Very Barry

I thoroughly enjoyed Lynda Barry’s story, “Pork Memories” (Aug. 3). Her illustrations are whimsical and funny. You ought to coax her to write more stories.

--DARRELL LUM

Whittier

*

I was particularly appalled by Lynda Barry’s article wherein stolen food is being romanticized, especially because the theft was not necessitated by severe hunger or deprivation. By the writer’s own account, her father, working as a meat cutter in a supermarket, was purchasing, and obviously was able to afford, packages he intentionally had marked as “Stew Meat” while stuffing them with pork chops. We all know what nutritious and exciting dishes can be prepared with stew meat. To make things worse, the writer fondly remembers the supermarket’s generosity with balloons and firetruck ride offerings, Easter egg tosses and “Hawaiian Days” stagings for children.

One can only imagine a family willing to stoop as low as to steal from the hand that fed it.

Worst of all, the article’s cute drawings of piglets with “oink” bubbles, made it a sure bet to attract children’s attention. What a message, what treason to food.

--GEORGE CALOYANNIDIS

Los Angeles

*

In honor of the Year of the Pig, I stopped eating pork. The release of “Babe” prompted me to squeal with delight, far more than “Waterworld” did (I believe it’s a Pig World after all). And though pigs are actually eaten in Lynda Barry’s “Pork Memories,” I thoroughly enjoyed it. Please continue to print features linking food and memories. They go together like peanut butter and, uh, bacon.

--KATE BOUTILIER

Los Angeles

*

Thank you so much for “Pork Memories.” I read it more than once.

--E. FULLER

Los Angeles