Jo Giese

President George Bush wants to plant 1 billion trees in America this year, 10 billion by the year 2000. Mayor Tom Bradley has pledged to plant 3 to 5 million in Los Angeles. Yet on Rose Avenue in Venice, my local community group had trouble planting 20 trees. Our project began in the fall of 1987. Venice was a battle zone.

President George Bush wants to plant 1 billion trees in America this year, 10 billion by the year 2000. Mayor Tom Bradley has pledged to plant 3 to 5 million in Los Angeles. Yet on Rose Avenue in Venice, my local community group had trouble planting 20 trees. Our project began in the fall of 1987. Venice was a battle zone.

I loved Jo Giese's, "Death Takes Away a Holiday" (Oct. 26). When I finished reading it, I wanted to pack up a box with a vacation and send it to the poor woman. What an ordeal! Having had considerable vacation disasters myself, I related very well to her situation. DI KAPLAN Westlake Village

Re "The Stay-Over Rule Doesn't Fly," Voices, June 1: Jo Giese didn't miss a beat on the "stupid Saturday night stay-over requirement," with problems of getting stuck away on Mother's Day or buying double tickets to get around those provisions. Kudos to Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, which continue to make good sense and money. Let them serve the national markets. Put the big airlines back in local zones where they might try listening to customers again. Theo Wells Riverside

I am a widow of three months, 53 years old, and just finished reading Jo Giese's essay "Love After Death" (Jan. 23). I too was blessed for 17 years with a man who taught me what unconditional love, friendship and integrity are in a marriage and partnership. Although I find it hard to conceive that this emptiness, longing and loneliness will ever subside, I found hope and comfort in Giese's experience. I look forward to living life again. He would want this for me. I want this for me. Dee Hulse Thousand Oaks

I never cease to be amazed at the naivete of the American traveler abroad. Jo Giese's idea of staying at a B&B in Europe is that she automatically is invited to become a member of the family who owns the B&B and to share in their intimate family life ("Bed & Breakdown," April 9). In reality, in Europe a B&B is a way for families to supplement their income by renting out rooms in their home for a fee. Breakfast is included since most restaurants in Europe do not open until lunchtime. So, the B&B idea is you get a bed to sleep in and breakfast so that you can continue your travel.

Jo Giese's article on French B&Bs ("Bed & Breakdown," April 9) rings true, but is also quite misleading. Having traveled the B&B route in France, my wife and I can appreciate the Gieses' chagrin over the squeaky bed, the preoccupied hostesses and the occasional smoky dining room. On the other hand, it seemed that Ms. Giese (and her spoiled husband, Douglas) condemned all French B&Bs because of two or three lodgings that didn't live up to their naively romantic expectations. French B&Bs (called chambres d'ho^te )

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter enjoys a lot of good will in Venice. She has lived there for several years and has a reputation for being a tough fighter when it comes to community causes. She is also widely admired for the way she battled back from a brutal knife attack this year.

Paul Salazar stood on the sand at Venice Beach one morning and squinted as he searched the shimmering coastline for the next place he will call home. "I'm going to go that-a-way," he decided, pointing toward the rugged terrain of Malibu. "I'm gonna pick me a spot where ain't nobody ever been." Salazar, a 21-year-old Texan, knows his days in Venice Beach are numbered.

Homeless people in Venice called for more services, but residents called for fewer homeless at a raucous and often unruly public hearing in Venice High School last week. More than 1,000 people, from the bedraggled to the bejeweled, crammed into the crowded meeting Thursday night called by Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter. Galanter told the crowd that she was determined to find a solution to the problem that has plagued the community. Challenge to City "It is a challenge that . . .

It's billed as an action-packed, true-love, rags-to-riches story of a couple who helped shape Orange County, Chapman University and the transpacific oil trading industry. "The Hutton Story" (Chapman University Press; $24.95) chronicles the lives of the late Harold and Betty Hutton of Villa Park, who founded a Long Beach-based international oil company known as Refining Associates and later served on Chapman University's board of trustees.