Editor:

It’s not often — well, not very often — that the entire letter page is a downer (“Mailbox,” Jan. 7). And Josh Kinch isn’t even participating this time!

I certainly respect everybody’s right to not have my opinion, but I thought “Prodigal Arkley” (Dec. 31) was a cartoon and humor masterpiece. As a hip, cultural commentary on this wonderful, zany, impossible place we live in, this pièce de résistance reminded me of why the Humboldt Autonomous Region is my home. Reminds me of days of yore and R. Crumb, Harold Head and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, except that Andrew Goff writes for a general audience, not an “R” rated one. Every carefully crafted panel is spot-on.

Before Christmas, I decided to buy some CDs from The Works, partially as a show of support. I told the clerk that I saw the name “Rand” in a local entertainment tabloid and that “Shenandoah” was a cut on the new album. She asked Mr. Glass, who seemed depressed and annoyed at the customer’s intrusion into his valuable computer time! He refused to look up the new release on his computer screen in front of him and glumly told her where the local artists were warehoused. I felt as though a pall had been cast over all. The entire episode was highly amusing especially in view of Goff’s hilarious comic strip. I wound up buying only two CDs and had to order the new album on the Internet! I still get a chuckle over it.

Any Roman Catholic can tell you that the “prodigal son” was a wastrel who repented and returned to his family. Look, the whole thing was meant to be funny, OK? Yeah, only the truth is funny, but that’s the breaks! It’s humor, everybody!

Regarding the lengthy letter in which virtually everybody who is involved in airline commerce and safety is called to apologize for the tragic private plane crash last year (“The Plane That Wasn’t There,” Dec. 17), I must emphasize the obvious, which Kathy Marshall glossed over. I am sorry for the family, but the pilot acted in a willfully dangerous manner, driving himself to exhaustion for no compelling reason. This is the same foolish behavior that drives people — typically young males — into the mountains every winter without regard to weather reports, their own safety, the safety of companions, the love of their friends and family or the lives of rescue personnel.

There may be problems at the airport, but that pilot was out of control, and hurt many people as a result.

Timothy Crlenjak, Eureka