MAILBAG:

Just wanted to let Mike Lukash know how much I appreciated his artful insights into the Ripcurl thing (Nov. 20). I really felt like that girl on the sideline, as the city and developers did their little dance so merrily. I am just recovering from that crazy battle. Thank you, your last cartoon does give me solace for its deep understanding of our crushed feelings. Keep up the good work!

Pam Vallot

Huntington Beach

Cook doesn’t have to run against Rep. again

I’ve never thought of “keeping up with the Joneses,” but the letter from James Jones (“Hoping for signs of change to disappear,” Nov. 27) begs that I do so, if only to set the record straight. My letter regarding Debbie Cook keeping her hand in politics did not specifically call for her to run against Dana Rohrabacher again in 2010. My hope is that she runs for something. Cook more than fills out her suit in representing the desperately needed change dynamic being ushered in by Barack Obama’s presidency. Regarding his lack of understanding, I can only offer the plaintive assertion from Bob Dylan’s Ballad of A Thin Man that “you know something is happening here...but you don’t know what it is...do you, Mister Jones?”