Hillary without tears

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Thanks for pointing out the absurdity of some of the global climate debate these days. Climate is certainly a factor in wildfires, but throwing up one's hands and yelling "global warming" to explain the California fires is so simplistic and reactionary that only an L.A. celebrity could do so with a clear conscience.

When I worked for a natural resource agency a few years ago, one of the forest managers near Los Angeles warned us that the entire region was ready to blow up like a bonfire due to extended drought conditions, the moratorium on any kind of logging, which had resulted in a huge buildup of dry excess vegetation, and a bug infestation that left tons of standing dead trees. No one wanted to hear his message. He lamented that people who built homes in the wildland-urban interface were unwilling to hear about the fire danger.

Many refused to protect their homes with common-sense tactics like clearing a safe space free of vegetation around the home. Their ignorance or arrogance doesn't just put their home at risk, it puts the lives of firefighters at risk. Many have died trying to save these poorly protected homes. Insurance companies should refuse to insure these homes, firefighters should refuse to save them, and taxpayers should refuse to bail them out through scandal-ridden FEMA programs. With all the money saved, we could fund a heck of a lot more global warming research.

Diane Banegas
Centreville, Va.

Thank you very much for your excellent letter! Environmentalism, a noble cause, is abused when it obstructs sensible safety measures, such as the periodic clearing out of trees and brush from heavily wooded areas. There has been massive overdevelopment of homes in the U.S. in picturesque but vulnerable locations -- including the entire length of the Eastern seaboard, where a serious storm surge can smash deluxe beachfront houses like matchsticks.
The Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is estimated to have killed 6,000, the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history. Thought you might want to add it to your list.

M. Gallien

Yes, that one was a doozy! A good book on the subject, published eight years ago, is Nathan C. Green's "Story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane." Catastrophic weather is built into the American experience. Europeans, with their more moderate, predictable weather, rarely have our terrifying encounters with the sublime. It may be one source, aside from Christian fundamentalism, of the American instinct for the apocalyptic. Greetings,
I've heard you wax on about the Who and the Stones. What do you have to say about Led Zeppelin? They've sold more albums in the U.S. than the Stones and the Who combined. Their romantic mysticism and their bombastic, ultra-sonic blues, have attracted legions of loyal fans. As for me, I didn't get drafted for Vietnam, but as I grew nearer the draft age, Zeppelin's mostly apolitical rock gave me a refuge from the protest music that only fueled my worries.

After a riot at one of Zeppelin's ticket sales at the Boston Garden got them banned from the joint, a Boston newspaper said these boys "make the Stones look like pussies."

You may either hate them or love them, but come on, Camille, give the Zeppelin their due.

Cheers,
Peter D. Barry

When Led Zeppelin first hit, in 1969, I like many other women rock fans found them obnoxious and overblown. I lumped them with Iron Butterfly and made catty remarks about Robert Plant's screeching. I infinitely preferred not just the Rolling Stones but Cream, whose improvisatory kick-out live recordings had a profound influence on me. (Feisty bassist Jack Bruce in that period was virtually my ego ideal.)

However, as time went on, I became a huge admirer of Led Zeppelin -- the sheer, resonant, unhurried majesty of the guitar work; the jazzy virtuosity of Plant's piercing, soaring, melismatic voice; the eerie, oracular medieval/Romantic lyrics. Here are links for my favorite Led Zeppelin songs: "Kashmir," "When the Levee Breaks" and "Misty Mountain Hop."

Incidentally, Guitar World magazine once asked me to contribute to its 25th anniversary celebration of "Stairway to Heaven." My article paid that classic song due respect but also pointed out the logical and imagistic deficiencies in Robert Plant's too-hasty lyrics. This produced a flood of outraged letters -- as if I had profaned a sacred text. Which I guess I did. Silly me!

In your recent Salon columns, I saw all the talk and links about French & Saunders, AbFab, etc., and wondered if you ever saw the F&S spoof of the Factory? (Editor's Note: You can watch it here.) It was done in 1990. Dawn and Jennifer alternately play "Viva" and "Ultra," while Neil Planer (Neil from "The Young Ones") portrays Andy Warhol. There's even a very convincing Mary Woronov cutaway extra.

Paul Morrissey is apparently a big fan of this old sketch. Last year, when I interviewed him about portrayals of Andy in movies and TV, he said, "It took a couple of real artists to penetrate the journalistic gush and media hype, and capture and understand the way things were, and they did it many years ago. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders pinpoint with great accuracy what it was like, much better than the pretentious four hours of art babble that was recently unloaded on PBS."

Mark Allen

Next page: All hail Verka Serduchka -- a tornado of ethnic hedonism!

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