BAITING HOLLOW

This is nuts

I once heard a hilarious Amos n' Andy radio skit, where Amos "slipped the dog." Turns out he had used up all the church picnic money and only had enough money left for one hot dog. He tied a string to the dog and pulled it out of the roll just before his patrons took a bite, and reused it for the next customer. So you weren't really getting what you paid for.

Fast-forward to the recent and increasingly popular idea whereby developers have installed a 1 percent fee for every subsequent sale of real property they sell their clients. Thus, if your house is sold 20 times in its lifetime, the developer gains 1 percent from each sale and can resell these income flow contracts to Wall Street. It tethers a property to a developer for 99 years! Sort of sounds like "slipping the dog," except it's not funny. It's nuts!

Caveat emptor!

Fred Terry

CALVERTON

Why would hotel get a pass?

All through the night, I thought I was sent into another world other than Calverton. It would seem as if Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter gave special permission to the owner of a refurbished pre-standing hotel and restaurant now named Indigo to play ear-busting abominable music. This so-called music went on for 24 straight hours recently, with no regard for anyone. Then again the next day and the next. Have Mr. Walter and the Town Board members lost their minds?

I've never heard of such a thing in my life, not here in our community where we are trying so hard to keep a lid on crime, drugs and all type of misconduct. What's next? I ask myself, and what message does this send to our youth? What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

As far as I know, we have a noise code here and a time limit on that noise. Bend a little, fine, but throwing it out the window for one person doesn't seem right.

Margaret Amentler

JAMESPORT

Now we're concerned with privacy?

I find it strange that citizens of the town as well as members of the Riverhead Town Board express "concern" for their privacy when the town is using readily available satellite images to ascertain whether proper permits were applied for when installing backyard pools.

Where is the concern for our privacy when the federal government is monitoring, and recording, every phone call we make and every e-mail that we send? Where is the concern with the red-light cameras already installed in Nassau County and have the OK to be installed here in Suffolk County? Where is the concern with all the security cameras that are in the shopping malls and that watch, and record, our every movement? Where is the concern for privacy when face-recognition cameras are watching, and again recording, us at airport and train terminals? Where is the concern for our privacy when every time we surf the Web our every movement is being recorded as well? Check on an item at Amazon.com and soon you'll be receiving an e-mail showing other related items that you might be interested in purchasing.

As with the past concern of a terrorist attack on the proposed gas terminal in the Long Island Sound, the concern for the use of public access photos of our backyards is being blown way out of perspective.

Thomas W. Smith

MOUNT SINAI

This doughnut hole's worth a bagel

I am writing in response to a letter that appeared in last week's paper. The author is mistaken when he says that the Medicare doughnut hole was created by the new health care law. The doughnut hole, which refers to the coverage gap in the Medicare Part D drug benefit, came into existence in 2008 under President Bush. The $250 that Congressman Tim Bishop secured isn't much when you consider the cost of prescription drugs today, but it's something. The author of last week's letter complains about the $500 million cost of providing this federal aid to one million seniors, but if you remember that there are about 138 million taxpayers in this country, the cost of providing this drug benefit amounts to about $3.62 per person -- or around the cost of a toasted bagel with cream cheese. If I have to choose between keeping $3.62 and providing this $250 check to someone's grandma or grandpa, I choose the latter. Helping our seniors is worth the small sacrifice on my part.

Sean Sullivan

SOUTHOLD

What about us?

As a longtime resident of the East End and a recent transplant to the North Fork, I was thrilled to learn that we will be getting the opportunity to participate in our first Soldier Ride this coming Saturday, what I hope will be the first of many.

I urge my neighbors to donate, cheer, ride, and meet some of the truly amazing individuals who have sacrificed so much for us.

Unfortunately some of my neighbors and I will not have the opportunity to be part of this event. We are Jewish, and the ride has been scheduled for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year.

I'm not an event planner, and I don't know what factors needed to be considered in scheduling this ride. But I do know that many Jews served and continue to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, my own cousin being one of them. I also know that Jews continue to come home among our wounded, or worse, do not come home.

And I know that Jews who reside right here on the North Fork would have loved to have been present as participants with their neighbors on this special occasion but can't.

The feeling of solidarity one gets from being part of this event can't adequately be put into words. I had the privilege of participating in the first leg of the very first ride, in which Chris Carney left Montauk and rode all the way to California, and got to pedal alongside some of the most remarkable people I've ever met.

Perhaps next year our friends at Wounded Warrior will take this into consideration and let everyone participate.

Andy Semons