Remark too close to home

I have just finished reading your editorial about guns in public meetings, and while I do agree with the gist of the story, I am bothered by your reference to the likelihood of this happening is about the same as your favorite bridge falling down.

It has a very sarcastic tone, and as a father of a daughter who lives and works in Minneapolis and used the collapsed 35W bridge on a daily basis, I am distressed. My wife and I waited a long and grueling 90 minutes before I finally got word from my daughter that she was safe.

I would suggest a little more caution in making an attempt at what appears to be humorous comparisons. There may be someone reading that was actually affected by a tragedy such as their "favorite bridge falling down."

GARY BUDAHL

Bored? Let's keep score

In the Aug. 8 PVT, I read with interest [Don McDermott's] analysis of the women's rodeo and the seeming long and boring times between the events.

This reminded me of the time I went to a rodeo. I was on a business-related trip to Miami, Fla., and while there I visited my sister-in-law. She invited me to tag along with a group of her friends to a rodeo in Homestead.

We, too, were thoroughly bored with the brevity of the action (five to 10 seconds) punctuated by 10-15 minutes of prep for the next contestant. That is, until the announcer started talking about how a rodeo is a contest of skills pitting not only the contestants against each other but also the contestants against the animals. Upon thinking about this, I realized what was missing was a scoreboard of rider vs. animals.

We started keeping score and the contests became much more interesting when we computed that:

A) In calf-roping, the calves won 4-3.

B) In bulldogging, the bulls won 3-1.

C) In bronc-riding, the broncs won 4-0.

D) in bull-riding, the bulls won 3-0.

May I suggest, not tongue in cheek, that the people at the rodeo be approached to see if they will start announcing the ongoing scores of humans vs. animals. It will certainly fill in some of the time, and I think many in the audience might appreciate a new perspective, although I don't know how well the contestants will receive it.

CHUCK LIEMAN