Readers Respond to Norm Goldie

As one might expect, we got quite a bit of response to the long and rambling letter in Friday’s ‘Lectronic that Norm Goldie of San Blas insisted that we publish.

We warned Norm that the letter would reflect badly on him, but he didn’t care, saying he had "big shoulders." Well, we hope he has big enough shoulders to withstand what everyone is dumping on him, because there wasn’t a single letter in his defense. The following is a selection of letters we received:

"Publishing that wacky diatribe by Norm Goldie is the most damaging thing you could have done to him. What a complete nut-bag! I loved the part where he calls you names, then say he wants to ‘re-establish his friendship’ with Latitude." — Dan Weyant

"When Latitude asked Norm Goldie for some kind of documentation to verify his suspicious claim that he’s an official representative of the Mexican government, the American’s reply was right out of the great Humphrey Bogart movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which was set in Mexico. ‘Badges. What badges? We don’t have to show you no stinkin’ badges!’ I almost wet my pants." — Cathy Anson

"In his letter in ‘Lectronic, Norm Goldie claims that he is very proud to have ‘personally saved the lives of numerous hundreds of fishermen and boaters.’ If he could provide Latitude with the names of just the first 100, I would be inclined to put more credence in his other claims."  — Jason Waston

"For all these years, our West Marine ads have helped pay for Latitude paper and ink, and our stores have played a role in Latitude‘s distribution strategy. But now, after reading Norm Goldie’s whistle-blowing missive, I learn that the publisher of Latitude has apparently aged to resemble Rosie O’Donnell — and spews misinformation at a rate that can only be matched by our favorite politicans. I guess we were misinformed." — Geoff Eisenberg, CEO, West Marine.

Some of the longer letters, by cruisers who have had more personal experiences with Norm, will appear in the November issue of Latitude 38. But please, no more letters, we’ve had enough of this subject for at least another year. As for those of you who wrote in to say that you will now avoid San Blas because of Norm Goldie, no, no, please no, don’t do that. San Blas is a great place, Norm is all bark and no bite. If you’re not interested in his assistance, tell him, and if he continues to annoy you, report him to the Port Captain or the Department of Tourism. You won’t be the first.