LETTERS

Dear Readers,

When we cleverly spotted—in every zodiac sign's forecast last week—a farewell from Astromat, we instantly suspected that something might be awry. (Nothing much gets past us!) So I contacted the Star Man himself to see what was up. Our exchange, give or take a word or two:

Dear Astromat,

Please, please, please tell me you're not turning in your astrological powers for a day job! LV Weekly, and many other publications around the nation, love you!

Sincerely,

Hey Stacy,

Thanks for caring! I really appreciate it. The column brought me much fame in many parts of the country and in Canada, but it's time to move on to something different ...

Take care,

Dear Matt,

No! Our readers love you! Say it isn't so! Plus, we're big in Canada, too! It's a match made in Heaven!

Hi Stacy,

Yes, it's true. I'm ending my column. Thanks so much for letting me write your horoscope column for the past three years. It's really been an honor. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll try it again. But for now, I'm moving on. Hope you're not too disappointed.

Dear Matt,

No! I mean yes! Yes we are disappointed! But no! We won't stop looking toward the stars. In fact, we'll launch a new column by your fellow astrologer, Las Vegan Martha Woodworth—a.k.a. AstroMartha?—called Heavens Above, this week.

Editor's Note:
Check it out, page 90.

Dear Editor,

Just wanted to share with the rest of Vegas that my car was stolen, in broad daylight, Monday April 25 from the Meadows Mall. The way it made me feel is difficult to explain. That car was old, an '87 black Toyota 4 Runner, rusty and beat up, but it was my car and so good to me and I really cared for it. Not only did I lose the car but some personal belongings, too. It is so sad and wrong that there are people out there willing to steal other people's property. Now I am sad, angry, full of thoughts about my loss and stuck with shelling out cash on a rental.

The same night that Wynn Las Vegas opened, one of Steve's intoxicated executives got arrested for a hit-and-run and the executive's wife tried to bully the cops because she worked for a city councilman. And then there's the hushed report of another Wynn executive who was allegedly taking payoffs from new hires. That aside, the news is constantly full of stories about corrupt city officials running amok and, lest we forget, our alcoholic mayor once worked for the mob. So let's all wake up and smell the garlic because it's still old Vegas, baby, and those who refuse to accept the obvious are fools unto themselves.

Dear A&E Editor Martin Stein,

Here is a note of appreciation for your quote from Lawrence of Arabia in your review of Kingdom of Heaven.

Also missing from Kingdom of Heaven was a mention that the story is set at the precise time when Gothic cathedrals were being built across much of Europe, by some accounts the most pure expressions of religious faith ever set in stone. This was certainly the period when European devotion to Christianity was at its zenith. (Any) crusader tolerance of Islam would have been arrived at (then) through Christian faith, not in opposition to it.

Mont St. Michelle and Chartres by Henry Addams is a wonderful book about that period of history. Addams suggested that a reason for the Crusades was that Western Europe then had become essentially a matriarchal society in which men felt superfluous, so the men all marched off to Never-Never-Land, just for something to do.