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Free Man Walking|Stuffed Stuertz|Back Off a Bit|We Are Devo

Hey, Mark, for God's sake—just give us the time. Accurately, please.

Free Man Walking

This ("The Man Who Fell to Earth," by Megan Feldman, February 7) is one of many stories that have been heard, and many more, I imagine, shall be heard. We can only be very grateful for DNA. The years that have gone by and the hardships endured—money makes life much easier, but the memories in the subconscious mind remain. Good luck. At the end of the road that you may walk there will be success and happiness. People believe in you, and God will carry you when you do grow weak over the troubled times, and then you will begin to walk your journey to happiness once again.

Lorraine Boehm, via dallasobserver.com

Great article. Might be the best thing I've read from the Observer in a long time.

David, via dallasobserver.com

Stuffed Stuertz

Long despised by the local restaurant community as Dallas' most egocentric and thesaurus-dependent critic, Mark Stuertz's review of The Fish ("Drop Dead Sexy," February 7) does more than raise the usual questions, such as why does his food assessment always begin toward the end of his three-column tirades.

Now readers must determine whether Stuertz's head, lodged in perpetuity up his ass, has degenerated to the point where he simply can't smell and taste the food he's eating well enough to critique it.

At a recent meeting of a major local restaurant association held at The Fish, the beef rolls, which disappeared in seconds, were privately judged to absolutely be in the same rarefied air as the lobster shooters at Abacus. When you've got about 50 restaurant professionals in agreement over anything (except Stuertz), you've got a story. For him to describe these small wonders as he did ("...like eating green foam wrapped in sackcloth") does a huge disservice not just to The Fish, but to the patrons of the West Village who may not even know they have something this extraordinarily delicious in their midst.

While it's apparent that Stuertz has long since lost the passion for his job, it's disheartening to see it in a city that has over the last few years lost so many excellent journalists with a true passion for their work.

As for his lengthy and unnecessary diatribes in general, one can only feel for Stuertz's unfortunate co-workers. Can you imagine asking him how a movie was that you knew he had attended? ("As I entered the theater I noted the speakers were precariously hung in a blatantly haphazard manner, and a debilitating stench of burnt popcorn egregiously enveloped the auditorium as a whole...")

As the old saying goes, there are certain people who, when asked the time, will tell you how to build a watch. Hey, Mark, for God's sake—just give us the time. Accurately, please.

Jim Breslauer, Dallas

Back Off a Bit

When I heard about the planned high school at Vickery Park ("Got Your Back," by Jim Schutze, February 7), my first thought was, "Boy, they're going to be low-performing right off the bat." Before you begin beating up on the teaching at Conrad, though, investigate the demographics in the area first. They have a huge number of ESL students taking a TAKS test after only three years of trying to learn the language. Could you pass a high school exit exam after three years of learning a second language? Factor in the large number of refugees with little or no education and the numbers look even more ridiculous. Yes, I also tend to think that a lot of consideration toward moving the Skyline clusters to Conrad had more to do with TAKS than overcrowding, but give Conrad a break. They're working miracles every day.

Tracy Cook, via dallasobserver.com

We Are Devo

Hooray for the Texas Freedom Network (Buzz, by Patrick Williams, February 7). I was raised Southern Baptist and taught (by my father) that God created man and all of the creatures of the Earth through evolution. What I find amusing is the fact that you don't see the push for creationism coming from Catholicism or Orthodoxy (Greek or Russian). You see it coming from the younger denominations of Christianity. My friends who are Greek Orthodox (and thoroughly grounded in theology) find this amusing.

Tim Covington, via dallasobserver.com