Do not Be Bamboozled (2011/09/20)
   Craft and art? I shuddered at your article extolling the virtues and artistry of bamboo (Bamboo, Tamed, Bends to a Master's Touch, March 21). As I prepare to sue two contiguous neighbors who planted bamboo without underground barriers, I found your article failed to stress that bamboo is the vegetative world's equivalent of the cockroach. Perhaps with a $250,000 budget and a Japanese director schooled in ikebana, bamboo might -- might! -- be managed. The rest of us, beware: bamboo is higher on the food chain than we are.
   It should be restricted to Pacific islands, for only an ocean can stop it. Unless it is thrashed daily by a staff of gardeners, bamboo devolves overnight into a broken, littering, ferocious mass, killing off other plantings and extending itself exponentially.
   You do your readers a grave disservice by not prefacing any remarks on bamboo with this warning: Do not try this at home!
   The superwaif Kate Moss rides one. So does Evi Quaid, wife of the actor Randy. The suddenly chic Bambooclette Country bicycle, made in Vietnam and designed by Quasar Khanh, is largely of bamboo. "It began as a joke and became a challenge," said Mr. Khanh, 62, a French civil engineer who now lives in Ho Chi Minh City. "I told someone maybe I'd make a bamboo bike when I got here, and they called me on it. Luckily, it works. Bamboo is not only incredibly strong and sensual, it's a renewable resource, which makes it environmentally friendly." The featherweight 15-speed vehicles cost $1,000 for both the men's and women's models and have rattan baskets, woven seats and rosewood pedals
   When Mr. Lipton began buying bamboo furniture in Beijing he was reminded of an encounter he had had with an old Chinese furniture maker in Thailand. ''He had a chair that had belonged to his father, and I wanted to buy it,'' Mr. Lipton said. ''But he couldn't sell it because he liked the noise it made.''
   Mr. Lipton also likes the noise. ''The creaking happens as the bamboo stretches and the joints squeak, the way crickets sound rubbing their legs together,'' he said. ''Crickets are prized in China for their song.''
   Now, with Mr. Lipton's help, the gentle squeaking of bamboo furniture may be valued, too.
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