Monkey Bar

Scopes it out: Regarding Tony Ortega’s “Your Official Program for Scopes II: The Kansas Monkey Trial” (May 5): Nice job on the school-board article. I especially like the inclusion of the quote by Richard Dawkins.

My biological anthropology final is Monday, and I wish that everyone could take the class. We didn’t have a single creationist in the class this semester. Strange, huh? I would think that to pick apart your opponent’s argument, you first need to learn it. Maybe the state board should debate heliocentrism, too.

I don’t understand how Kansas can hope to attract advanced technology companies to the state when the school board’s decisions negatively impact the science education of the future work force. Where would we be if scientists looked at complex questions and just chose to believe that they didn’t need answers because a supernatural man-god meant for the questions to go unanswered? The 17th century?

Andy M. Stevens

Tucson, Arizona

Palette Cleanser

Collection agency: After reading Bryan Noonan’s great “Well Hung” (April 21), it was crystal clear to me that serious art collectors should be patronizing Tom Deatherage at the Late Show while avoiding the provincial Byron C. Cohen.

Cohen is obviously of the school of experts that have missed the truly great artists throughout history. Had he been around at the time, you can bet he would have never sold a van Gogh to his clients.

Elaine Mills

Kansas City, Missouri

Picture perfect: Hello, I will try to keep this short. First, I loved Bryan Noonan’s “Well Hung.” Second, I was wondering if he had ever seen Do Strange Things. It is a documentary about Tom Deatherage and his old house on Charlotte Street. Greg Eltringham (one of the artists mentioned in the article) and I made the film over the course of a year of Tom’s life.

I am very thankful that you decided to do this story. Tom is an important person, and his existence needs to be documented. Thanks to you, and hopefully with my film, he has been.

Let the gods be with you, and thanks again.

Aaron Judlowe

Chicago

Clique Here

Headline news: OK, normally I love Jen Chen’s column. I think she writes in a fun, smart, witty way, and I look forward to it every week. But I think the choice to use “skank” when referring to one of the kindest musical cliques in the city was a bit harsh (Night Ranger, April 21).

Even if it was meant in jest, that’s not the type of headline this group of supernice people deserves.

Amanda Howerton

Independence

No thanks for the Jacko riff: Granted, the rockabilly community in the Kansas City area is relatively small, numbering less than 100 of us who really love the music and lifestyle. Unlike “Carlos,” I really know and love most all of these folks and probably took it a bit too personally when you wasted column space calling our female family members “skanks” and getting your reference material by missing the show entirely, using an unknown character as a reference point for our community who speaks with stereotypical jargon, and somehow finding a way to make references to a freak like Michael Jackson in a story about folks who have a genuine love for rockabilly music and a vintage lifestyle. True, the crowd was sparse that night, but there were at least 10 to 15 of us there who could have been legitimate sources for the Wednesday Night Happenings at Knuckleheads, rockabilly music and our “lifestyle.”

Russ Williams

Dearborn, Missouri

String Along

Yeager meister: Regarding Jason Harper’s “Freebird” (April 28): I have known Jon Yeager for about five years, throughout most of his Daybirds career. He is a wonderful musician and a great person. Harper’s article described him perfectly, and we all have our fingers crossed for him that he will one day “make it.”

There are so many people that I know who deserve to make it, but Jon is so talented and passionate and just a really nice person. I have always loved the Daybirds and Jon. I only wish that I had the $10,000 to help him on his way.

Thank you for your story.

Angela Mason

Linn Creek, Missouri

Save Our City

Doors of perception: Regarding Jason Harper’s review of In Your Absence’s Confession (Here and Now, April 28): Wow, he sucks! How he got a job as a music critic is beyond me. But I guess he wouldn’t know anything about talent, now, would he?

He is a horrible writer and shouldn’t get paid for being a ruthless son of a bitch. People should get paid to read his sorry excuses for reviews. Thank God he works for a free newspaper. I’d never pay to read his shitty writing and asshole remarks, that self-righteous “saving Kansas City” punk! Save another city, you prick!

Name Withheld by Request