Have you noticed that hardly anybody ever talks back to a critic? Maybe it's a losing proposition, since the critic is paid by the people who run the publication, but I ran across an entertaining fight-back letter to the editor--this dates from 1994, and was written by producing director Billy Berminham, of Chicago's Torso Theater, in response to a review in the Chicago Reader by their critic Adam Langer (caps as in the original):
"Any publication with an iota of integrity or PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS would not only FIRE LANGER out of SHEER EMBARRASSMENT but would also CUT OFF HIS HEAD, AFFIX IT TO A PIKE AND PROMINENTLY DISPLAY THE SOGGY MELON OUTSIDE its FRONT DOOR AS AN APOLOGY TO THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY FOR SUCH A FLAGRANT DISREGARD FOR THE ETHICS OF RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM!!!"
I have no idea who was right, but when so much writing is vanilla-flavored, it's fun to encounter a jalapeno pepper once in a while.
