Is Pronounceability the Name of the Game?

Re “It Helps If Voters Can Pronounce Your Name,” column, March 11: I can see how, using the governor as a model, one might make the connection between name pronounceability and bad governance, but I think Steve Lopez is smarter than that.

I’m white. I can say Villaraigosa. I can also say race-baiting hack. Villaraigosa has real plans to make L.A. more livable. He wants to clean up the harbor, convert the buses to clean-burning fuels, create parks and open areas.

If L.A. has room for a brown journalist who’s yellow, surely it can have a brown leader who’s green. If you still can’t pronounce his name, try this: “Mr. Mayor.”

Spencer Dobson

Valley Glen

*

I was a participant in a telephone poll about two weeks before the election. The young pollster had such difficulty with “Alarcon” and “Villaraigosa” that I finally said, “Let’s just say ‘Mr. A’ and ‘Mr. V,’ ” to her great relief.

Anne Beaty

Los Angeles