One of the great things about being an internet celebrity is getting the random viewer mail. Sometimes it’s priceless. Take this one for example:

I was looking at today’s Ann Arbor News, and noticed in the letters to the editor that the first letter was a well-written anti-income-tax missive, and the second was a plea to allow the keeping of chickens in Ypsi. Seeing these two juxtaposed made me realize that in addition to trying to turn out the NO vote, we can also try to scare the YES voters by promising to illegally keep chickens in all our backyards if the income tax passes. We’ve got to work on as many fronts as possible…

Without a doubt, my readers are the greatest in the entire world.

I offer the letters to the editor in question for your viewing pleasure:

Ypsilanti voters should defeat income tax

Last year, I had to make a very difficult decision. After investing over $50,000 into restoring my historical home, spending nine years building a career at an Ypsilanti business, and dedicating all of my free time to local causes, I had to make the very difficult choice between staying in Ypsilanti or moving away when an opportunity presented itself.

Unfortunately, all of my love for Ypsilanti was not enough to outweigh the fact that I couldn’t afford to live in the city any longer. The high cost of living in and maintaining an historical home was enough. The addition of extremely high taxes had our finances balancing on the edge. Then when we learned that Mayor Paul Schreiber and City Council wanted to add income taxes on top, we tipped over the edge.

Many people like me are already struggling to afford living in Ypsilanti. These people see that crime is on the rise, services are being reduced and City Council is making poor decisions on where to spend the city’s limited resources. City officials have already said that an income tax won’t solve any of the current problems. It is obvious to me and many others that an income tax WILL scare more residents away and hurt businesses. For the sake of Ypsilanti’s future, I hope everyone will vote “no” on the income tax.

Rachel Cuschieri-Murray, Ferndale

Backyard chickens belong in ‘cool cities’

What a delightful essay about the Ypsilanti family’s chicken drama (Other Voices, Sept. 5).

This summer my husband and I visited a beautiful garden in Portland, Ore. The garden’s owner and designer fenced off a section of her garden for a flock of chickens. She thoroughly enjoys their soft clucking sounds and sharing the eggs with friends and neighbors.

How can she do this in a big city where yards are small and homes close together? The city of Portland has an ordinance which allows people to keep chickens in their yards.

Since droves of people are leaving Michigan for “cool cities” such as Portland, perhaps we can lure some of them back with offers of home-grown chickens and fresh eggs.

Sara L. Gibb, Ann Arbor