Jeanne Howard asked the question if any of the menu items she found at the Big Sur Lodge could be found in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota ["Jewel Among the Redwoods," Nov 14-20]. Well, I would like to ask if she or anyone at the paper has ever eaten at any of the four restaurants in Custer State Park? Personally, I lived and worked in Custer State Park for three seasons and the question offended me.

My time was spent at the State Game Lodge and Resort, partly as a server for the Pheasant Dining Room. A comment that I heard often was that no one expected the food to be so good. We don''t offer the Fijian Ono Filet or Loco Chicken, but we do have a very good Shrimp Pomodoro Pasta and Elk Loin served with mushroom risotto rice and wilted arugula.

I will also mention that we had an excellent kitchen staff that, even though they were working in South Dakota, they were from all over the United States and some from different countries.

Thank you so much for taking time to hear me. I hope that maybe one day someone from the Weekly will have time to visit the Black Hills; it is a place that is very beautiful and peaceful, almost untouched it seems. Custer State Park is a wonderful park and offers the chance to see free roaming buffalo and many outdoor activities.

STS/Pacific Grove

Let the Homeless Shiver; Teach the Renters to Tidy Up

Squid: Knowing thoust speakest with tongue firmly planted in cheek, usually I takest what thou sayest with a grain of salt-which is very good on Squid. Ah, but last week thoust went to far!

You spoke of the company that baby-sits second homes and suggested putting the homeless in there to keep them occupied.

Unfortunately, when you give people something for nothing, they have a tendency to not appreciate it. If they haven''t worked for it, if they don''t own it personally they tend not to take care of it.

Would any landlord on the Peninsula raise your hand if you have ever had a tenet leave your home in better condition at the end of their lease then when they moved first moved in?

Amazing lack of hands going up!

Just my two-cents worth.

Cindy Stanley/Monterey

Murph Sr. Was a Doc

Andrew Scutro''s excellent article about Esalen ["Estimated Prophets," Nov. 5] is in no way diminished by the minor error that Michael Murphy''s father "was a family doctor." Actually his father was an attorney whose office was on Gabilan Street in Salinas. He was one of my first friends in Salinas. In contrast to John Steinbeck, Mark Twain was the favorite author of Michael Murphy''s paternal grandmother who collected Twain''s writings.

Dick Hayman/Salinas

Fort Ord Burns Breed Fear

With elections and safety at the forefront, I feel compelled to speak to the reinstatement of the Fort Ord burns. Health and environmental facts from the burns are still disregarded. This is not dramatization or fantasy, this is very real.

For over 80 years military bases have deposited and buried confiscated foreign and excess weapons, including ammunition, rockets, explosives, chemicals, heavy metals, radioactive and hazardous waste, called ordinance. This burial led to groundwater contamination and the decision to close the base.

The "solution to cleaning up" this waste is to have "controlled burns." When lethal substances are burned, they are not cleared away but transformed into smaller particles of poison. Exploding ordinance, flying shrapnel and huge gas clouds are not "controlled."

Activists have stalled the burns for four years despite medical and scientific evidence. Those of us who live with the pain and disability exposure to these toxins create need representatives willing to take a stand with developers until viable cleaning methods can be established.

Alinda Worley/Carmel