The Alcohol Thief

Lacking brain cells: I have been an avid reader of the Houston Press since moving to Houston five years ago, and I have to tell you, “Free Booze” [by Keith Plocek, December 1] is by far the dumbest article I have read yet. To sum it up, Mr. Plocek, you are a 30-year-old “thief” who hangs out with a 22-year-old loser, crashes college parties and steals liquor from local establishments.

You might have been able to save the article if you had at least mentioned admiring some of the local art, or had the opportunity to meet some of Houston’s most fascinating people. I will have to conclude (not assume) that you no longer have (or ever had) any brain cells left that would lead you to seek out anything of quality.

What makes me so angry with you, and especially with the Press, is that you are proud of the fact that you make friends with bartenders, waitstaff and door hosts who provide free drinks to you. And even worse, that you find pleasure in creating duplicate drink tokens to acquire your liquor. This is theft! If I were a bar owner and advertised in the Press, I would find continuing business with them very difficult.

I was a bartender for 11 years in Chicago night clubs while pursuing my undergraduate and master’s degrees. I probably have forgotten more ways to steal from a bar than you could think of today. I would love to consult with Houston bar owners to show them how to catch a thief like you, and the employees that encourage you.

Maybe you could ask the Press for a raise so you could afford to buy drinks and maybe you could meet a woman (?), but somehow I don’t think you’ll get either one.

Wendy M. Ross
Houston

The Birds

Funny turkeys: Best laughs I have had in ages [“Turkeys of the Year,” by Richard Connelly, November 24]. But then again, considering the material you had to work withย…Thanks!

Bryan A. Domning
Houston

Your words: “He’ll throw a fuck-you smile in his mug shot.” And to an America-Hating Communist Liberal Writer, I ask, What would you have said if Tom DeLay had an emotionless look on his face? I guess you would have said, “He’s got a guilty scowl on his face.” You would have had a smart-assed remark for any look DeLay had, because you hate him, as you do all non-DemocRATS. You have no balance and no business writing anything the general public reads as a news commentary. It will be nice when the likes of you and the Dan Rathers of the world fade away into your little sugarcoated dreamscape. I was one of you until I woke up on 9/11, which is a result of a guffawing idiot in the White House who did nothing unless it was for his own satisfaction, while ones such as you defended his tenure. Hell, he couldn’t even control his sexual urges, much less the wonderful country he was handed from Reagan and Bush, thanks to Ross Perot. Bush can keep his pants on in the Oval Office, and that’s a damn good start. You idiot you.

Jim West
Houston

Room for Rent

No travesty: Melissa Levine was certainly directing us away from seeing the film Rent in her review [“Spent,” November 24]. Despite her review, we decided to go anyway. I’m so glad we did. My husband thought the story was relevant to our times, and I thought the tango number was worth more than the price of the ticket. We certainly did not agree that the musical, as Levine claims, was a “big-screen travesty.” We thought it was well done.

May M. Munn
Houston

Too Tired

Stop the props: This would be a really great show if it were 1970 [“‘Round’ Here,” by Keith Plocek, November 17]. Explain why, today, it’s great and not just extremely tired? When are critics/curators going to stop praising works that simply resemble graduate school projects that are really nothing more than an attempt to please conceptually minded professors? The art world is going through a period now that’s as stifling, academic and predictable as it was in the 19th century.

Martin Raffle
Houston

Fun with Peas

Different disses: Craig D. Lindsey chose to diss the Black Eyed Peas by calling them the Black-Ass Fleas [November 10], as if there were something wrong with having a black ass. He could have done better with “the Crack-Head Sneeze,” “the Hacked Fried Fleas,” “the Wack-Ass Cheese” or “the Slack-Eyed Sleaze.”

Nick Cooper
Houston

This article appears in Dec 8-14, 2005.