We Interrupt UCLA Picnic to Bring You This . . .

Message to Michael Pierson, picnicker [Viewpoint, Jan. 9):

Well adjusted? I think I’ve seen high school essays with fewer words than your blathering diatribe against the Wisconsin faithful. So to be interested in the outcome of a mere 12 games a year renders them inferior to the UCLA faithless? And where might you have been on Jan. 4 if the Bruins had beaten Miami? Oh yeah, at the park.

Message to the editor: I guess your encouragement to “be as brief as possible” is suspended if the letters are ghost-written by Chris Dufresne.

PATRICK MOORE

Whittier

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There certainly are differences between UCLA fans and Wisconsin fans, not to mention the demographics the two states represent.

As a former Wisconsin resident--and one of the “lunatics” dressed in red--I’ll suggest a few that haven’t been mentioned: Until the ‘90s, Wisconsin had been to the Rose Bowl only three times. When you sit through long, cold losing seasons, you may indeed have an appreciative and ardent fervor when the Badgers are in a big bowl game. And here’s a big difference: Even if the Badgers had lost--God knows, that’s happened before!--their fans would not have vanished but stayed to celebrate their accomplishment and party with their exceptional band. Bill Plaschke might have erred on the side of admiration, but it plays a lot better than a loser’s antagonism.

PETER K. MUSCHINSKE

Orange