Reyhan

fancypants

snoop

butterscotch pudding parfait, miniature horses, miniature bulls, miniature llamas, the fixin' bar, bread bowls, lazy eyes, dental disformities, verbal tics, deadlines, laundry outfits, collecting missent emails (please send them to me), holiday office parties, hangover cures, homonyms.

essays (joan didion, george orwell, louis menaud), russian novels, the great gatsby and addiction memoirs

best of youth, deerhunter, harold and maude, sneakers, walking and talking, the beaver trilogy, high plains drifter, working girl, manhunter, the jerk. someone once accused me of having bad taste in movies for liking "sneakers" and it really shook me up. who wants to have bad taste in movies? what else do i have bad taste in? but i'm totally over it now --"sneakers" stands up to repeat viewings. it really does.

bruuuuuuuuuuuce

the west wing

Capricorn

Editor -- From the inventor of Renaissance Pleasure Faires and for 25 years its director in the Black Point Forest, Marin County:

We weathered the vicissitudes of the '60s and the complexities of building a believable 16th century set for 2,000 performers. Never have we suffered being compared to the culture of heavy-metal concerts!

Reyhan Harmanci was not describing our event but seemed to believe she was. All faires named "Renaissance" are not the same! Across the nation and in California there are confusingly similar events staged by plagiarists who repeatedly name their dissimilar productions "Renaissance Faires." Some versions even offer modern stand-up comics. Visitors are not taken into Shakespeare's realm, they are simply taken.

In contrast is our spectacular Royal Court, juried handcrafts, theatrical environments and, always, ale. Yes, a few attendees misunderstand "costume" to mean Halloween. Nevertheless, it's disturbing that Datebook finds it fun to associate us with heavy-metal audiences. By her inferences, Harmanci trashes all of our educational outreach programs, welcome additions to Bay Area culture for decades.

Therefore, the writer also demeans thousands who have taken history as their hobby, spending hours on research and rehearsals for this California tradition. ForestFaire.com can further elucidate.

Phyllis Patterson, Novato

Phyllis Patterson