In reference to the letter to the editor about political sign litter (Letters & Opinion, Nov. 23), since the Public Safety Officers Association paid for the majority of the campaign signs, perhaps they could "police" the city and remove them. Just a thought.

Susan Kitchens

Sunnyvale

DeCinzo cartoon did
not offend all Italians

I read David Cohen's apology to Tony Spitaleri (Opinion & Letters, Dec. 7) for DeCinzo's cartoon of Nov. 30. I am a proud New Yorker from a large Italian political family, and I do not feel that an apology was necessary. I was not offended at all by the cartoon, nor were any of my Italian friends. Prominent Sunnyvale residents called saying that they loved the cartoon. Many times Spitaleri dresses all in black.

Spitaleri's keepers spent an exorbitant amount of money to get him elected--and any press, good or bad, that Spitaleri receives, goes along with being a public official.

You need a tough skin to be in politics.

Spitaleri and his antics have been depicted in the press as "repeatedly breaking state campaign laws, being combative,using alarmist and scare tactics, unethical, filled with distortions and unfair innuendoes, brewed trouble with a hard-hitting style, preyed on the public's fears, smacked of payback, tarnished images, known for grandstanding and bullying tactics, crashed a meeting the mayor held, who thinks old style Tammany Hall politics is proper behavior."

Palo Alto councilman Vic Ojakian put it so well: "Thank goodness Mr. Spitaleri chose to be a career firefighter, not a police officer. I'd fear if we issued him a gun, he would have literally shot himself in the foot."

Letters in your opinion section talk about Spitaleri being disrespected. Run that by me again.

I enjoy all of DeCinzo's amazing political cartoons. (DeCinzo sounds Italian.) There is only controversy about his cartoons because he has hit the nail on the head in every political cartoon. Go DeCinzo!

Yolanda DeStefano Risch

Former Chair, Sunnyvale Planning Commission, Sunnyvale Volunteer of the Year, Leadership Sunnyvale Alumni of the Year, Nominated for Distinguished Citizen of the Year

Yolanda Risch is the wife of candidate Tim Risch who was defeated by Tony Spiteri.

--Editor

Burglars hit homes while
residents are sleeping

I read The Sun every week and I think that it is a wonderful local paper. Mainly I like to read for the current issues regarding the Town Center and local real estate but recently I have been keeping an eye on the public safety issues.

Your paper reports most of the public safety problems in the neighborhood, but I was displeased when after our house was burglarized, that we did not show up in the paper.

This is a serious issue only because there is a crime spree of individuals who are entering the house while people are sleeping and stealing personal items such as purses, laptops, cameras, etc., that are close at hand to the exit.

We are in the Braly Park area, within a square bounded by Old San Francisco Road, El Camino, Wolfe Road and Fair Oaks Avenue.

We are not the only house in the neighborhood that this has happened to. Come to find out, we are the third in just our neighborhood in the last month. This information needs to be given to the public to let them know that there is someone out there watching our homes and then coming in at night while they are sleeping.

This is a serious issue since many Americans keep loaded weapons in their possession or have children at home, which could be much worse that just a purse stolen.

Please, for the sake of Sunnyvale residents, inform them that we need to be on the look out for suspicious activity and that their home needs to be secure before they go to bed at night.

Christopher Anderson

Sunnyvale

Small article highlights
local nature of paper

Thank you for publishing the "trivial" Nov. 30 article "Palm frond growing from branches of different tree."

My 4-year-old son and I stopped by to look at the merged trees, and he thought it was very interesting.

It's articles like this that highlight the difference between a Sunnyvale-only weekly and the wide scope of a large paper such as the Mercury News.

Taed Wynnell

Sunnyvale

Match Game

One of the many things this information age has spawned is the Internet as matchmaker. Many of use here at The Sun have family members, co-workers and friends who have actually married someone they found through one of the popular websites such as Match Maker.com or eHarmony.

One of the questions that comes up about this way of finding a mate, is how well is it working.

We are interested in finding couples in Sunnyvale who have met and married through one of these websites or even couples who are in a long term relationship as the result of meeting through the Internet.

If you are interesting in helping us with this story, please contact Anne Ernst at aernst@community-newspapers.com or 408.200.1057 or contact Sandy Sims at ssims@community-newspapers.com or 408.200.1055.