THE STATE OF KATE

Oh, yes, yes, YES! How right Kate Braverman is when she describes her affection for “her” mall (“What I Miss: The Beverly Center,” Dec. 8). For I, too, have “my” mall, one I know so intimately that I conduct “tours” of it for my non-shopping friends.

And she is right about sale days, about how one’s blood rushes upon receiving a sale flier, about the thrill of the hunt, the capture of a bargain and the display of a trophy to bargain-loving friends. Or, conversely, the “visits” to a desired item, hoping, hoping that it will still be there when one comes back to buy it on sale.

I hope Braverman finds a new mall to adopt. I thank her for speaking to my shopper’s soul.

Christina Waldeck

Torrance

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Hey, Kate Braverman moved. She ordered a van and loaded her box springs and coffee maker into it and took off. Now she waxes nostalgic about the Beverly Center, of all places. Seems she misses the joint.

As I remember, just before she packed up the last of her bric-a-brac and headed east, she taunted L.A.-locked readers with a farewell piece about her waiting apple orchard and the anticipated pleasure of picking the crimson orbs. Now she has the gall to tell us: “In Los Angeles, we understand that malls, at their core, are about love.” Oh, please!

And while recalling fond mall memories, she alludes twice to Frank Sinatra singing “Strangers in the Night” as she loads up on silver frames at 70% off. Well, whatever works for her, now that the apples are picked and the snow has been falling, by her own account, for seven consecutive months. No wonder the mall looks good to her.

Ann Rudy

Manhattan Beach

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Braverman calls our climate “quasi-tropical.” Not so. The coast of Southern California is officially “dry-summer subtropical,” the common name in layman’s terms being Mediterranean. It is considered the finest and most varied (horticulturally speaking) climate in the world.

Don Lemke

Redondo Beach