Devastated by your Valentine’s effort in the classifieds? Troubled by a vegetarian biryani? Get it off your chest with a letter to The List: the best one wins a bottle of Jose Cuervo Gold Tequila. Lovely.
BACK SLAPPINC
It was good to see an original piece of artwork on the cover of the last issue. John Byrne's pen packs the hardest punch of them all — his brilliantly crafted dialogue creases you up in equal measures of pain and laughter and his biting satirical portraits bring his characters alive in a way the poor actors can only aspire to match.
I suppose sometimes for your covers you have to fall back on the same promotional film stills every other magazine uses but. please. don‘t do it too often. Surely sales of The List must go up when you come up with something as good as the Slab Boys or Sandra Bemhard's unforgettable lips from last year.
Mick Johnston Polwarth St Glasgow
Jae?“ curanvn
Thanks for that positive criticism. Mick. But ifyou thought .such sycophancy would earn you a bottle of the old gold tequila. well. you were right. Just nip into our Glasgow Office. where a bottle awaits.
CARVED UP
In reply to Catherine Fellows's review of Peter Cox‘s The New Why You Don 't Need to Eat Meat. (The List 193).
L_
there is little point arguing about
others choose meat is entirely free
lETTERS
Representatives of the meat industry do ; not choose to meet Mr Cox because
personal choice. The fact that some people choose to be vegetarian and
choice and Mr Cox should recognise that others too have afree choice.
It is also quoted that farming curiously f is ‘cruel' and the use of hormones is ‘deleterious to human health‘. Wrong on both counts! Farmers on the whole. f and we mean 99.9 per cent are never cruel to their animals. The opposite is true. hormones in EEC countries are
. banned. and apart from an illegal black
market in two countries. hormones are
i all off the menu. Meat in
': slaughterhouses is routinely tested for
: Hormones. BSE is mentioned as if it
was invented by farmers. BSE is here
t because large animal-feed
5 manufacturers included animal proteins I
I in cattle feed. at a time when feed companies did not need to list their ingredients! They do now. Farmers l have lost millions due to the loss of I cattle and exports. ; Sufferers of various medical l conditions will not improve their health 3 by giving up eating meat. but they will if they follow an improved diet ie Hays , etc. Red and white meat. including lish.f is the best way of building muscle and : fibre in the human body. anyone who I says that this is untrue is distorting the l facts. ‘ As to the ‘everyday harrowing scenes in slaughterhouses.‘ On the whole I l have never seen these things happenin i. i I have visited slaughterhouses since I was very young and animals are stunned. killed and treated very well.
review. I would like to point out that its supposed facts are distorted and some of us choose to eat meat. enjoy it and like and enjoy animals. Strange but true!!
Derrick Rogers
Newhaven Road
Edinburgh.
SHOUT OUT
We are carers and members of the VOCAL Steering Group (voice of Carers Across Lothian). which was formed after a public meeting in
I While commending an efficient l
February I992. Our aims are to give a voice to the many carers. who willingly give up so much to look after their friends and relatives. and to provide them with an advice and information service.
Caring can be lonely. tiring and frustrating as well as fulfilling. Many carers do not have the time. energy or mobility needed to find out what is available to help them.
In order to achieve VOCAL's aims. we need carers and carer groups to support VOCAL and help this worthwhile organisation to succeed. If you are interested in finding out more about VOCAL please contact us at the address below.
Dorothy Thomas (and three others) VOCAL
Freepost EH2799
l 1 St Colme Street
EH3 ()HQ.
ARRANT NONSENSE
Album reviews in The List never ranted like this before. Whither the sighs and
' scaldings of the whinging reviewer? . Whither the celebration of the record.
the discussion of its merits? Whither
' the adverb joyride'? Mouth Music (The . List 193) may be on Fiona Shepherd‘s
menu. but instead she opts for
scrutinising the band’s . accomplishments by putting them in a
stream of consciousness. spotlighting her quest for notoriety by juxtaposing the most straightforward offering with buoyant hyperbole to point up her
cleverness. The result is more liberating ; than the cloistered. though captivating. ' review noises produced by her peers.
closer in places to the otherwordly timbre of the lunatic rant and in others to the earthly tribal hedonism of the
1 tower of Babel.
Like a Scots dictionary. Fiona Shepherd is a cross-cultural sponge. diverting in that she dares to be different. and unlike anything previously jettisoned from your publication.
Andrew Barnet
Queen Charlotte Street
Leith
We have no intention of jettisoning Fiona. Andrew. Her awe-inspiring reviews are giants of literary
complexity compared to your risible attempt at pastiche.
; DIS-CHUFF cuurran
I l was heartened to note that ScotRail had undertaken some serious market research as to the viability of more late- night trains between Glasgow and Edinburgh (*The List letters I93). I’ Apparently. all the gen at the disposal of ScotRail's Paul Hadley indicated that : these services ‘did not pay their way'. 1 I would be most grateful if Mr Hadley could reveal if it was this same market 3 research that persuaded ScotRaiI to do away with the standard open-ended return. Now you are forced to queue up 9 and buy a ticket for the outward l journey and again for the return ljourney. Does all the gen at his disposal l really indicate that people want to be made to do this‘.’
Maybe ScotRail thinks we enjoy having extra restrictions imposed on us i so much that we don‘t mind being i asked to pay more for the privilege. ls j that why the price has gone up yet . again‘.’
i I.ate-night/all—night/over-nightaway- from-home partying increasingly becomes the preserve of the rich. I suppose the next thing we'll find is that they will start running first class trains only.
Lillian Fletcher
Havelock Street
Glasgow
POST SCRIPT
Address your letters to:
The List Letters at:
I4 High Street.
Edinburgh IiHl lTIi.
Of
Old Athenaeum Theatre.
I79 Buchanan Street.
Glasgow (il 317..
Of
Fax them to: ()31 557 8500.
We will not print you/(full address or phone number. but you must include them. Deadline is the l’riday before publication. Keep them pithy. as long letters may be cut. The best letter next issue will win a bottle ofJose (‘uervo
Gold Tequila.
NEXT ISSUE OUT THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY
State oft/1e Arts: The rest of the best. completing the Scottish culture pictttre. So What 's This ()pera 'I'hing .-\// About": Advice from aria expert Harry Iinfield. Malcolm X: Spike Lee's perspective: biopic or hagiography‘.’.
Plus: I)r Finlay returns. /)(’(ll/I o/a Salesman. Robin Williams's 7m. Rab C Nesbitt on tour. listhcr liretttl. 'lastiitti Archer and a whole bunch of stuff. . .
ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!
so The Lari—2:25 February I993
" Friihted by Scottish County Press. Sherwood Industrial Estate, Bonnyrigg. Midlothian. Tel: 031 663 2404.