Some of us remember the Roosevelt Highway of the ’30s and the jokes about a roadbed so unlike the individual it was named after. FDR was the epitome of reliability and service and the highway, however, was never without major ongoing repairs and realignment because of the dominant geological conditions. It was almost as though May Rindge had placed a “forever curse” on its existence.

It should be remembered that the Caltrans of today did not create the “monster” and if it were proposed as a location for a highway today, it would be denied as it would not meet the standards set forth for a highway. Some thoughts to consider are: 1. The road right-of-way is too narrow. 2. Most of the material visiting the highway is from private property. 3. Numerous alternatives have been offered in the past and all have been loudly vetoed by the public.

To the constant detractors and belittlers of Caltrans, maybe a little forethought and investigation on your part would have suggested that you buy elsewhere. Or possibly, you might accept the situation and bless the fact that you live in God’s country and consider the fact that there were thorns and thistles in the first garden.

H. David Hume

Please do not change content, punctuation or Italics or Caps.

You indicate that I am part of the old way, and I don’t care about children. You sir are once again a false prophet in our land.

I list the following only to answer your mischaracterization. I am a founder and a 20 year active board member of Bogart Laboratories, centered at Children’s Hospital, fighting children’s Aids and cancer. We have raised and generated moneys and grants of 100’s of millions of dollars in this battle and are now joyously watching children being healed.

I have worked diligently for 15 years, since its beginnings, within the foundation of the Fulfillment Fund, a group that gives hope and mentoring one on one to hundreds of underprivileged high school students, as well as giving them college scholarships. Many, many students have succeeded and have now come back to help us help others. We also give cash awards to outstanding teachers.

I was for many years a director on the board of Find the Children, (the organization that put lost children’s faces on milk cartons), dedicated to returning kidnapped and abused children to their rightful parents.

I am daily concerned with the health, education, safety and recreation of children. I am a spokesman for and president of MALIBU COASTAL LAND CONSERVANCY. This organization’s hard working members, along with other concerns, have been actively involved, since our first meeting, in the job of bringing ball fields to the children. And we will succeed here too.

We members have children, many of them young. Contrary to your statements, it is the NEW thinking, not the old, sir, in which we are involved. We consider the WHOLE picture instead of only the parts. Our kids can have it all without “paving over paradise and putting in a parking lot.”

Every time you try to divide this city by speaking of who likes and doesn’t like the children, it should be a red flag to Malibu that you are using children as OBJECTS to both divide and develop.

Children can be nurtured without destroying nature. They are nature! They need loving hearts and health and safety and education AND recreation. They can and should have them without learning that they had to destroy the city in order to play here. They will thank us some day for teaching them that the earth’s body and spirit are to be protected and cherished, as well as their own bodies and spirits. They are ultimately the same.

(Anyone who wants more information on any of these organizations that help children can call me at 310.453.2172.)

Gil Segel

My friend has a house

Overlooking the ocean

The view of which

Brings out much emotion

As he listens to Frank and sips his Merlot

He tells me, “It’s the way to go!”

And I ruminate that life is ironic

As I gaze through the smog

With a vodka Tonic

Geraldine Forer Spagnoli

Shortly after the state came out with the SAT 9 test scores I was contacted by a reporter from the Los Angeles Times and asked to what I attributed the dramatic increase and excellent scores at Juan Cabrillo Elementary School. He wanted to know what I had done.

Here is the truth: I didn’t do anything special.

I didn’t teach the children the lessons or how to take tests so they could develop their skills and talents. I didn’t take home the books and study or work on projects and learn to use my computer so that I could feel good about myself as a student. I didn’t do homework with them in the afternoons or read to them at night so they would know that I loved them and learning is important in my family. I didn’t do the secretarial work or clean the school or do the gardening so the school would run efficiently and be a warm, welcoming place.

Cabrillo has very strong scores because we have excellent teachers who are dedicated to the children they teach. We have bright, talented children who are self-motivated and eager to learn. We have caring and supportive parents who believe in our school. We have a support staff that is outstanding and who put children first.

I am a cheerleader. I have the easy job. It is the teachers, children, parents and staff who truly make a school a success. My sincere congratulations to all of you for all that you do and all that you are. I know the year ahead is going to be fabulous.

I’m Cabrillo and I’m proud.

Patricia A. Cairns, principal

Juan Cabrillo Elementary School

For all of you in Malibu

Who live on Hillside Slopes —

Aren’t you glad you’re not a target,

By the “wetland’s planning folks?”

They cannot say your land is clay,

Nor home for wetlands birds.

But I’m sure they’ll think of something,

To disturb you that’s absurd.

The rumors go, from “in the know,”

That the Malibu Mountain Fox,

Will soon make the endangered list,

And put us on the spot.

Meanwhile, I hear that the “run-off law”

For excessive winter rains —

Will provide an excuse for their abuse,

To target your domain!

At least for now, you’re safe somehow,

Until that wily bunch —

With their wetlands mumbo jumbo,

Decide you’re next to crunch.

Phineas P. Fogbottom

“Twelfth Dog Night” and “Eden”

One knows a stage performance is funny when even those notoriously jaded beings known as “the band” are laughing. One also knows it’s fit for kids when those notoriously fidgety little beings are paying attention.

Troubadour Theater Company’s “Twelfth Dog Night” is the latest in what appears to be that troupe’s “We Spit Shakespeare Better Than Anyone” series. This one combines Troubadour’s clowning with the music of the ’70s band Three Dog Night.

And Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” of course. That’s the one in which the twin brother and sister, Sebastian and Viola, are separated by shipwreck. He merely travels around town waiting to meet up with his sister. She, however, gets to dress in men’s clothing and become an attendant to Duke Orsino, who wonders why he is attracted to what appears to be a man. Meanwhile, the duke’s beloved, Olivia, takes a shine to Viola. And so forth.

The songs? Replacing Shakespeare’s ditties are “Old Fashioned Love Song,” “Black and White” (for a letter-writing scene) “One” (for Malvolio’s imprisonment), “Never Been to Spain” (in this case, “Santa Monica,” as Sebastian and his traveling companion, Antonio, tour the sea-coast town) and the buoyant finale, “Joy to the World.”

There are no mistakes in this production. If anything is noticeably awry, director Matt Walker, who also appears as Feste the Clown, will leap from backstage, blowing his whistle and calling a foul on the offending performer, technician or band member, charging a penalty and restarting the scene.

Walker is a one-man, three-ring circus, offering pratfalls, hat tricks and improvised dialogue, gladly and generously leaving the last laugh to a fellow improviser.

As the twins, Michelle Johnson and Kent Davis are ill-matched physically, to hilarious effect, but evenly matched in comedic and vocal talent.

At her every entrance, Carissa Barnett livens up the stage as a gleeful Maria, wearing an ill-concealed fat suit that occasionally “rides up” and must be put right by a fellow actor.

Rachel Wolfe takes the petulant Olivia on a vibrant, rubber-faced run. Rick Batala lingers a bit too long on Malvolio’s monologues but compensates by playing “evil” with exactitude.

The other talents include Michael Sulprizio (Sir Toby Belch), Beth Kennedy (Antonio, on stilts throughout the performance), Briant Wells (Orsino), Timothy Groff (Sir Andrew), Michael Teele (Fabian), and Guillermo Robles, Jesse Mackey and Travis Clark as various “officers.”

The band includes Henry Phillips, Dave Barker, Kevin Robertson and Lisa Valenzuela.

If fault can be found with the production, it is that it may be too funny. The bits come too quickly to be fully absorbed — the sight gags overlap the improvised asides, which are spouted while actors are tumbling heels over heads.

For example, the troupe has included its traditional “funny walks” gag. Behind a waist-high barrier, Walker, Davis and Teele mime walking up stairs, taking escalators, floating in space, etc. While Davis takes a merry-go-round ride that is funny enough even without the plastic yellow piping meant to be his horse, we hear Barker on synthesizer playing the waltz from “Carousel.”

If laughter be the food of comedy, play on.

“Twelfth Dog Night” plays through Aug. 28, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Miles Playhouse, 1130 Lincoln (N. of Wilshire), Santa Monica. Tel. 213.303.0096.

Stage Review

Paradise moved

By Dany Margolies

Associate Editior

Jennifer Maisel is a playwright who trusts her audience. In “Eden” at Theatre of Note, nothing is obvious, nothing is settled, nothing is told in prosaic expository form.

But her stories are human and eternal, with archetypal characters living in mundane circumstances.

The dramatis personae of Eden include the mother, daughter, bride-to-be, groom-to-be, best friend, as-yet-unknown lover and what seems to be a guardian angel. Any further information is delivered using stylized, quick glimpses that ignore traditional timelines.

The mother-daughter relationship highlights that which is traditionally said and that which should be said. The mother can’t resist ignoring her daughter’s wishes and buying her a dress, and the daughter can’t resist telling her mother she doesn’t need it. The mother also admonishes her, “Your generation, you make nothing easy. You have no appreciation of what I can do for you.”

The characters occupy a dark world. There are broad hints of AIDS, Nazi Holocaust survival, suicide attempts and long-held fears of abandonment. There are also small bits of hope: The bride may return to her faith, the daughter may find the fight still in her. The “divine spirit” always tells the “truth” but truth is relative. In the last moments, the characters are very kind to one another.

The production, directed by Dan Oliverio, is also darkly lit, probably to match the mood of the piece but also because the theater’s seats are in facing rows with much of the action taking place in the middle of the room.

Pamela Gordon is the mother, sincere, pained and mesmerizing.

David Conner as the agent of the divine is appealingly warm and comforting. Lisa Ann Morrison is the daughter, living without hope but seemingly strong enough to survive anything. Mika Walden is wonderfully free and frank as the best friend.

Alina Phelan, Jonathan Klein, Michelle Welk and Christopher DeWan round out the cast.

Eden is the name of a New York underground club that moves from night to night. Paradise can be elusive.

“Eden” appears Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. through Sept. 4 at Theatre of Note, 1517 Cahuenga Blvd. (just north of Sunset), Hollywood. Tel. 323.856.8611.

Regarding Aug. 5 letter to the editor “Brought to light”:

Being the other individual involved in the “Internet computer availability” situation which recently took place at the Malibu Public Library, I must take issue with Mr. Jackson’s description of it.

I booked an appointment by phone that morning. Arriving at the library a few minutes late, I found the reference librarian using the printer. She was surprised to see me there, not having seen my name in the appointment book. At that point, we discovered that I had inadvertently been written in at 11, rather than 1 o’clock.

Shortly afterwards, Mr. Jackson arrived. The librarian explained to him what had taken place and, understandably, he was displeased — as I too would have been. I expressed that I could be finished in 20 or 30 minutes, but the issue of his then only having 20 or 30 minutes use seemed unsatisfactory.

The head librarian then came over (whom I had spoken with on the phone). Upon becoming aware of what had taken place, she immediately apologized to Mr. Jackson. She then offered to extend his time until a quarter past the hour. This still was not to his liking. A short while later, he left.

A simple mistake was made, from which an awkward situation arose. Concessions needed to be made to accommodate the situation. Two of the three involved parties were prepared to do so.

There is no doubt in my mind that had the situation evolved in the inverse manner, Mr. Jackson would have been extended the same treatment as I — and I as he.

Ira Meyer