El Toro, Cont’d
In the Jan. 31 Comment, Michael Lyster writes, “Why not put two and two together. If L.A. wants El Toro, let it bid for it. The city could have the whole thing for $4 billion, or the airfield for maybe half of that.”
A completed airport at El Toro for $4 billion? Don’t bet the farm on it.
The airport itself will cost more than that, and that doesn’t include the planning, environmental impact report, legal and aviation lease costs. Nor does it get the roadways or the fuel delivery system built. I’ll bet the cash costs (without bond repayment costs) would approach $10 billion.
If L.A. is serious, the fastest, and by far least expensive approach, is to buy John Wayne Airport and begin expanding there.
Mike Smith
Mission Viejo
The hiring of Bruce Nestande by the Irvine City Council (5-0 vote) is abhorrent.
How the great city of Irvine could hire this guy is beyond me. This man is a chief lieutenant of George Argyros, the chief financier of the pro-El Toro airport forces (and still connected to him as evidenced by his e-mail and postal address) and as such does the bidding of those that would put a 24/7 international airport at El Toro.
Nestande and his cohorts have fought for years using every possible underhanded tool to get this done, even going so far as to endorse Los Angeles’ attempt to take over El Toro and run it as an international airport.
He should not be trusted or placed in a position to spy on or sabotage the Great Park plan.
A close analogy is paying the fox to watch the chicken coop.
Tony Dallendorfer
Laguna Niguel
Deep Thought on Hearty Brews
The country has become heart-obsessed.
Many of our best pain and arthritic medications have been given the boot because they are not heart-friendly,A for Aleve, B for Bextra, C for Celebrex, all following V for Vioxx.
Competition by pharmaceutical companies soon should alleviate that problem.
But already there is good news, especially for those who like to sit in front of the TV set with a cold brewski: Make it a dark one.
Beer, according to those who have studied these things, actually predates bread in the evolution of the human diet, perhaps as an accident of overcooked grain during the Neolithic Era.
Lucky for us.
Multitudinous studies have suggested that moderate alcohol intake may actually contribute to health.
Usually, these studies caution that more research is needed, a scientific term that properly translates to: “Please just renew our funding.”
Many of these studies have emphasized the benefits of red wine. But now comes two studies suggesting that beer, dark beer in particular, may also confer heart and other health benefits.
A recent study by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University suggests that beer, dark or light, protects bone mineral density by facilitating the deposit of calcium and other minerals into bone tissue.
Other studies emphasize the health benefits of dark beer only. According to folks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one brew a day for women and two for men provide flavonoids, antioxidants that help prevent clogged arteries and reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing the oxidation of cholesterol and the subsequent hardening of the arteries.
So have a beer, the darker the better.
But don’t have another one for your baby or another for the road.
Remember that consumption of alcohol beyond the moderate may negate any benefits by causing such afflictions as obesity, cirrhosis or bumps and bruises,from falling down!
Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D.
Newport Beach
