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_______________MOMMIE DEAREST BY GARY KAMIYA (02/12/99)
	One agrees that Linda Tripp is a hideous creature, and that there is no easy explanation for her actions in taping/entrapping Monica Lewinsky. However, Gary Kayima's vilification of her personal appearance is cruelly unnecessary. We all know what she looks like and have reached our own conclusions about her. Invoking witch imagery and such is beneath Salon, and an insult to its readers. Does the adage "You can't judge a book by its cover" mean nothing to your scribe? Would Tripp's actions have been any more acceptable if she looked like Cindy Crawford? There are more layers of this story that haven't been adequately explored and exposed. I may not expect such investigative initiative from the New York Times, but I do expect it from Salon. I surely don't expect Salon to judge a person based upon her unfortunate physiognomy. Shame on you. -- Robert Charles-Dunne Toronto Am I the only one who thinks that NBC and Linda Tripp deserve each other? How in the world can NBC interview this bitch and give her a national microphone to trash Monica Lewinsky when they know Lewinsky cannot respond. It's little wonder that the latest ratings show NBC News tanking. -- Jerry B. Jordan New Orleans
_______________AMERICAN SQUIRM: FROM BAUHAUS TO TRACT HOUSE BY SARAH VOWELL (02/10/99)
	Sarah Vowell's column on Michael Graves, architecture and the recently designed kitchen implements now in Target stores really hit home with me: I'd sent the original article on Graves in the New York Times to my son, who is a New York architect and designer and he went bonkers -- in fury -- about Graves. And that was before the kitchenware had actually gone on sale in Target, so no one really knew what the stuff looked like. I must tell you that I have already called my son to direct his attention to Vowell's wonderfully written article. -- Richard M. Marcus
_______________MODERN ART IS A LOAD OF BULLSHIT BY BENJAMIN IVRY (02/10/99)
	I'm in complete sympathy with Benjamin Ivry's discussion of Chris Offili's elephant dung works and their relationship to a stuffy U.K. art establishment that is, let's say, unenthusiastic about a skillfully irreverent black artist. I would also like to note that the distinguished African-American artist David Hammons fits Offili's description as well: He is ethnically allusive, witty, irreverent and socially astute. Beginning, I believe, in the late 1980s, Hammons has also made a number of humorously conceptual artworks out of elephant dung. While I have no quarrel with Ivry's article, it seemed that some mention of Hammons' 30 years of work (performance, sculptures, prints, installations, videos, you name it) in this area would have given the piece more depth. -- Calvin Reid
_______________GET AN AFTERLIFE REVIEWED BY JOYCE MILLMAN (02/05/99)
	I was so happy to see Joyce Millman's story about Chris Elliot in Salon. My brother and I just loved that show to death in the early '90s. We couldn't get enough of Elliot. Every show had its sublime moments. I particularly remember the episode where Chris and his dad are locked in the submarine in the shower. They're running out of air and his dad just asks him for a few moments of silence as death nears. Chris zips his lips with his hand, but he just can't not speak, and he explodes like a blabbering idiot. Then the water in the shower becomes too heavy and they fall through the floor of the second floor and escape their underwater death. Simply Wonderful. It's great to see that a woman also had an appreciation for Elliot. I mean the sight of him really disgusts most women. I can't wait to get the Rhino videotapes so my brother and I can really annoy our wives. -- Charles Lai Palo Alto, Calif. SALON | Feb. 18, 1999

R E C E N T L Y+| DECADE OF THE DICK BY DEANNE STILLMAN

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