Remembering the great Pete Hamill

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Woodside: In 1975, I was 12 and read Pete Hamill’s liner notes for Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks.” My younger self didn’t fully comprehend what Hamill meant, but I knew it was genius. From then on, when my Dad brought home the Daily News after work, I would always read Hamill’s column (after the sports pages, of course).

The beginning of those famous liner notes: “In the end, the plague touched us all. It was not confined to the Oran of Camus. No. It turned up again in America, breeding in a compost of greed and uselessness and murder, in those places where statesmen and generals stash the bodies of the forever young. The plague ran in the blood of men in sharkskin suits, who ran for president promising life and delivering death. The infected young men machine-gunned babies in Asian ditches; they marshaled metal death through the mighty clouds, up above God’s green earth, released it in silent streams, and moved on, while the hospitals exploded and green fields were churned to mud.” Tom Cutrofello

Briarwood: It is so sad to hear of Pete Hamill’s passing. He was a terrific writer and hard worker who led such a colorful life! The first of his books I read, “Forever” in 2003, had me hooked. I went on to read all of the others, my favorites being “Why Sinatra Matters,” “North River” and “Downtown.” He will be missed by many. Patricia Nuzzi

Voice of the city

Mooresville, N.C.: Brooklyn’s Pete Hamill was the author of some 20 books covering a wide range of topics, but for me, his best work was 1999’s “Why Sinatra Matters.” It was as if I was sitting in a booth next to them in a restaurant listening to Pete and Frank discuss important issues of the day. Hamill had the gift of making this reader read on, page after page. As a huge Sinatra fan, I am compelled to say this is among the most compact and concise pieces of literature ever written about the world-renowned entertainer. Thank you, Pete Hamill, and after a long distinguished career in journalism, may you rest in peace.

Herb Stark

Pour one out

Lindenhurst, L.I.: There was a time when the Daily News had writers like Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, Mike McAlary and countless others who wrote about the real New York. Sadly, today there is no one doing in-depth and investigative reporting about the city, only stories rewritten from the crime blotters because Daily News management rid the newsroom of most of its reporters. To quote Dan Barry, a New York Times

columnist: “If the pavement of New York City could talk, it would sound like Pete Hamill.” RIP Pete, and thanks for a great career. Paula M. Vidal

In his DNA

Blauvelt, N.Y.: Pete Hamill, the irreverent newspaperman of once upon a time, shared DNA with Damon Runyon, the Irish, Jimmy Breslin and every son and daughter of an immigrant whose blood, sweat, tears and drink built New York’s boroughs. Today he could not pass the PC test in Human Resources at any media outlet, but this writer of deep observation and uncanny insight carried the banner of real news in a million or so words. He worked in the spirit of a 1930’s scribe, but he wrote up the news like an angel pulling at heartstrings. Pete Hamill is with Jimmy now, and what stories they’re gonna tell.

A tearful orbit

Art Gunther

Brooklyn: As an avid Daily News reader and frequent submitter to the Voice of the People, I can’t believe how many grammatical errors I spot on a daily basis throughout the paper. Small mistakes aren’t that big a deal, but I just had to write in about Monday’s

caption related to the pic of the SpaceX astronauts safe return to Earth. The caption read “SpaceX Astros make a splash in return from obit.” The word is “orbit.”

Jimmy Orr

The national

Brooklyn: Democrats and Republicans need to force legislation of a national policy to fight COVID-19. It doesn’t matter if a state is red or blue; too many are now draped in black. If masks work, enforce them nationally! We need all politicians to take a stand for the preservation of human life!

Let there be light

Vito Labella

Brooklyn: A thunderous applause for the fabulous Con Edison crew who worked feverishly for more than four hours to get power and lights back on in Bensonhurst, as well as the local police and fire departments. A huge tree fell, along with a power-line pole, making the street impassible and dangerous, with live electrical lines wriggling on the pavement. Now just waiting for the Parks Department crew and their chain saws!

Anthony A. Vento

Going underground

Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Another storm, another extended power outage. Con Ed and the other utilities should have begun moving utility lines underground many years ago, instead of relying on the 19th-century technology of stringing lines on poles. That may have been okay in the time of telegraphs, but it is not okay today.

Glenn Simpson

Bury ’em

Hartsdale, N.Y.: The lesson we should learn from the recent tropical storm is that no matter how prepared any city, town or neighborhood, above-ground power lines are a major liability. For all the talk about infrastructure (which seems to concentrate on roads) the biggest need is to bury power lines statewide. Doing it would be a major investment, but it would pay off easily compared to the ravages of power losses. Why we did not do this decades ago is a mystery and a shame.

Norman Gaines

Airhead

Whitestone: No, I am not jealous of any person’s ability (or willingness) to purchase a

DAILY NEWS pair of sneakers worn by Michael Jordan for $560,000 dollars via an auction house! What is beyond my comprehension is that so many innocent people have gotten or died during this pandemic, while some individuals think nothing of spending so much money on a celebrity’s sneakers! Leonore Brooks

New slogan

Wellfleet, Mass.: In response to the staggering death toll of COVID-19 in this country which continues to jet over 150,000, in recent a televised interview President Trump stated: “It is what it is.” How comforting to all those who have lost family members, loved ones and friends to the virus. On Election Night, when Joe Biden is (hopefully) elected president, right back at you Mr. President: It is what it is. Mike Rice

Learn something

Mineola, L.I.: When the powers-that-be make the political decision to reopen schools despite the fact that adhering to safety guidelines is practically impossible, teachers will die. That’s an inevitable fact. When it happens, please don’t call us heroes. Call us victims.

Gary Malone