of cartoons and cartoonists, but please respect "Calvin and Hobbes," too!

Jeff Lindholm

Montpelier

In 'Toon

Welcome back, Rachel ["Rachel Lindsay," January 8]! Your loyal fans missed your sparkling wit and unusual take on the world around you.

Harry Goldhagen

East Fairfield

Sticker Shock

As I read "Unstuck" [January 8], I became immediately unglued at the sudden realization that the Burlington "vigilantes" who are targeting hate-group stickers are using Windex to remove the stickers. Being a private, civilian vigilante removing my own stickers from various things, I do know that gasoline — not Windex — dissolves the stubborn glue-backed stickers. 

I became further unstuck reading that one of the "vigilantes" in your story tried to unseat part of an unforgiving sticker with a car key. 

Pulleaze, removing sticker glue with Windex and a car key versus gasoline and a razor blade scraper is grounds for going to Vigilante Sticker Removal Prison.

Dan Cohen

Burlington

In Defense of InfoWars

[Re "Unstuck," January 8]: I am in disagreement with the way your publication portrayed InfoWars as a hateful organization. As a daily listener of Alex Jones and a person who buys InfoWars products, I know that it is not a hateful organization, rather just an organization that has different political views than the liberals in Vermont. 

Time and time again, I hear about Sandy Hook, which we have a right to ask questions about, and everyone forgets that recently our own mainstream sources pushed a fake Russia collusion story for three years straight, which is somehow OK. Any mass shooting sparks a gun debate, and if there are inconsistencies in the media about what took place, we should be able to question it, just like with 9/11 or any other major event we are given an official story for. 

In addition to that, InfoWars is not anti-immigration. As someone whose family legally came from Lebanon, I find it upsetting that people consider it anti-immigrant to be against illegal immigration and screening people coming in. InfoWars is against illegal immigration, a real issue in our nation today, but supports anyone legally coming to America who loves the country and American values. 

While I do agree that we need to stop the flow of attention to hate groups like Patriot Front and others, I don't like the way you paint InfoWars with the same brush, and it's completely false.

Joey Handy

Colchester

Editor's note: In his role as a radio show host and professional conspiracy theorist, InfoWars owner Alex Jones has asserted that the school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School never happened. He claimed that gun-control advocates staged the massacres, the children were "crisis actors" and "no one died." That has led a number of grieving parents to file defamation lawsuits against him. Those cases are working their way through the courts in Connecticut and Texas, where InfoWars is based.