Won’t You Ride the S.L.U.T.?”Don’t believe all you hear coming out of Portland’s City Hall.A. Streetcar ridership is half or less of what Portland officials will lead you to believe. Each time a person gets on the streetcar they are counted as (1) passenger. Example; Person A gets on and travels 1 block and exits, this equals 1 Passenger Trip. They get back on and travel another block to the next Starbucks, Passenger A is now counted as a Second Passenger Trip. As you can see, distinct ridership numbers are non-existent.B. Transit has driven development in Portland because hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds have been given to private projects. Transit is not what is driving development, free money is.”– Posted by “Carol””Oh, jeez, sorry, Seattle, our cranky anti-transit folks seem to have found you, as “Carol” above so nicely illustrates with her amusing hypothetical:”Example; Person A gets on and travels 1 block and exits, this equals 1 Passenger Trip. They get back on and travel another block to the next Starbucks, Passenger A is now counted as a Second Passenger Trip.”Trust me on this, people in Portland aren’t as lame as her mythical rider who waits for the streetcar, gets on to ride 1 block, gets off and then hops back on to ride another block.”– Posted by “Dave J.”What I Saw, And Ate, at the Pig “Sacrifice””I think I’ve rewritten this comment 10 times now. There are so many aspects that I feel inclined to comment on, but then I notice you’ve said it all. So, here’s all I got: I’ve been a vegetarian for 17 years. You’ve written a great, informative, well-rounded article.Thank you.”– Posted by “Debbie””I live in Bulgaria and just spent a snowed in winter holiday on the Danube. Yes, it included a pig kill and 10 days of feasting. Our pig was young, about 1/3 the size of Hector — personally I think they are tastier at this stage. The killing was done by a female chef in her own backyard, and the bacon was salted in the snow.I have no problem with vegetarians — it’s a personal moral choice. But middle class American squeamishness is hypocritical — if you’re going to eat it, ‘buy local’ and see the process from start to finish. It’s a lot less freaky than you might imagine, as the author so clearly suggests. It tastes a lot better, too.”– Posted by Burke Kirova