I will not comment upon architect David Handlin’s patronizing tone and cheap cliches as those have both been eloquently debunked in other letters. Instead, I simply wish to point out that Mr. Handlin’s direct financial interest in allowing larger, more expensive building renders his ad hominen opinions about the merits of such houses entirely suspect.

In your August 10 issue, you ran a piece by David Handlin (Building a Better Big House Debate), the architect of the 12,000-plus-square-foot construction on Quitsa Pond in Chilmark which has created a storm and led to the formation of a Chilmark town committee to tighten review of big houses. Unfortunately, Mr. Handlin’s piece is a compilation of vapid and pointless clichés and red herrings that adds nothing to the debate and sidetracks the issue.

Now Mitt Romney has picked as his running mate the guy who has been gunning for Medicare! With Romney’s support, Ryan would end Medicare as we know it. This plan was part of a national budget that Ryan authored that is so radical that the New York Times called it “the most extreme budget plan passed by a House of Congress in modern times.”

Peter Robb’s assertion, in his letter published August 3, that “the top 1 per cent already pay 70 per cent of federal taxes and the top 20 per cent pay 95 per cent of the taxes” is so far from the truth that it deserves four Pinnochios.

The line-up of characters: Dion Clarke, president of Harlem Fine Arts Show and chief dumbo who has no understanding of advanced events planning nor with taking precautions to safeguard valuable artwork; Kathy Burton, board selectman chairman of wherever, who didn’t think too clearly if things are legal or not (see July 13 Vineyard Gazette); various Harthaven residents with a mentality of, well, clams, who spoke against allowing a permit of a big tent for only four

I recently enjoyed the article in the August 10 Gazette, “Health Care Checkup: Access to Primary Care Improving.” I am glad to hear that the hospital staff, Vineyard Medical Services and Island Health Care are all taking or have a waiting list for new patients. Unfortunately, I was saddened and disappointed that