WW welcomes letters to the editor via mail, e-mail or fax. Letters must be signed by the author and include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Preference will be given to letters of 250 words or less. BLOODY OFFENSIVE I take extreme offense at your glib and flippant mention of the current Red Cross blood shortage, a legitimately serious matter that potentially concerns the health and welfare of an entire community [Scoreboard, Aug. 23, 2000]. You trivialize this life-and-death issue by stereotyping and denigrating "West Hills wives," whom you deem to be among this week's "losers" because they will have to delay cosmetic surgery to correct their various physical imperfections, which you so charmingly describe in pejorative terms. Not only are you displaying bias, sexism and misogyny, but you should know damn well that people having elective surgery usually bank their own blood in advance. Leave the offensive humor to Callahan; he's much better at it than you are. Doris J. Brook Northeast Alameda Street THEY'RE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE Why is it that Willamette Week and everyone else is missing the obvious point here? The beatings have nothing to do with tattoos ["Strong Arm of the Law," WW, Aug. 23, 2000]. The beatings took place because the officers involved have a problem with anger. More often than not, drunks and other offenders who are not violent in nature (although officers will intimidate you to believe otherwise) will get a beating if they irritate an officer with normal human behavior. I have witnessed officers from Multnomah County and the City of Portland become irate and angry even if a citizen says "hello" to them. We should start a movement to require (and make mandatory) anger-management classes for all officers of law enforcement. Only when they take the classes and apply the learned knowledge to their work will we see a decline in such violent behavior of all officers. Eric Parker Northeast Hoyt Street MEA GULPA I am grateful for the article in WW entitled " Rogue of the Week" on Nordstrom's ill treatment of Portland's street musicians [Aug. 23, 2000]. However, I was dismayed by the caustic quote attributed to me at the end of the article. I don't remember saying those words and they are not in keeping with my hippie ways. However, since they were attributed to me, I won't fight over the details but instead offer up an apology to Nordstrom for the printed words. In fact, I would rather Nordstrom did not "f---k off" but rather take some pro-active steps to encourage street music, and with it, the vitality of this city. Alan Graf Southwest Morrison Street DAMN TOOTIN' Yeah, but have you ever actually heard the guy play? If you had, then you might have a better idea as to why Nordy's wants to be rid of him [Rogue of the Week, WW, Aug. 23, 2000]. John Caravello has the bionic capacity to play for hours without even remotely approaching anything that might possibly approximate an actual tune. It's not jazzy improv either, it's annoying, formless, relentless flute blather. I used to live half a block away on Park and there was no escaping it. Not by shutting the windows, turning on the radio, even by climbing into the shower. Believe me, three to four hours of that crap and you start to get visions of little mad flutists being set on fire and summarily trounced. Sy Parrish Southeast 38th Avenue WW READERS EVERYWHERE It was refreshing to read a piece on Michael Moynihan, the gifted author, insightful journalist and talented artist (if you don't mind me using such profane words) in a rational and unfanatical viewpoint not usually present by mainstream journalism ["Lord of Chaos," WW, Aug. 16, 2000]. Needless to say, it hasn't been that fair everywhere for Mr Moynihan in the world of free thought. Mr. Moynihan has been subjected to misguiding accusations by witch-hunting moral crusaders across America, all ironically using methods equally harmful as the ones they proudly pretend to fight. Bizarre, isn't? Fighting fascism by fascism??? I personally don't get it. Michel Berandi Editor, Panik Magazine Long Beach, Calif.