Letters : Sorrow Next to the Piano Bar

Was it random chance that placed the story “Motorist, Wife of His Victim, Show 2 Sides of Sorrow” by Stephen Bloom (Aug. 10), about the woman agonizing over the death of her husband by an intoxicated driver, next to the photo of the piano bar entertainer toasting her loyal following, not just with a glass, but with a whole bottle.

As someone whose home and office are within two blocks of The Fireside Inn--I have walked past it virtually daily the last 13 years on my way to the bank or other neighborhood businesses--I have seen literally hundreds of cars wheeling out of the parking lot onto Ventura Boulevard driven by tipsy bimbos and their new-found mates.

Come on, gang, have another round. Play it again--for the good times.

I hope that Shirley Smith, the woman made a widow by a drunk driver, whose story was in column one, gets a big kick out of that poignant moment--the closing of a piano bar--with an entire bottle pictured in columns two and three.

BENNETT J. MINTZ

Encino