Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Austin Chronicle,
    Please help educate college women on how to best protect their uteruses in the voting booth.
    As a woman living in Texas, I feel confident commenting on what a scary time it is for the uteruses of women in Texas and across the United States. Gov. Perry is aiming to cut Texas’ Medicaid Women’s Health Program, which would prevent 130,000 low-income Texan women from accessing birth control and life-saving health screenings. Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney recently said, “Planned Parenthood, we're getting rid of that," effectively promising to eliminate a service used by people of every race, class, and gender in the United States.
    With politicians (mostly male, middle-aged, and white) at both the state and national level taking actions that affect the health and well-being of women, the time is ripe to help women learn which politicians are on their side so they may make informed decisions in November.
    College students are historically underrepresented at the voting booth. The Austin Chronicle, a newspaper read by many college students, is an ideal platform for circulating an unbiased, fact-focused voters' guide targeted at educating college-age women on which politicians (state and federal) are ready to protect their uteruses. As a graduate student myself, I would be happy to have access to such information in one convenient place.

Dear Austin Chronicle,
    As an avid gardener, I understand the struggles of keeping my crop safe from wildlife. However, the satirical "advice" given in “Luv Doc Recommends” in the March 8 issue was over the top and inflammatory. Far too much animal abuse occurs in our society for it to be a laughing matter. (Remember, studies have proven that people who abuse women and children frequently got their start abusing animals.)
    As a veterinary technician, I'm a big believer that all cats should be kept indoors. Indoor cats live longer as they are safe from cars, coyotes, dogs, cat fights, and fatal communicable diseases. As a bonus, their human companions are not the scorn of the neighborhood.

Dear Editor,
    Why are emails sent to Tom Suehs' state of Texas email address returned as undeliverable? And when you call his office, all they will give you is the email for his secretary, Laura Ozuna. Is it possible he can't be bothered to read any more emails about Planned Parenthood, so he's just ignoring the people of Texas? How can an appointee just shut down an email address that is printed in our state's official directory? Maybe worth checking out.

Dear Editor,
    The “Luv Doc Recommends” column [March 2] is the most tasteless and juvenile written production from an alleged adult that I have read in a long time. Rather than making a serious attempt to answer the question posed – a humorous answer would be fine, and there are in fact many legitimate ways to discourage cats from damaging gardens – the writer gets lost in a lame attempt at satire and sarcasm. Quite apart from the city of Austin, killing or harming an animal except for wild game in season is a state-jail felony in Texas. You should be ashamed to print such tripe.

Dear Editor,
    I learned long ago to skip right past the Chronicle News section – never really reporting, just affirmation for the converted. I always picked it up for Virginia Wood's reporting on restaurants and her reliability. But after reading the South by Southwest barbecue story [“Ready, Set, Fire!,” Food, March 9], I am questioning even that. First, John Mueller makes his own sausage and doesn't buy it from anyone. The pork chops Virginia so loves were removed from the menu months ago. And anyone that can recommend Stubb's for the food is close to clueless. So sad.

Dear Editor,
    I want staples. Unless I'm sitting at a desk (which means I should be working or studying) or unless I am at a table (which is where I eat), it's too dang unwieldy to shuffle all those loose pages.
    I like to read the Chronicle sitting on my couch. I'm constantly catching pages sliding to the floor, restacking the pages every few minutes, or trying to balance the paper on my lap (needing both hands). When I'm done and I fling it across the room, pages fly in all directions.
    The Chronicles in their racks or stacks usually end up disheveled within a day or so of being placed there. Not so much when each paper is stapled.
    Your experiment with stapled papers was a godsend. (I don't get out much.) The world would be a better place if you would put staples in your paper. Two is plenty.

Dear Chronicle,
    Please add Jim Vest [“Postmarks,” March 9] to the list of those deserving apologies for my earlier foolish support of staples in the Chronicle. I now see that Mr. Vest’s attempts to use stapled pages to line his bird cage must have been a living hell for him and for his psittacine friends. I’d have written sooner, but Mr. Vest’s letter appeared in an unstapled issue. The letter began on page 8 and continued on page 10, but, as I was reading, pages fell out, and the page immediately following page 8 was now page 145. After several minutes of vainly scanning pages 145 and 146 for the continuation of his letter, I realized the problem. Don’t worry. It was easily fixed by regathering and re-collating pages 9 through 144 and then reinserting them in the proper order. Again, sorry for the delay. My bad.

Dear Editor,
    As an Austinite, I was saddened to hear of Leslie's passing. He was very much a fixture of this town, and was the best at "keeping Austin weird." Despite my general dislike for that saying (nothing against being weird, by all means!), he did it. He was weird and will be missed. Thanks, Leslie, for taking it to a new level for everyone too afraid to do so on their own.
    I am also a longtime Chronicle reader. I have spent many hours looking for music to see, reading articles and horoscopes, and “News of the Weird” … hello! But come on, guys! No article about Leslie on your website's homepage? Not a single picture? Not a single word? That's just lame. To me, this paper embodies Austin. It's a window into our world. If any paper should honor Leslie, it should be the Chronicle. I'm very disappointed.
    I know it's South by Southwest next week (oh, god …) but don't forget that your paper is for the people who actually live here. Give respect to the man! It's your duty!
    All I have to say is that a picture of Leslie Cochran better be on next Thursday's cover. You know that's true!

Dear Editor,
    Bring back the staples. I'd say that 99.9% of the people who pick up a paper version of the Chronicle do so to read it. We don't give a hoot or bat dropping about secondary uses such as lining a bird cage. The Chronicle is a newspaper to be read! Let's have a newspaper that is easy-to-read and that doesn't create such a waste of paper as they come apart in the stands, as you pick them up, as you carry them, as you read them or recycle them. Previously, I usually had to wade through several crumbled Chronicles on a stand to pick one that I was certain had all of the pages. With staples, I was pickin' from the top. And once I am finished, I can return it to the stand for re-reading without the fear of missing papers or a mess. Maybe the City Council, with an eye toward keeping litter from blowing everywhere, should adopt an ordinance requiring staples. Hmmm?

Dear Editor,
    It sounds like the Luv Doc needs to change his name to the Locked 'n’ Loaded Doc, judging by his overwrought response to a gardener who was simply looking for some tips on discouraging a cat from using her garden as a litter box, not going all Wile E. Coyote on the unsuspecting kitty [“Luv Doc Recommends,” March 2].
    Here are some tips that might actually help the homeowner: Use gravel, stones, or large pieces of pine bark as mulch (cats prefer a soft surface for digging); surround seedlings with pine cones or plastic fork “fences”; buy a motion-activated sprinkler (cats don’t like to get doused); or spray the area weekly with a cat repellent like Liquid Fence. If your yard is fenced, you can cut PVC pipes lengthwise and “clip” them over the top of the fence to prevent cats from gaining a foothold and getting in the yard.
    It is because of people in desperate need of anger-management counseling, like the Luv Doc, apparently, that PETA encourages everyone to keep their cats safely indoors. The Luv Doc’s advice may have been tongue-in-cheek, but it is not unusual for angry neighbors to resort to cruel measures to deter free-roaming felines.

   [The Luv Doc replies: Damn it, woman, “Luv Doc Recommends” isn't about common-sense solutions to real-world problems. It's about feelings. It's about thinking with the heart instead of the head. As a member of a foundation that uses sensationalism and controversy to draw attention to real issues, I would think you'd get that. Cat crap is a real problem. So are feral and free-range cats, who, it is estimated, kill up to a billion birds a year. A billion tiny souls. Countless tens of billions of bird orphans and aggrieved love ones. A veritable avian holocaust. I personally don't know how you sleep at night, Alisa, with that kind of carnage on your conscience. What? Are we going to spray the entire outdoors with Liquid Fence? Somebody has to speak for the birds. Who will speak for the birds?]

Dear Editor,
    I have tried repeatedly to let the City Council know about a cheaper alternative to Austin Pets Alive! that would help the city maintain its "no-kill" status [“Animal Advisory Commission Endorses APA! Takeover of Town Lake Animal Center,” News, March 9]. Apparently they are only interested in handing money over to APA!.
    I believe that purchasing extra portable kennels for the Austin Animal Center would help alleviate overcrowding and would be the best use of taxpayer money. Please see www.kennels2you.com.
    There are many problems with the whole APA! deal, including:
    The city is already paying APA! $12,000 a month to sit on city property paid for by Austin taxpayers.
    Why would APA! want to occupy a decrepit facility that is a health and physical liability for both the animals and staff?
    Why were none of the other dozens and dozens of committed and ethical rescues operating within the rules never granted the same special privileges as APA!?
    APA! is only a small part of keeping Austin a no-kill city, yet they seem to think they are the only reason it is and that they deserve taxpayer money to continue their operation. Let's spend the money on Austin Animal Center.