Don't find yourself at the weekend's sophisticated soirees and ignorant of the current talk of the town, as told by this week's Mercury Letters section:

—When a new pizza joint establishes itself in this city and is deemed good, people go a little nuts. When it's a cozy neighborhood joint like East Glisan Pizza Lounge, its nearby residents might even get a little territorial. "It's been pretty well hipster/yuppie-free up to now and it would be great if it stayed that way," grumps one of them.

—I'm not sure why the police care about being popular and fun on social media, but when they invite you to caption their photos while being CLEAN AND RESPECTFUL!, we invite you to do so while being dirty and mean, if that's what you are when you're being "yourself."

—Speaking of dim views and the police, Fred contends—in reference to the whole cuffing nine-year-olds thing—that cops "become police officers because they like to abuse people."

The idea of imposing a regressive, flat monthly fee on Portland households to make up for a sorry lack of transportation funding is going to be the city's next hot topic (water who?). Already people like Chandra are questioning why we "spend way too much money delegated for street improvements on areas that are already doing pretty well and not enough (or any money) on areas that don't even have basic necessities." Meanwhile, Cindy wants to know: "[The Portland Bureau of Transportation] has a terrible track record for how they spend money, so why give them more?" But my favorite response comes from JRRTrollkien, who wonders, "How are they going to collect this monthly fee—send around Ye Royale Tax Collector with a large leather satchel and a donkey cart and two hooded goons with cudgels to carry off half of the livestock, rifle through the thatched roof huts of the kingdom looking for valuables, and to strip the peasants naked looking for carefully concealed coinage?"

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  • PHOTO BY KEVIN WILLRICK