Letters to the Editor: Thank you, Jim Carnett, for a decade of Daily Pilot columns

Re: “This is my final letter to readers; the next are to my grandchildren,” Jim Carnett column, (Dec. 24): Jim, I want to thank you for years of your columns. Your daughter, Jade, was a friend of our daughter during grade school and junior high, and I think also high school, so we have followed your stories with fond interest. I am a bit older than you — 76 to your 74.

I don’t have Parkinson’s, as you do, but I too have experienced the challenges of aging, with back problems and multiple surgeries for that, which have slowed me down from the active lifestyle I had when our daughters were younger and playing together. I am a retired physician, so I know how debilitating Parkinson’s can be, and I have admired your tenacity. I know it is not easy.

I wish you the best with your latest retirement and writing your letters to your grandchildren. You may inspire me to move forward with my long-delayed professed desire to write a memoir so that my grandchildren (currently ages 4, 1, twins at 11 months and a fifth due in June) may have some idea of who I was when I am long gone from this earth. Also, please say hello to Hedy from my wife and to Jade from my daughter.

Donald Williams

Costa Mesa

We’re halfway there, Jim

Thanks for the memories, Jim Carnett. As someone who has written his fair share of letters to the editor and commentaries, I always looked forward to reading your pieces. And as someone who still attaches — 30 — to his op-eds, I clearly understand the concept of “done.” Not that you’re really done. Together, you and I have been writing for nearly 100 years. That said, let me end my letter of appreciation with a — 15 —. Yep, I consider us both only half done.

Denny Freidenrich

Laguna Beach

Keep reporting on leash laws at the river mouth

Re: “More needs to be done to protect threatened birds at river jetty ‘dog beach,’ environmentalists say,” (Dec. 13): Thank you for reporting on the California Coastal Commission and the snowy plover story. The story was well done. The county’s actions, and not enforcing the leash laws at the river and beach, are problematic and need monitoring too. Please continue to focus on this topic.

Laura Curran

Newport Beach

Newly elected officials will represent us well

Now that the elections and holidays are behind us, it is time to focus on what we can expect and hope for in 2019. The obvious choice will be how we are represented in government at all levels. It will be such a pleasure to have newly installed Kim Carr on the Huntington Beach City Council. Ditto for newly elected Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley and that city’s new council members and Councilwoman Joy Brenner in Newport Beach. All of us in this neck of the woods will serve under Cottie Petri-Norris (D-Laguna Beach) in the state Assembly and Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Laguna Beach) in Congress.

The year 2019 will show us what the new folks can do with majority parties in Sacramento and the House of Representatives. We can finally start kicking the “living behind the Orange Curtain” jokes to the curb and focus on true blue progress.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

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