Turkey Waisted?

Your Thursday Food Section is my sole source of culinary know-how. So when Joan Drake (“Trial by Turkey,” Nov. 18) tells me to cook a turkey with its “wings turned akimbo,” I’m ready to obey. But first you must tell me where I can buy a turkey with hands, hips and elbows . . . because that’s what “akimbo” involves: hands on hips, elbows out. Please advise.

--DON FAWCETT

a.k.a. The English-Speaking Public

Brentwood

Since a turkey doesn’t have hands or waist, “turning its wings akimbo” means bending them back from their usual humble position flopping around in front of the bird to a bolder, more Henry VIII-like stance flopping around at its sides.

* Let Them Eat Lunch

I am a 16-year-old student and I don’t understand why school lunches are a big enough issue to be written about in this newspaper (“School Lunches: Pass or Fail,” Nov. 4). I think that the lunches are fairly good. It doesn’t matter, really, because the students are just going to burn it off. They have a recess and they run around after school anyway.

Some people say that school lunches will cause bad diets in the future. I don’t believe that. It doesn’t really have to do with their school lunches; it has to do with meals at their homes. The food that they mainly grow up on is the kind of diet they will follow in the future.

Also, if the school tries to make the lunches more nutritious, I don’t think that the kids will eat it. Personally, I’d rather have students eat a fairly good lunch than not eating at all.

--TAWNIA TAVERA

Palm Desert

* Notes on a Theme

After reading Jonathan Gold’s review (“Theme’s Like Old Times, Nov. 4) of the venerable Theme Room restaurant at LAX, I asked myself, “What’s with this guy?”

The Theme is, after all, a restaurant serving one of the busiest airports in the world, and its menu is structured accordingly.

Gold recalls the Theme’s experimentation with gourmet cuisine during the ’84 Olympics. In those days, my friends and I were amused at the clumsy European affectations of the waiters, and we finally stopped going there entirely until they dropped this pretension.

Finally, if Gold didn’t sample the best-in-L.A. Cobb salad, then I’m sure he did this review over the phone.

--GEORGE BARRATT

A customer since 1975

Rancho Palos Verdes

* Jonathan Gold must have somehow detoured to the airport’s employee cafeteria because his LAX Theme Room restaurant review does not reflect the delicious cuisine found there.

Your evening begins at the convenient valet parking, steps from the elevator that takes you away from the hustle of L. A. and its visitors. As the sun drops and leaves its romantic red glow that seems to engulf your senses, the waiter begins to describe tonight’s chef’s special, which is nothing you would expect in a chain hotel restaurant.

Recently, I enjoyed the so-called Las Vegas buffet-style prime rib. I found it to be superb. Very lean and tender, it was perfectly cooked. Coffee and a piece of light and moist chocolate cake capped another visit.

--GARRETT SMITH

Westchester

* In reference to your article on the Theme building at LAX--I believe if you search past files you will discover that the Theme restaurant did revolve when it was first open. It moved very slowly. My husband and I had dinner there.

--CAROL HOAGLAND

Palos Verdes

The Times Library reports that the Theme Restaurant has never revolved, though many people believe it used to.

* A Word for Wine

I am writing to say how much I enjoy the restaurant and wine reviews in the Los Angeles Times. I always look for Counter Intelligence on Thursdays, but most particularly I enjoy the wine writing of Dan Berger both on Thursdays and Sundays. The wine articles give me a lot of information, beyond the standard lists of wines to buy, information that makes a more-knowledgeable wine consumer. It would be great if you could find even more space for wine-related articles. I would read them all.

--JOYCE P. McDOWELL Ph.D

Hermosa Beach