Re: Geography 101, Baltic states vs. Balkans
It is sad to see that Chris Vitiello’s article about the Estonian Philharmonic Radio Choir (“Outside of America, choirs and national pride can be closely linked, Nov. 6) fails to identify Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as Baltic countries. They lie on the Baltic Sea, as do Sweden and Finland.
Chris calls the Baltic countries Balkan. Not true.The Baltics have no geographical, historical or linguistic relation to the Balkan countries of Bulgaria, Serbia et. al., formerly part of the Ottoman empire. The Balkans lie about 1,500 miles south of Estonia, between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sear. That’s about the latitude of Italy, not Scandinavia.
Let’s hope Chris and the INDY do better in future.
Ilga Blankmeyer, Chapel Hill
Re: guns in bars
The letter from Paul Schwenke (Back Talk, Oct. 30) leads me to one conclusion and to ask two questions. If he wants restaurants to actively ban firearms from the premises that will eliminate the police from patronizing any restaurants that comply with his request.
Second, would Mr. Schwenke be willing to be frisked for weapons each time he enters a restaurant? How else would the restaurant management know if he’s carrying any?
If this is bordering on the ludicrous, I agree. Let’s not penalize businesses for being apolitical and refusing to put up a sign that discriminates against its patrons. Instead, let’s focus on the legislature that creates any laws with which we disagree.
Paul Novak, Durham
Editor’s note: The statute does not apply to law enforcement.
Re: affordability of art
While art can be appreciated by all types of people (“Why doesn’t Durham buy art,” Oct. 30), the only people that (in general) can afford to actually purchase art are wealthy.
The average person doesn’t have hundreds or thousands of dollars to blow on such things.
The recent article might have spent some time exploring that.
Darren Dlugo, Chapel Hill
