OPINION
letters
From the
Crossword to
Homelessness
Up Your Game with EW
Crosswords
So, there was a wee glitch in this week’s
Jonesin’ Crossword (EW, 11/14) — the
grid didn’t seem to match with the clues.
Upon further inspection, I noticed the
grid is the same one from last week! (For
a quick “proof,” compare the full-sized
grid configuration with the “Answers To
Last Week’s” at the lower right. They’re
identical.)
Hmmm… What to do… What to do…
After a bit of thought, I made up a blank
15x15 grid and, starting with 1 Across,
followed the number sequence: the next
clue after 1 is 5, so the first answer is 4
letters. Ah! Clue 5 is followed by 9, so 5’s
answer is also 4 letters, and 14 follows 9,
so 9’s is 5 letters. First line complete, even
without any answers! Wow!
But wait! Because “normal” crosswords
are usually configured in some sort of
“flip mirror” image, that also means that
the bottom of the grid is now complete,
with the last clue 66 being 4 letters, 65 4
letters, and 64 5 letters. Cool!
I filled in those first Across answers
as I could and started in on the Down, 1
through 4, 5 through 8, and 9 through 13.
When I got an answer I was fairly confident
about, that meant the space directly below
was black. And the “flip mirror” equivalent
at the bottom of the grid as well. Neat!
Following down the clues and compar-
ing the Across numbers vs Down numbers
let me know about where the next words
should start.
Slowly but surely, answers led to more
“grid blacks,” which led to their “flip
mirror” counterparts. And, voilà! C’est fini!
I now have another way to play with
crossword puzzles! Thanks, Matt Jones
and EW!
Richard Leach
Coburg
Editor’s Note: Sorry about the cross-
word mess up! Find the correct grid at
EugeneWeekly.com.
Talk to the Working Class
I watched the Nov. 15 City Club program
on homelessness on YouTube, and
recommend you do likewise. Some
useful things were said.
I do wish, along with the
middle-class profession-
als, there had been some
people like Jetty Etty of the
Barefoot Defenders who
could talk about just how
awful the city's treatment of
the unsheltered homeless is. No
one mentioned the Eugene City
Council’s continuing criminalization
of the homeless.
I did not like Everett Meadows’ claim
that homelessness and addiction are “inex-
tricably linked.” Bullshit. He was all about
the “deflection” programs that the state
has directed counties to set up to divert
addicts from the criminal justice system
to something else, it wasn’t clear what
else. What happens when they refuse to
be deflected, back in jail?
Somehow, he seemed to think deflec-
tion is the answer to homelessness. What
do you deflect an unsheltered homeless
person to, when the shelters are full and
there is no housing they can afford? Just
another clueless lawyer. I wish they had
put someone like Etty on the panel instead.
And then there was that woman who
asked if providing help to the homeless
was “enabling” them to stay homeless.
How do you get through to someone that
dumb? Maybe let her try it for a while?
I’ve watched a number of City Club
meetings over the years and my reaction
often is, these are professionals speaking
to a middle-class audience, speaking their
language, and I don't feel working-class
people like me are being heard.
Lynn Porter
Eugene
They are ‘Performance
Artists’
A. Rabideau (“My Trial Experience as
an A15 Protester,” EW, 11/14), a participant
in the I-5 shutdown, complains about her
sentence and the jurors following the law
to convict her. She then has the temerity
to compare her actions with the civil rights
marches of the ’60s, having obviously not
understood that those marchers expected
to be charged and convicted (and likely
suffer worse at the hands of the police)
and were prepared to do the time for it.
Those protesters placed genuine
value on their acts of resistance. This is
in marked contrast to the “performance
artists” (Rabideau, et al) who masquer-
ade as committed protestors and
whine to the press in hopes
of obtaining “get out of jail
free” cards for their “three
minutes of good trouble.”
Simply pathetic.
Steve Jenson
Eugene
A Grouch with a
Case
On several occasions from 2018 to
2021, Eugene City Councilor Mike Clark
advocated both a “carrot and stick”
approach to homeless individuals.
On Nov. 13, a city work session on imple-
mentation of the CFEC rules talked about
spending more public money on downtown
which is already the most heavily subsi-
dized area of Eugene with MUPTE and
the “Urban Renewal” funding, a straight
carveout of Eugene’s general funds.
I see little prospect that the city will
contribute significantly to housing for the
bottom 20 percent downtown, even if they
spent the entire Urban Renewal Budget
($14.6 million in 2023-25 biennium) on low
income housing (in my dreams).
The bottom 20 percent of households
in Eugene-Springfield are surviving on less
than $25,000 (ACS, 2022), and the average
household is around two people. These
people in greatest need are the first priority.
So if the council decides to spend more
taxpayer-funded carrots, why doesn’t the
council consider some sticks? Like taxes,
fees or regulatory restrictions on under-de-
veloped property or vacant housing units?
Perfectly usable properties with expensive
public streets, utilities and public trans-
portation?
Sorry to be a grouch.
Todd Boyle
Eugene
‘Ham’ and ‘Ham Actor’ and
‘Hamlet’
Donald Trump’s cabinet picks remind
me that the “ham” in “ham actor” is short
for “Hamlet.” In Trump’s version of Hamlet,
he is no noble prince, but seeks revenge
only for himself. It is difficult to tell how
much of his “mad act” is real and how
much is calculated, but when he speaks of
letting Bobby Kennedy Jr. “run wild” with
our health, he obviously knows what our
immediate reaction will be — but not the
long-term effect. Once upon a time, there
was “U.S.,” the “shining City on a Hill” that
Trump would make his again in the small
“hamlet” of Port-mud-land, but hopefully,
that was not the end of the story.
Suzanne Shaffer
Eugene
Study the 20 Million
Media election analysis seems fixated
on analyzing and interviewing people who
voted for Donald Trump to explain his
victory. Often overlooked is that Trump
got about the same number of votes in
2020 as in 2024 — 74 million. The differ-
ence was that Joe Biden got 81 million
votes and Kamala Harris got 61 million.
It seems more relevant to study why 20
million people voted in 2020 but not in
2024 to explain Harris’ loss.
Mel Huey
Eugene
Who is the Witch?
Who would have imagined our country
elected a “witch”? Donald Trump, after
four years of declaring himself to be the
subject of numerous “witch hunts” seems
to believe himself to be a witch. Which
(no pun intended), brings up another
perplexing thought. Throughout history,
the folks hunting witches were Christians
who didn’t approve of witchcraft to the
extreme of often killing them.
And now Christians don’t hunt, try,
convict and often execute witches. Now
they elect them. Go figure.
Hal Huestis
Eugene
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November 21, 2024
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