The 5.12.13 Issue - NYTimes.com Brilliantly done - the article uses the plight of the monk seal as a jumping-off point for pondering the relationship of our overpopulated and powerful species with the others on the planet. Jon Mooallem's sensitivity to the human perspective, especially of native Hawaiians, is appropriately functional: if conservation policy makers deal with locals in a ham-handed fashion, they will fail to achieve their goals. TERRY STORCH, Albuquerque, posted on nytimes.com Call me a dyed-in-the-wool Mooallemite, but the guy does a better job than almost anyone else at taking obscure and often amusing phenomena and spinning tales that ponder their deep meanings. . . . As his article unfolds, it becomes a thoughtful parable of Americans" complicated relations with conservationists and the wildlife they protect: it seems self-evident to many people that more monk seals, like more bald eagles or sandhill cranes, are a good thing, but in the words of one Hawaiian fisherman, who sums up a common local perspective, they're "troublemakers" - worthy, perhaps, of vigilante justice. DANIEL FROMSON, in the Weekend Reading column on newyorker.com Animals compete for food, territory, partners and dominance. Sometimes it gets messy and lethal. Frankly, I don't see a problem with Hawaiian fishermen dealing with a seal that threatens their livelihood even if someone else thinks that animal is adorable. FLAMEOFWRATH, Connecticut, posted on nytimes.com Food trucks may be cool and romantic, but they come with a lot of unsavory baggage. They sit running their engines, emanating odors and exhaust fumes. They add to the congestion on our already-crowded streets. The lack of running water and toilets certainly creates a potential sanitation issue. I would posit they also contribute additional street garbage in the form of discarded or blown-away napkins and wrappers. It's probably better from a policy perspective to encourage foodie entrepreneurs to open a brick-and-mortar shop and offer delivery than to use a truck. MARC SCHECHTER, New York, posted on nytimes.com Adam Davidson is spot on. Our daughter goes to Portland State, and when we visit her, it's refreshing to see how limited regulations mixed with a little common sense allows food trucks to flourish, providing healthy and interesting cuisine as well as much-needed jobs. The competition is fierce among the food trucks, which only heightens the quality and affordability of the food. BERT GILLESPIE, Alpharetta, Ga., posted on nytimes.com I think Shonda Rhimes's work is great - outrageous, melodramatic, but great. This stuff is the very heart of popular entertainment, no matter how hard we try to pretend otherwise, and I love that the article pointed out that "Scandal" doesn't do what other, supposedly more "highbrow" series do. It's just more honest about the earthiness of its pleasures. MILLICENT VINCENT, La Grange, Ill., posted on nytimes.com Rhimes's classless, raceless and nonpartisan world in "Scandal" is a marvel. In it, the character of Olivia Pope, a black woman, controls the president, who is white (they are madly in love). But as much as I like the show, I wonder if the world of Shonda Rhimes isn't doing more to hurt American society than it does to help. Rhimes's Pope is single, childless and having an affair with a white man who isn't her husband. Are black women so outside of American society that marriage and family are off-limits to them? In Rhimes's universe, can they be mistresses but not wives? R. R., Staten Island, posted on nytimes.com One of the hallmarks of Rhimes's work is that she uses characters of various races while at the same time making race decidedly not the subject matter of her shows. When Olivia on "Scandal" says to the president, "I'm feeling a little, I don't know, Sally Hemings-Thomas Jefferson about all this," it was only to say that she was not at his beck and call. It was the comment of a hurt lover and not of a woman with a racial ax to grind. PAULA PURYEAR MARTIN, Los Angeles, posted on nytimes.com Can I say "heartwarming" on Twitter w/o getting jeered off? Screw it if I can't: this warmed my heart. @katyushina