Coffee shop not closing Jan. 1

Brian and Jeannie Whitlock

We are writing this letter in response to the article that was published in the Los Altos Town Crier on Oct. 12 regarding our restaurant. We want to clarify the following.

At this time, we are staying in our present location. We are NOT closing Los Altos Coffee Shop in downtown Los Altos on Jan. 1, 2006. Confusion may have occurred due to the opening of a new addition to our operation at the Rancho Shopping Center on Foothill Expressway in Los Altos.

We plan to open the doors to our new restaurant at the Rancho location sometime after Jan. 1, 2006. We are very excited about the new location with its expanded seating capacity as well as outdoor patio dining.

We thank you for your patronage throughout the years. We greatly appreciate your support and we are looking forward to serving you in downtown Los Altos, as well as in our new location in the Rancho Shopping Center.

Candidate overlooked with no analysis

Robert Burdick

I am writing to put your mind at ease about the alarming scraping and scratching sound you must have heard throughout town Wednesday afternoon. It was only a large number of Los Altos residents scratching their heads in confused disbelief after reading your paper’s city council candidate endorsements.

We can understand, if not quite forgive, your endorsement of Randall Hull. Cronyism is unfortunately a huge part of politics in America, and you must have felt rather obliged to endorse Mr. Hull after his many hours of work consulting for the Town Crier.

But the real head scratching was reserved for your endorsement of Kurt Colehower over the more experienced and capable Val Carpenter. Like our national leadership nominating Supreme Court justices with little or no record, you have told every reader in town to take your “fresh face” choice on faith. To make matters worse, the Town Crier declined to state any of the real reasons why they endorse Colehower for the city council.

Voters in Los Altos deserve an explanation for the Colehower endorsement. And the voters of Los Altos have a responsibility as in any election to do their homework and pick the right candidate.

Our election not a special election

Duane Roberts

On Nov. 8, we, in the Los Altos, Mountain View and Los Altos Hills area, are voting in a very important local election which will determine the direction of our schools and our towns for the next four years. This is not a special election but a regularly scheduled local election that happens to coincide with a state-wide special election that many voters are angry about and may boycott.

Please don’t be caught up in this special election rhetoric. It is our duty as citizens of our local area to vote, and vote in an informed manner, for our local candidates. We are asked to elect candidates for the Los Altos School District board, the Foothill-DeAnza College board and the Los Altos City Council. As an example of the importance of the election, this is the first time a board majority in the Los Altos School District will be elected with no incumbents running.

I am one of the incumbents retiring from the board after 14 years, and I am writing to emphasize the importance of this election to the school district.

I ask each of you to please vote, but only after carefully considering candidates’ experience with the schools, their plans for the future of our top performing district and their clear commitment to all students.

Please join with me in taking time to find out who is best

qualified.

A must-see movie

Harry and Sally Jennison

We have a wonderful treasure in our neighborhood. We just saw the movie “Machuca” at Spangenberg Theatre, Gunn High School. We left the theater speechless, very touched and resolving to review our history of Chile and Allende. Specially chosen films are shown most weekends. Social studies of every kind prevail: languages, cultures, human relations, history. Students might like a movie as a homework assignment! Names can be added to their e-mail list at SPANGENBERG@earthlink.net. (Even the Penguins are coming!)

Travel writer confirms facts

Both the Scottish Tourism Board and Jacqui Queally, author of the book “Rosslyn Chapel and Hinterland,” confirmed that the chapel was built between l446 and l480 and, although the Templars disbanded earlier than that officially, they went underground locally and hence many of the carvings reflect their symbols.

The Sinclairs gave them land to settle on locally centuries before. The chapel is unique partly due to connections with this underground group, which was no longer official. The first degree of Masonic rites is set clearly in stone in the chapel, and the Masons believed they stemmed from a more ancient tradition shared by the Templars.

Disappointed over support of Prop. 73

Barbara Emerich

I was truly disappointed and dismayed to see that you support Initiative 73, a Constitutional amendment, which I strongly oppose.

I grew up in a physician’s family and heard of the distress caused by law. An adult could travel to Nevada, but a teen could resort to the use of a coat hanger or at times to suicide. I hope we don’t force teenagers into a bind.

Do we want unwanted children, struggling teenaged mothers, newborns tossed aside? Did it ever occur to you that sometimes these girls become pregnant because of rape or abuse by family members?

I hope you will join me in opposing initiative 73.

SPANGENBERG@earthlink.net. (Even the Penguins are coming!)

Harry and Sally Jennison

Palo Alto