Letters to the Editor

I can remember it as if it were yesterday. Static Taxi was driving down 26th Street after band practice and stopped at the light on Chicago Avenue. KQ was on the car radio and suddenly the new Replacements single, "I'll Be You," came on. Being good bandmates and proud of playing with Bob, we all ripped on the song.

Bob's response was classic Stinson. He said, "Give 'em a break, you guys...you can't blame 'em for trying!" which set the car rocking with laughter. Right, they were totally lost without him! Such colossal, yet completely sweet and innocent ego...somehow there was not an ounce of resentment in there at all. He felt bad for them. In all the years that I knew Bob, he never once said an unkind thing about either Paul Westerberg or Slim Dunlap, and in fact often praised them both. Yep, that's right, folks: Bob Stinson was a class act.

Sarah Askari's excellent review of Jim Walsh's The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting ("The Shouting's Over, Too," 11/14/2007) points up a central problem with the book: that Walsh "can't get a handle on the band." I have to agree, and for me at least, the reason is obvious: Bob Stinson was the Replacements. Who could ever get a handle on him?

No one can touch Westerberg's genius songs, in particular those about lovable losers with hearts of gold. To me at least, Bob was that "character" personified. But the Replacements' music was more than Westerberg's songs, and the band was always much more than just their music. That's where the Bob factor tips the scales—for me, at least.

Still, it's hard to imagine Bob being anything but kind to Jim Walsh, about whom he would doubtlessly say, "You can't blame him for trying," before proceeding to goose him and then steal his drink. This much I do know for certain: You can't put your arms around a memory, and you can't replace a Replacement. Thanks for giving Bob the last word, Jim.

PS: Sorry, Sarah, but the shouting about the Replacements will never be over.

Chris Corbett, bassist, Static Taxi  Minneapolis

Lobster Tales

I am a regular reader of the Dish column and am fond of Dara's writing style ("Regular Paradise," 11/14/07). I do have to call into question something she did in last week's review of Manny's Steakhouse. She mentions that frozen Australian lobster tails taste like "formaldehyde-soaked cotton." I find it rather unprofessional to make such a damning reference in a restaurant review when you are not speaking directly about something you ate at said restaurant. For all Dara knows, Manny's lobster tail might be the best she ever had, but she can't know that because she did not order it! I have had it on several occasions and I think it is wonderful.

Jeff Starkman  Eagan

Jews for Tutu

My initial reaction to hearing about Desmond Tutu's appearance cancellation at the University of St. Thomas was the exact same response Marv Davidov of the Justice and Peace Studies program had ("Banning Desmond Tutu," 10/3/07). If one criticizes an African sovereignty's treatment of human beings, that does not make one racist, it makes one an activist. The simple fact that Desmond Tutu has an opinion about the treatment of Palestinians in occupied territories is his right—he is, after all, a civil rights activist and Nobel Laureate, and just maybe he has a point. Just as many people around the world are concerned about the treatment of the innocent Iraqi people in our own mess of a war, which does not mean that these people are anti-American, although they maybe are anti-American foreign policy. Most people are compassionate to the civil liberties human beings deserve.