Comments (0) BEST REASON TO READ THE EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE - 2004

The Vent

Some mornings, reading the daily paper just feels like a chore. For a treat, we turn to The Vent. It's a simple concept: just a column down the side of the editorial page of the Tribune, devoted to the rants of readers who call a dedicated phone line and, well, vent. Random excerpts from the callers' diatribes -- usually having some connection to current events or something specific that's appeared in the paper, or, often, another Vent -- are printed in no particular order, making for an often creepy glimpse into the mind of the East Valley resident.

One day in August, The Vent included a slam against an anti-Prop 200 column by an ASU professor: "I'm sick and tired of these liberal(s) such as Roxanne Doty calling concerned taxpaying citizens racist and white supremacist. I'm glad I wasn't in her political science class in that liberal university wasteland that doesn't even have a dress code."

This random observation:

"I just served 16 weeks of grand-jury duty in Florence and would do it again. I will be 80 years old in September."

And finally, a comment on The Vent's favorite topic, which is, of course, The Vent:

"For all you readers who complain you don't like The Vent: Why don't you get a life and quit complaining and read something else. Because there are a whole lot of us who really like reading The Vent. It makes us very, very happy."

Us, too.