Letters to the Editor

Lest anyone get the impression from last week’s “On the Record” column by Nicholas Schou on the cancellation of this year’s Ghost Village Road Trick or Treat event that I was the person behind the very first one, I’d like to clear up that record. Mr. Schou was quite accurate in his reportage that the Journal (and that was me at the time) named the event “Ghost Village Road.” And he did explain that the term had been around for many years, citing the lack of retail activity on our lower village thoroughfare.

However, I neglected to tell Mr. Schou that the real mover and brain behind the First Annual Ghost Village Road was Cindy Brokaw, who not only ran and owned a hair salon on the Road but was also president of the newly active Coast Village Road Association. It was Cindy who put all the ghoulish pieces together and not only convinced many of the merchants to participate but who, along with her team of hair-dressers and other friends, also transformed the MJ offices into a very “Haunted House,” replete with spiderwebs, ghosts, goblins, cackling witches, howling wolves, and even sub-humans (such as myself), who lay on the floor in our drape-darkened offices to snatch at the ankles of unwary trick or treaters.

A great time was had by all and, perhaps most importantly, the over-subscribed turnout laid the groundwork for the Journal’s success. Both that year’s (1996) inaugural Village Fourth and Ghost Village Road were publicized strictly by and in the Journal and nowhere else, illustrating to many that the one-year-old Montecito Journal was well-read, widely distributed, and very influential.

James Buckley
Montecito

Rosetta’s Pond

While watching people being fattened up for harvesting by the energy vampires (professional socialist politicians and greedy capitalists), we were wondering why the people in the United States don’t have better choices for their supreme leader than the Reverent Grandpa Hiding (a dead man living by running) and Uncle Heir Krumpy (a candle rapidly burning at both ends)?

Overheard while meditating under the new Montecito Creek bridge.

Bill Dalziel
Montecito

Taking Stock

I believe Mr. Rinaldo Brutoco is “off base” with his recent article in the Journal (“Fixing Wall Street: Debt. Vs. Dividends”). To compare the stock market to Las Vegas gambling and “having nothing to do with economic reality,” is absurd. Every day hundreds of thousands of people are carefully evaluating the value of publicly held companies. While Mr. Brutoco did not seem to see the bounce back in the economy that we saw in yesterday’s GDP growth, the markets and millions of individual investors did. In addition, he seems to misunderstand why publicly held companies borrow money. The stock market represents most of our companies that employ millions of people. Those companies wouldn’t be able to grow, expand and create new jobs without access to our world-class financial markets. They borrow money or hold back dividends for the purpose of “growing” their companies. They use that capital to invest in research for new products, the construction of new factories, and to buy emerging companies. Of course, like life, investing in stocks comes with some risks. Some succeed and some fail. That is the part of the genius of the market system. But stocks, and the companies they represent, are the foundation of our economic system that continues to lead the world. 

Frank McGinity