Letters to the Editor

Jack would have hated it

To The Editor:
Re “Jack Levine, 85, an artist who always kept it real” (obituary, Dec. 22):

I talked, briefly, with Jack a few years ago when he was suffering from emphysema. He said he deserved it, after a life of smoking. This suited him, as little as I knew him, since when I did some research I found his famous quotes: “As far as I’m concerned, I want to remain the mean little man I always was.” I talked to another painter who knew him much better, who said, “Jack was a great hater.” Just look at his work.

Reading this Villager piece is like a trip to a candy store compared to the real life of Jack. I suppose no one should complain about a sweet and superficial survey that pretends to be a nice way of saying goodbye to someone with that kind of talent and courage. But I’m confident, even comforted, by the conviction that he would hate it, fearlessly, just as he did so many other, deserving things.
Ed Lynch

Tallmer is a treasure

To The Editor:
Re “A streetcar named Pearl Harbor: Getting onboard” (notebook, by Jerry Tallmer, Dec. 22):

I am in awe of the treasure you possess by the name of Jerry Tallmer. I have been reading his work since I first found the Village Voice 50 years ago, when it was in its heyday. I read Jerry’s (may I call him that?) most recent column with astonishment. Even in his hoary old age he can really write, and what a subject he chooses, the days of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, almost 70 years past.

I was on that day being circumcised, so that what Jerry writes is all that more important to me. I am part of a twin and was born in October of that year and I was too small for the eighth day, and found myself under the mohel’s knife on Sun., Dec. 7, and here is a wonderful account of Jerry and his Ford and of college days. The best writing to appear in your pages in a very long time and I doubt anyone will be able to top it.

Jerry, to 120 years and more wonderful writing.
Bert Zackim