LET SEEPING HOGS LIE

Nice job on tracking the personal water-use habits of the people that keep your city's Water Bureau "liquid" ["Hydro Hogs," WW, Aug. 21, 2002].

After all, were it not for these folks and hundreds like them, the Water Bureau would be down the drain.

Really, though, who cares how much water a private home uses? As long as usage is deemed legitimate--not resulting from a repairable leak or watering the street, for example--what business is it of anyone other than the bill payer? I suppose some readers will do the math and choke on the results, so my advice to them would be to take a deep breath, then a drink of Bull Run's Finest.

Wading "waste" deep into the personal habits of prominent PDXers is better than a hot afternoon at Salmon Springs! Perhaps you may want to do a feature series on the possible excessive use of toilet paper by these waterlogged wanton wastrels. And if that is not dog-paddling deep enough into their personal habits, consider the public outcry building for the disclosure of the thread count in their sheets!!

Jon Renner
Lake Oswego

FALSE WITNESS

First off, let me start by saying I'm an avid reader of WW and find your magazine a refreshing change of pace. I for the most part enjoyed the article by Carlton Smith ["The Making of a Murderer," WW, Aug. 14 and 21, 2002], which seemed to stick to the facts but was troubled by one line in the second half: "Maryjane, herself the product of a broken home, steeped in the traditions of the Jehovah's Witnesses that put a wife completely in the power of her husband, chose to go with Chris Longo to the ends of the earth, or at least until death did them part, as Jehovah commanded."

It has never been the stance of the JWs that a woman is under the control of her husband, and that she must stay with him if it is an unacceptable situation. In fact, his infidelities if anything freed her of any obligation to him; she would not be criticized in the least (by the Watchtower and Tract Society) for leaving her husband. Being raised in a fairly functional family (nobody's perfect) and under the traditions of the JWs, I have never been told that I must stay in an abusive situation, nor have I been raised to believe that being the man in a relationship makes me "The Boss."

It's an unfortunate tragedy that Maryjane did not have the emotional strength to leave her husband, and even more tragic that those around her did nothing to help despite the obvious signs that something was wrong. If the man (or woman) is abusive or unfaithful, leave 'em without a second thought. That's what I, as a Jehovah's Witness, have been raised to believe.

Josh Curll
Southwest 49th Avenue