For this week’s Backtalk, let’s do a lightning round! 

First up is LIZ ROURKE, who didn’t appreciate our description of spineless Senator Thom Tillis in last week’s Good, Bad & Awful. She writes: “Let’s not insult squid. They are useful and tasty.” Noted. 

Next! “Doesn’t matter if you vote the blue party line or the red party line,” writes KUANYU CHEN. “How about at least don’t vote for criminals and [jackasses] and indecent human beings?” Agreed!

One more on Tillis, from KRIS LAWSON CARABETTA: “He LOVES his fidget spinner, which, BTW, was given to him by his fellow senator, Mr. Burr, as confirmed by a man at Burr’s Winston-Salem office today. He was quite proud of the fact, even proclaiming that he was playing with one even as he took my call.”

The same column mentioned Dennis Nielson, a state Senate candidate who seems to have a bit of an alleged misogyny problem. Over to you, JESÚS GUTIÉRREZ: “The saddest part is that Dennis Nielson will probably win his primary because that’s the kind of person Republicans vote for lately.”

And you, JANE HOLDING: “I am so sorry to see that such a creep lives in Johnston County.”

Last week, we reported that former national security adviser John Bolton, who will not get the chance to testify to Congress about President Trump’s very obvious quid pro quo, is coming to Duke on February 17. STEPHEN ADVOKAT is not amused: “Now that it’s all over except for the shouting, Bolton is coming to Duke to chat up his book? BS! Boycott, anyone?”

In last week’s paper, Thomasi McDonald wrote about the longstanding issues surrounding public housing funding. That’s not the real problem at McDougald Terrace, JENCY MARKHAM writes: “With that large of a budget, there is no way these places shouldn’t have been maintained all along. Over 100 employees to manage the DHA properties, and that’s not enough? That’s a stunning lack of efficiency by the administrators.”

Finally, a mea culpa. As DAVE TOLLEFSEN points out, our Local Beer Issue missed one: “So this year is Carolina Brewing Company’s 25th anniversary, and they aren’t part of the article. You know them, down in Holly Springs, oh, but you don’t because you didn’t write about them.” 

This is correct. We apologize to Carolina Brewing. 

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