Sneering at strangers in your own midst

Brought my sister and her husband to the Pearl Street Mall the afternoon of June 28 for shopping and a stroll. They’re from Toronto and tried to show a little western hospitality.

Got in our shopping at a few of the clothing and culinary arts stores. Sat down for a spell. Sis wears orthotics, custom knee braces for a 65-year-old with failing joints and due a much delayed hip replacement, but Canadian health care, eh?

She took them off and put them in the shopping bag. Absent-minded husband forgot to pick up the bag. Ten minutes later, he realized his mistake, went back to where we sat by the large split boulder and — voilà — it’s gone. Reported it at the info kiosk and frantically asked about all the nearby shops. These braces took hours to get measurements and months to deliver. A week later and still nothing.

We grew up in Colorado. Sis has dual citizenship and pays her taxes twice. I graduated from CU decades ago. I never really got into why folks actually call Boulder home. Who charades about for some foreigners’ rights to exist, but will stare and sneer at strangers in their own midst, folks with prodigious wealth who won’t help their own less fortunate citizens but will still expect them to fulfill all those menial service sector roles … with a smile.

I know who steals knee braces and clothing from Canadian retirees. Desperate people. Or hypocrites. I’m looking at you, Boulder.

— Dave Knutson, Arvada

Camera’s e-edition is an un-navigable mess

I’m writing here for want of a more specific address. I am a digital subscriber to the Camera, using a Mac with the High Sierra OS. This is not the most recent OS in the forced march that we laughingly call progress in the computer world, but I retain it to avoid breaking certain applications I consider essential.

It is not so old an OS, however, that it should not work with relatively recent content. Whatever the reason, I find the so-called e-edition of the Camera to be an un-navigable mess. In order to read the comics, for example, I must go to the Washington Post, where things seem to work just fine.

Perhaps you should ask them how they do it.

— Earl Noe, Boulder