Another Look at the ‘Real’ OC Picture

Scott Duke Harris’ Orange County is F. Scott Fitzgerald on laughing gas (“Livin’ Extra-Large,” April 24). Two clicks to the U.S. Census Bureau’s website belie his naive view of OC. There’s no “affluenza”: The county’s residents are more likely to suffer from influenza. Most recently available census numbers, from 1999, put the county’s per capita income near $26,000. For median household income, the average jumps to a big $59,000. And more than 10% live below the poverty line.

The truth, the real picture, is something you don’t see on television dramas. Very few are getting rich along the “pseudo-Mediterranean splendor” of the county’s surfing shore. Most are treading water and, as the story accurately reports, much of the county’s affluence is built on credit.

Erik Skindrud

Huntington Beach

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Misdiagnosis. It’s not “affluenza.” It’s “afflurrhea.”

Bill Cahill

Long Beach

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Your April 24 issue takes double top honors. Harris’ article is the most spot-on description of our little corner of the planet to date. As a lifelong resident of OC, I find the reference to Todayland--as an extension of the theme park idea--as priceless as the term “affluenza.” The spend now, pay later concept is probably true for at least half of the residents here as well.

I then read “The Mapping of Memory” (by Jordan Fisher Smith) and savored every word. This chapter from the author’s new book about his experiences as a park ranger in the Sierra is a classic short story in itself. It reads with the uncommon texture and style of Norman Maclean’s “Young Men and Fire.”

John Lambert

Capistrano Beach