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I was quite moved by Joel Inwood's article on Hunter Thompson. I also appreciated the idea that you on The Panama News would feel a kinship with those who worked on a San Juan newspaper.

I believe Hunter was not a reporter on the San Juan Star though he certainly worked for other journalistic ventures in Puerto Rico.

Fortunately we are left with wonderful accounts of that 1959-61 period in Hunter Thompson's novel Rum Diaries and the dozens of letters between him and the San Juan Star editor who would not hire him but who subsequently became a close friend and fellow celebrity: William J. Kennedy.

Obviously lacking a crystal ball, in the fall of 1959 Kennedy, then the young red-haired managing editor on this new Gardner Cowles publication, hired me as the paper's first copy boy and refused Thompson's request to be hired as sports editor or reporter. The man he did hire as sports editor, Ted Klemens, 29, of Staten Island, went into an apartment with me for $90 a month.

I loved Puerto Rico and soon learned fluent Spanish but Ted was a fish out of water and was gone by March of 1960. I had by then quit the Star to work for Muñoz Marín's Popular Democratic party in the 1960 election. One day another young reporter, Bob Bone, introduced us to his good friend Hunter Thompson, who was looking for work.

I arranged a lunch for the three of us with Steve Padilla who was an aide to Governor Munoz and was reputed to be good at things like getting jobs for people. Bob Bone couldn't come but I have memories of Hunter, Padilla and I having a very civil conversation at lunch in a San Juan restaurant. I was then 21 going on 22 --- Hunter Thompson had one year on me --- enjoying a 21-year-old's dream life of unrestricted consumption of Bacardi and Corona and Marlboros and fantastic contacts with the stunning young women of San Juan.

I don't regret a minute of it but, lacking the talent of Kennedy or Thompson, I had to return to a life of college and work back in chilly Massachusetts. I let go of alcohol when I was 34 and cigarettes when I was 52. After plenty of roller coaster living I've been increasingly happy each year since I was fifty. I had to stop working running domestic violence and addictions groups for the Spanish speaking inmates at the Essex County House of Corrections in Danvers, Massachusetts (near where the witches were burned in the 1690s) and, turning 65 in May 2003, retired and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Here I live on $810 a month Social Security, hear Spanish and Navajo spoken all the time, work in politics and arts, love the sun, and accept I must carry oxygen tanks when I go out and use the home supply in my apartment. As an ex-three pack a day Lark smoker I did get emphysema. Most people my age have some physical problems, as did Hunter Thompson (hip replacement, something else painful and restrictive) and I'll settle for mine.

I salute all of you on the Panama News and to those who are young I can assure you when you are my age you will never regret you did that rather than work in an NYC brokerage house.

I don't understand why you publish this story apologizing for the suicide of this Hunter S. Thompson. Even if he was a great journalist, and even if the suicide is the only serious philosophical act (according to Albert Camus), we should promote a culture of life and not a culture of death and glorifying this guy for choosing to kill himself is just plainly immoral.

I have been living in Panama for 1 1/2 years, in the David area (not Boquete), and have traveled extensively on business throughout the country. During the time I have been here I, like other people, go to some of the larger chains stores (Romero, Super 99, Rey, etc.) for groceries.

I have found that wherever a scanner is used for the pricing, the consumer is very quietly being ripped off. If you do not pay attention, the scanned price on some items is not the same as the marked price. In most instances the price difference can be 10¢ to 60¢ higher than the price marked, or even as little as three or four cents. Pennies do make dollars, and very quickly over the course of thousands of items available.

While I realize this is not on every item, last week I had three miss-marked items in my basket that the computer price was higher, unusual but it happened. The store refused to honor the marked price and would only accept the computer scanned price. Needless to say, I gave them the items back and had them deducted from the bill.

This is the same thing that happened in the states with Kroger, Food Lion and other stores until they were caught.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but a few cents adds up to a lot of dollars over the course of a year.

Why mark a price on an item if you will not honor the price? That is not customer service, but that is a totally different story for another time. As an example from the same day, the people ahead of us in line had some tortilla chips from Snyder's of Hanover in the states. The price was clearly on the package printed with the bag as a special price of $1.99, not a sticker it was part of the bag printing. The price scanned at $2.59 and the sticker on the bag said $2.59 that the store had put on. The people asked about it and were told that that price was only good in the Estados Unidos. I asked how could they sell something for that price when they brought the items in with a special price and then claim it was wrong and only good in the USA? The manager did not care, that's the price take it or leave it as the computer is right always regardless of what the package says. They didn't buy the story or the item.

The problem of wrong pricing has happened to me in Panama City, Chitre, David so I am not the only one and it is not isolated..

In my opinion it is fraud. I realize the government must think otherwise if it is allowed to happen with no oversight. I moved here to open my business without Uncle Sam over my shoulder with useless regulations. But this is not right to allow this to happen to Panamanians that work very hard for little money in most cases. The affluent don't care or don't pay attention as they have more spendable income.

There has to be checks and balances to protect some of the rights people here have. Regardless of the store, weather it is groceries or clothing, the public is being cheated wherever they scan items.

I would ask that you and the other papers that are your colleagues look into this to verify what I say. Pick stores at random and look at some of the items or purchase some (if funds are available) and see for yourself. Has it ever happened to you? What did you think at the time and what did you do?

Any way you look at it, it is a lot of money going into someone's pockets and it is not the consumer.

Editor's note: Yes, it has happened to me in several of Panama City's large grocery stores --- but rarely at the mini-supers, where prices tend to be a bit higher to begin with and scanners are usually not used --- and I have noticed. Whether or not I have argued, or had the item deducted from my purchase, has largely been a function of my mood at the time. Having some idea of the work it takes to keep the prices properly marked in a large supermarket, and of the petty criminal practice of ticket switching, and of various skimming tactics that employees sometimes use, I would not be quick to assign personal blame, let alone motives. However, I do recognize that it's a company's responsibility to avoid these problems. The Free Trade and Consumer Affairs Commission (CLICAC) is supposed to monitor such abuses, which, as the reader points out, do add up. The problem is not that CLICAC lacks reasonable labeling laws to enforce, but that it rarely enforces them. This lax enforcement applies not only to price tags, but also to the oft-violated health protection law that whatever other languages appear on the package, all food ingredient labels must be in Spanish.

My name is Karmen Quartaro. Danny Alegria and Kathleen Rowe are my birth parents. I was born January 8, 1970 in Dallas, Texas and placed for adoption three days later. Kathleen passed away two years ago, before I was able to locate her. But from what Mary Lu tells me, Kathleen never stopped loving Danny. Mary Lu has been very helpful with information regarding Danny and Kathleen during the time when they were together in the late 1960's. However, she is unsure of Danny's whereabouts today. She thinks he may be a police officer, but is unsure. That is why she gave me your name, with the hope that you would be able to lead me to him.

I began my search over ten years ago. I had very little to go on, just Kathleen's name. I only located Mary Lu, and my two younger brothers, and one younger sister last May. They have been very kind and loving toward me, as they have embraced me into their lives.

I pray you are able to help me with any sort of information regarding Daniel. I want to let him know that the little girl he was so upset about giving up for adoption is doing well and would love to meet him. I live in the United States; Wisconsin to be exact with my husband of 15 years and three sons, my oldest coincidentally is named Daniel.

I was one of the many New Yorkers who visited Panama for the Carnival. While I was very impressed with a lot of things some things disturbed me however, I would not get into it. My reason for writing to you for help is because sometime ago there was a letter in your column from a US soldier seeking help in locating a former girlfriend.

While I was in Panama I met a young lady who is trying to locate her father who was a soldier in the US Army his name is Rufino Hawkins he served in the year 1945. Her name is Elizabeth Hawkins, she was born in Santo Tomas hospital in August of 1966 and her mother's name is Angela Nuñez.

The last place and time her father saw her mother was in LOMA La Pava. Elizabeth has never seen her father she does not know what he looks like, she will like to get in touch with him and for him to know his grandchildren. I know this is a long shot however, one never knows. I have Ms. Hawking's telephone number should you have any information. I did not know where to start other than contacting the military. Please help if you can.

I have returned back to Panama more times than I can count, besides marrying a lady who was born there. Anyway, every time I read your paper, it brings me home to Panama and the great times I had there, so I just wanted to say thank you for having it on the Internet. It's a joy to read in English!!! (Never could read Spanish, though I speak it, more or less. Thanks again.

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