Dear editor:

If you look in the Guinness Book of World Records, you will see that Mr C.J. Appelbaum of Pittsburg, PA, was the last person to pay the MSRP, for a car, in June, 1976. Mr Appelbaum was so ridiculed in his community that he took a massive overdose of sleeping pills and now also holds the record for the longest nap. Does anyone out there really believe in MSRPs? Even the Tooth Fairy doesn’t. So why do they exist?

In Friday’s paper, I see the Miller-Truver Building in Clarendon was torn down as a blighted property. The parking lot and the roof look pretty good. Why did it bite the dust before the Warren Mall?

Some oil comes from 10,000 miles away by sea and other oil is simply tank car-ed a couple of thousand miles, yet gasoline is at the same price, to the tenth of a cent, at every gas station in town. Does that sound capitalism (Prices held down as everyone competes for your business) or collusion (Let’s all just go with the higher price)?

And why $2.69 9/10 anyway? If we ask for five gallons of gas, as we have every right to, does the dealer have to give us five mils in change? And who would recognize one anyway? Whose picture is on a mil?

Warren’s downtown businesses are struggling to survive, never mind to grow. Warren’s government on the other hand seems intent on driving them under, with a parking meter every square foot. Suppose the city helped business and customers, and hindered the competition a bit too, by digging up all those meters and planting them on the WalMart parking lot? (Obviously, because it has lots of clout, WalMart wouldn’t stand for it. So are the meters all over downtown just because Warren’s small businesses have no clout?)

Finally. Most importantly. Is it nearly Spring yet?

Pete Westover

Russell