BUS DISSERVICE

Malletts Bay? How about Route 7? Shaw's, Friendly's, Yankee Lanes, Costco? I bet they would love bus service ["Funding Process Is Flawed, Say Transit Officials," June 18]. Have you ever tried walking from Winooski High, where the bus ends, across the ramps and under the interstate to get there? No sidewalks, no street lights. Maybe the "Milton Bus" will go through.

Carly Kissane

BURLINGTON

VOX COLCHESTER

In "Funding Process is Flawed, Say Transit Officials" [Local Matters, June 18], the reporter, Mike Ives, quotes four officials (Coles, Keating, Keogh, Murray) who believe a bus line to Colchester would make more sense than one to Milton.

Mr. Ives does not, however, quote a single one of the many Colchester voters who "declined to pony up their share." Colchester's "share" is what Colchester's inhabitants say it is.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei.

Richard Handelsman

BURLINGTON

'BARRAGE' BARACK

How fantastically refreshing, heartening, exhilarating! If there is now room, even a welcome, for public discourse, this election season has already been a success! I applaud Judith Levine ["Poli Psy," June 18] for encouraging the Obama campaign to fan the flames of this fire and for urging him to talk about gender and the core issues that then become visible. We should be barraging Barack with these sentiments.

Deb Tolman

WESTON

WHAT'S HAPPENING TO KISONAK?

Rick Kisonak's appreciation of film makes good, thoughtful reading; his observations are insightful and usually interesting even when I haven't seen the film. What a shock, then, to see The Happening elevated to the neighborhood of Citizen Kane [Movie Reviews, June 18].

Rick and I both admired The Sixth Sense, which inserted odd but plausibly real events into definitely realistic settings. That's what makes it creepy. The Happening instead skips the basic realism and isn't weird, just strange. Shyamalan is either indulging his imagination without discipline, or doesn't know that one depends on the other.

The first hint of its disregard for realistic background comes when the train stops at a shack in the woods, for reasons unexplained. Why didn't it just continue? Why does everyone get out? Didn't anyone warn the passengers they were going to stop, and why?

. . . Why do passengers and train personnel gather separately, and then, in all the confusion, only one passenger approaches the conductors with a question?

After that, inconsistencies come fast and thick, and they aren't just flaws in a beautiful woodwork; they're an absence of woodwork. Rick's willing suspension of disbelief here is heroic.

Fred G. Hill

BURLINGTON

BURLINGTON TELECOMPETENT?

Maybe Burlington Telecom could capitalize on their local status if they had enough technicians to meet demand ["Report Details Concerns of Burlington Telecom Advisory Committee," June 25].

I moved into my new apartment at the end of May. By mid-June, my BT installation date had been put off a second time to June 26. I understand that June is a busy time, but enough is enough. I attend classes online and can't wait that long!

I want to support the local option, but they just can't match the convenience, installation speed and pricing structures offered by national brands.

Caitlin Woodward

BURLINGTON

OUTING FARO

I understand that you had every intention of promoting Faro's artistic career by writing an article about him and his work ["Draw Like an Egyptian," June 25]. However, I was struck by the fact that you published his real name and identity.

Though I understand that it may have been given to you by the gallery, I think it is safe to say that by publishing that information you may have divulged too much. Faro is an artist whose mediums are not limited to the canvas, and graffiti is a federal offense.

Elisabeth Avery

NEW YORK

JOLLY GOOD!

I recall one day a number of years ago, while visiting family members in Warren, happening upon a cricket game (sorry, "match") at the town elementary school field ["Here Comes the Pitch," June 25]. Sitting on the sidelines was Tim Brookes, a Brit whom I have known for years.

Aha, I thought, this is my chance to learn what this sport is all about and how the players score runs and what "innings" meant and why they called time out for tea all the time.

Alas, although Tim is one of the most erudite and kind persons I know, his explanations left me as baffled as I was before I chanced upon all those young men in white clothing trying to hit a hard ball with a flat (you have to be kidding) bat! I could understand the hitters wearing a protective facemask, heavy gloves (to, I assume, absorb the shock of hitting that hard ball with a flat bat) and long shin and thigh protectors.

After watching the pitcher throw as hard as he could, and bounce the ball off the mat (that's a "ball" in baseball), I wondered why the shin guards didn't extend as high as the waist of the batter to protect their . . . ummm, well . . . you know.

I do wish the Chittenden County Cricket Club the best and perhaps, cricket will once again be as popular in this country as it was in the mid-1800s.

Ted Tedford

UNDERHILL CENTER

GREAT DAY, EITHER WAY

I'm one of the 18 million who supported Clinton. Now I back Obama all the way ["Poli Psy," June 18]. It is a no-brainer, despite my continued anger over sexist treatment of Clinton, and the ageist treatment of us oldsters (I just turned 60).

I did not like everything she did, either. But I appreciated her toughness in foreign policy (even almost forgiving her stupid vote for Bush's war as a product of the times). I still think her lousy health- care plan is way better than his lousy health care plan. Health-care is the single most important domestic issue, and he was negotiating against himself before he began.

I worried that Obama could not get anything done beyond speechmaking and would give away the store to the well-heeled special interests who are not going to play nice no matter how nicely he asks them. On the other hand, Obama's toughness in pushing her aside shows some backbone that bodes well for him managing the job.

I worry about Obama's embrace of ethanol. I have to avoid the blogs now, cuz I shake with fury and impotence at the nasty slurs we old women must put up with from people with not much better to do, it seems. But Obama is going to win, and that will be a great day for America as it would have been if she had won.

Nancy Brockway

BOSTON