LET TERS
DISSING THE WHIT
CURSED FONT
Your choice of Helvetica
Bold typeface on the
cover of last week’s issue
[7/31] was both alarming
and disappointing. I had
hoped that EW was more
enlightened. But your use of
that font shows that further
awareness is needed.
Helvetica is a curse on
society. Aesthetically it is
a scar on the landscape.
It is drab and modern and
completely uninspiring. It
is less of a choice than a
default. But the gravest
danger posed by Helvetica is
homogenization.
Look around. Helvetica
is everywhere! Helvetica is
like the English language
or McDonald’s or top 40
music. Not only are these
entities bland, but their
cancerous growth displaces
an unimaginably rich diversity
of pre-existing cultural
amenities.
Why would EW foster
cultural homogenization,
and so needlessly? Many
other fonts offer suitable
substitutes. Please consider
an alternative typeface for
future covers.
With your help we can
eradicate Helvetica once and
for all.
Blake Andrews
Eugene
LIVING OUT
I am perplexed at the choice of
cover July 31. Were you advertising
the Whiteaker Block Party? The same
neighborhood that has worked for years to
make the Washington Jefferson Skate Park
safe and healthy for families and kids?
Or were you celebrating our mayor’s home
neighborhood? Such a fi ne advertisement for
our city leader. Or were you dissing all of the
neighborhood as a dive? The best place to do
drugs, communicate with hand gestures and
hate decency and authority while drunk. Oh
wait. That’s funny.
Not Laughing.
Virginia Sherwood
Eugene
REFUSING CHILDREN
UNBALANCED PANEL
Does planning in Eugene represent
all sectors? Membership on the Eugene
Planning Commission may not! The
Planning Commission is one of the most
important commissions in city government,
as its website attests: eugene-or.gov/pc.
Members are appointed by the City Council.
For some time it has been seven positions
and seven men. Recently the council
appointed one woman. One female member,
six male members: possibly not the balance
of men and women in the community, nor
the balance of protected-class persons in the
community (possibly) nor the balance of
persons of varying economic classes in the
community (probably).
The council might consider creating a
membership on this commission that responds
to its charge: “Now, especially, is a critical
time for the planning commission to make a
difference in Eugene’s future as Eugene is in
the midst of many important projects that will
defi ne our community’s character for years
to come,” and, “Without their assistance (the
assistance of the members of the commission),
many complex and signifi cant matters might
not be brought to the City Council’s attention
and risk receiving only a limited review” (see
website above).
The current membership balance on
the commission is at risk of providing the
council with “only a limited review.”
Richard Guske
Eugene
SAFETY IN ORANGE
Recently I worked security with a
phenomenal group of people at the Lane
County Fair. Our job was to make sure
everyone enjoyed their weekend safely.
We found a lot of lost kids and even a few
lost parents! A couple of times, though,
I witnessed parents pointing to me and
BY SALLY SHEK LOW
Can’t Get Used to It
THE GAYFRIENDLY SOCIAL SHIFT IS STILL CLUMSY
M
arriage apartheid’s over in our state (woo
hoo!) so there’s no reason to continue
referring to my lawfully wedded wife
as “my partner.” I should call her “my
wife,” but I still catch myself saying
“partner.” I did it just the other day when I was explaining
why I needed my laptop screen replaced and told the tech
guy that my partner stepped on it. I gauged the situation
in that second-nature queer safety-check thing we do, and
added, “She feels pretty bad about it.”
This little coming-out moment could easily have
been glossed over, but techman picked up on it. “My
partner’s the same way,” he said. “He’s awful clumsy.”
Family!
Homo-connections like that are little high points,
affi rmations of who we are, like fi nding out someone
went to your old high school or your grandparents all
came from the same village outside Kiev. It was a sweet
4
Indignation is fl aring up over the fl ood
of children from Central America across the
U.S.-Mexico border. Provide sanctuary for
these underage tourists? The U.S. wasn’t
always like this. In 1939, just before WW
II, almost a thousand Jewish citizens of
Europe were at sea, in limbo, fl eeing from
persecution by some German dictator with
a goofy notion about extinguishing the
entire Jewish population. Also, bleeding-
heart factions in our government had
the temerity to propose rescuing 20,000
German Jewish children and bringing
them to the U.S. The FDR administration
turned away the boatload and shot down
the proposal. Talk about the good old days!
Jim Wood
Eugene
A ugust 7, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
little kinship moment and I wasn’t going to spoil it by
arguing that she is not, in fact, clumsy, it’s just that it
was dark and I’d left the laptop on the fl oor. In any case,
“my partner, she” and “my partner, he” conveyed our
identities just fi ne.
I could’ve said “my wife” but I’m used to “partner”
now. At some point “partner” became the kinder, gentler
term because “lover” felt too brash for mixed company,
“girlfriend” didn’t translate from lesbianese and Wifey
and I were way beyond “roommate,” although my mother,
rest her soul, never did stop referring to her that way.
“Partner” sounds cartoonish to me, as in Yosemite Sam’s
“Howdy Pardner!” but I caved. I got used to it, like I got
used to wearing a swimsuit — I’d rather skinny dip, but
now that I swim in a public pool I make the concession.
It’s offi cially acceptable — in Oregon and 18 other
states, anyway — for two women or two men to be
spouses, but it’s still new. “My wife” comes off a little
pushy and in your face when I’m not necessarily in a
pushy in-your-face mood, which, believe it or not, I often
am not. Sure, I call her Wifey in person, but referring to
her as “my wife” to anyone who doesn’t already know us
feels awkward. As out as I am — and I am WAY out — I
feel weird calling my wife “my wife” to, say, the letter
carrier or my dental hygienist (not that I can say much
of anything when my mouth’s loaded with cleaning
accoutrements).
Can a woman say “my wife” or a man say “my
husband” with the same neutrality as a heterosexual
mentioning their husband or wife? We’re working on it.
Our marriages are legal, yes, thank god(dess), and more
than half of the U.S. population supports our right to
marry, a hard-fought victory. But this new social shift
that we’ve pursued for so long is still fresh. Most people
I talk to are accepting and even congratulatory, which
is lovely, but it makes me feel self-conscious, like I’m
announcing something personal when I just want to tell
Comcast that the account is in my wife’s name.
Oh, well. We’re here, queer and married. I guess we
all have to get used to it.
Award-winning writer Sally Sheklow has been keeping EW
readers abreast of social changes since 1999.