When Sue Gabel's mother got sick two years ago and had a stroke, the doctor told the family that she would need to move from independent living to assisted living. Gabel and other family members scouted various facilities in the Quad Cities and selected one that told her they had a room for their mother.

When she arrived, though, the situation was different. "They put her in an empty room that had absolutely nothing in it but a bed and a table," Gabel said. They further told her that they still needed to evaluate her mother before placing her, and that they had a room in an Alzheimer unit that would cost an additional $1,000 to $1,200 a month.

"I didn't know what to do," Gabel said. "She is going to go absolutely nuts if she's in that [bare] room any longer."

Mike Schulz should take his own advice. For someone who rags on authors so much, he sure missed the point of his article "The Playwright Did It." (See River Cities' Reader Issue 599, September 20-26, 2006.) It's a play review, not a playwright review. While he spent seven-eighths of his time harping on the writing, he spent little time critiquing the production itself, save for a few passing lines. Of course, I'm glad no one in the cast got raked across the coals as much as the author was. Hopefully he keeps his eye on the ball next time.

Megan Ridl

Davenport

Like an opportunistic politician, President George W. Bush in June celebrated the one-year anniversary of the now-infamous Supreme Court eminent-domain case known as Kelo v. New London by issuing an executive order called "Protecting the Property Rights of the American People."

Protecting the property rights of whom? The fact that no one in the property-rights movement had any idea it was coming or, for that matter, requested it, should be cause for suspicion. After reading it, suspicion is confirmed.

Okay, by a show of hands, how many of you out there have ever given $1,500 to the college fund of a friend's seven-year-old and then didn't tell your spouse about it?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

In case you haven't heard yet, I'll give you a brief wrap-up of the latest scandal that has befallen Governor Rod Blagojevich.

You may remember that the governor amended his statement of economic interests after he was interviewed by the FBI. One of those amendments included a previously undisclosed gift from Michael Ascaridis, his campaign treasurer during his congressional bids and his first run for statewide office.