Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    The city of Bee Cave is refusing to accept a complaint against its Police Department for civil rights violations. Mayor Caroline Murphy and Police Chief Rusty Pancoast are aware and involved in denying me access to file a complaint. Apparently, they now expect me to pay a fee in order to file a complaint. Due to this being a civil rights violation, the FBI is now involved. Do yourselves a favor, and avoid Bee Cave. Since there is no accountability for its police force, they can say you did anything and make you pay a fee for it.

Dear Editor,
    When I moved here, I started the pleasurable tradition of reading about the town culture in the Chronicle. Later, an article by Michael Corcoran led me to the SIMS Foundation as a volunteer. I now sit on the board of directors. Thanks for the great lead; working with musicians has been a gift!

Dear Editor,
    Re: “Campfire Horror Story” [News, Nov. 21]: I was executive director of an adolescent drug treatment center for many years. I had referrals from Child Protective Services. Many of the children placed in care are good kids. But those were not sent to my facility. There are some very, very difficult cases out there. Bebe Gaines was someone I knew, and she was so helpful to me in many situations. I finally only took individuals who were on probation so they could be sent back to lockup when they did not appreciate what Texas taxpayers were providing. Woodside Trails was an ideal situation for the kids that would have torn up the furniture, stabbed the personnel, run off, etc. I personally witnessed many of her kids making remarkable turnarounds. All I can say about Strayhorn is forgive her, for she didn’t have any idea what she was doing.

Dear Editor:
    Thank you for including the Austin Independent Business Alliance and several of its members in the article "Revving Up for Slow Times,” by Katherine Gregor [News, Dec. 5]. The article did a great job of showing the challenges of local entrepreneurs and resources available to assist them.
    A landmark study sponsored by AIBA in 2002 shows even small changes in buying patterns can have a significant impact on the local economy. While $100 spent at a national chain only has a $13 impact on the local economy, $100 spent with a locally owned business keeps $45 in the local economy.
    The benefits to buying locally are endless, such as creating more choice in the marketplace; maintaining Austin’s unique culture so it doesn’t become Anywhere, USA; preventing sprawl; reinvestment as local businesses also buy locally; helping the environment with less transportation expenses; and many more.
    AIBA offers local businesses an affordable way to promote themselves through listings on IBuyAustin.com, our directory printed twice a year and distributed free at more than 100 locations and monthly networking events.
    Buying locally for the holidays is a great way to invest in our community.

Dear Editor,
    There has been lots of talk about what went wrong with Detroit’s auto industry. It seems that everyone wants the United Auto Workers to take a pay-and-benefits cut. Yet, I’m pretty sure the guy installing steering wheels doesn’t have much to do with how the company was run. The much-publicized salary of an average UAW worker is $72 an hour. This probably works out to about $35-40 an hour on the paycheck and the rest in insurance, retirement, benefits, etc. The CEO of General Motors made $16 million last year. I would hope he had a lot to do with how the company was run. So a simple question: Why are we asking the worker that made $35-45 an hour to take a hit when the CEO made around $7,692 an hour? In fact, when GM lost $35 billion last year, why does this guy even have a job anymore?

Dear Editor,
    Having been involved in Austin theatre for nearly 10 years, I’ve been surprised lately to discover two of your newest reviewers continue to assert that plays more than 90 minutes long in Austin are atypical and that Austin audiences are incapable of sitting through them ["The Positively Serene Death of Sir Ritter Hans Von Wittenstein Zu Wittenstein," Arts Listings, Aug. 29; "Getting Married," Arts Listings, Nov. 28]. My experience has been exactly the opposite: Running times on most productions reviewed over the last several months have been between two and 2½ hours, and I’ve never had an experience where audiences complained about the production being too long. Indeed, with modern cinema’s current trend of the “epic” two-hours-plus movies, it seems ludicrous to suggest that our talented local actors can’t hold audience attention for as long, particularly with the inclusion of intermission.
    I’ve noticed that veteran Chronicle reviewers only mention it when pacing is the real issue. Is it that your new reviewers are younger with shorter attention spans or that they just aren’t familiar with Austin theatre?

   [Arts Editor Robert Faires replies: Neither. While it’s true that most of the theatre productions reviewed by the Chronicle of late clocked in above the two-hour mark, the entire year of 2008 reveals that shows that ran under two hours outnumbered those that ran over. And when you talk specifically about new plays, as Hannah Kenah did in the review you cite, many more time under 120 minutes. (Of the 22 reviewed, two out of three ran 90 minutes or less.) So her remark, “There is a trend with new plays that goes something like this: 90 minutes, no intermission. There is room for longer works, but you better need every second,” isn’t without justification. As for the comment made by Elizabeth Cobbe in her Nov. 28 review, it’s better examined in the context of contemporary taste for the sometimes windy rhetorical wrangling of G.B. Shaw. (“Modern audiences, especially in Austin, where many shows are considered long at 90 minutes, aren’t geared up to examine a single idea for 2½ hours.”) Quite a few local companies regularly make theatre that runs well under two hours (Hyde Park, Rude Mechs, Salvage Vanguard, Tongue and Groove, to name a few), and while their audiences might indeed be willing to sit through 2½ hours of a cinematic epic, full of thrilling action or lush romance, they might find 150 minutes of nothing but the didactic debates of "Major Barbara" or "Misalliance" will get them feeling a bit restless. The issue isn’t local actors’ abilities to hold our attention (though that can be a factor); it’s our tolerance for extended oratory – and an old-fashioned kind of oratory at that – focused on one topic. It seems fair to say that in a city where a third of the theatre runs under 90 minutes, we’re just not trained for that brand of mental marathon.]

Dear Editor:
    Kate Thornberry’s review of Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin ["Everything but the Elves," Food, Dec. 5] notes that Kenny was Jerry Seinfield’s inspiration for the character of the "Soup Nazi." This is incorrect. While Shopsin is a well known NYC eccentric, Seinfeld based his character on Al Yeganeh, also known locally as "the Soup Man" though never by the offensive "Soup Nazi" tag.

   [Kate Thornberry responds: Without being able to ask Jerry Seinfeld personally who was his inspiration for "the Soup Nazi," I have to concede that it is possible that Yeganeh, not Shopsin, was his inspiration. Shopsin’s publisher only goes as far as "many people have accused Shopsin of being the 'Soup Nazi'" (in other words, intimating). Due to Shopsin’s posted "Rules of Ordering," his penchant for "banning" customers for rule infraction (including "lifetime bans") and his three hundred varieties of soup, I think it is probable that Shopsin inspired Seinfeld, at least regarding the "Nazi" part! Ultimately, only Jerry Seinfeld himself could say for sure.]

Dear Editor,
    I heart Tony Millionaire. Do not remove this strip [Maakies, Dec. 5] or I will be forced to shoot my dog! Drinky Crow rules! The surreal, violent strips make my toes curl with pleasure. A “Mexican Seeing-Eye Jumping Bean"! Now that shit is gold!

Dear Editor,
    It is easy to write about the pros and cons of air conditioning when the Hill Country has been near freezing temps as of late. But since I belong to the breed of the human species that sweats in response to heat as a survival mechanism, I fully support staving off the oppressive brutal heat that sometimes Austin is a victim of in the summer.
    I am sure that Amy Babich’s body’s defenses are a lush hirsute pelt that wicks the perspiration off her body [“Postmarks,” Dec. 5]. And the Birkenstocks allow her feet to breathe, cooling her base chakra. And in the times when her body odor is offensive, she wards off the periodic PUs with a wholesome patchouli dip.
    I chose to remain low sodium sweat free and turn up the air when need be.

Dear Editor,
    On Dec. 7, 1941, I was 16 years old and lived in Düsseldorf, Germany. I was probably doing homework if it was evening or heading for school if it was morning or hoping that there wouldn't be an air raid during the coming night. I had never heard of Pearl Harbor.
    In fact, I probably didn't hear much of Pearl Harbor until the fifth anniversary of that infamous day, after I had lived in the United States for a few months.
    There may have been an article in the Düsseldorf newspapers, the release of which would have had to be cleared with the Ministry of Propaganda, a government department headed by Joseph Goebbels. We rarely listened to the radio. It was safer that way: If we were suspected of doing so, we would risk being accused of listening to the news originating in foreign countries. Doing this was a federal crime.
    But I can well imagine how the event might have been presented in the papers and on the radio, too:
    "Today our allies, the brave and patriotic Japanese, finally made it clear to the war-mongering American capitalists and their Jewish leaders, that they will defend their rights to free trade and unencumbered traffic on the open seas by winning a great victory over their oppressors and sinking a number of their heavily armed war ships, thereby preventing the sneak attack which the Americans were planning," etc., etc.
    So I knew nothing about Pearl Harbor except possibly for these and other releases from a carefully controlled press.
    But I do remember ever so clearly an occasion just three weeks earlier: It was the day when our closest family friend was deported to a concentration camp. I recall how we spent the afternoon with her, how we brought her things we thought she might be able to use, how we comforted her and her parents, while she, in turn, was comforting us. Soon thereafter, her father, a World War I veteran, and her kindhearted mother were arrested, too, as were my own relatives, and none of them lived to enjoy freedom and peace.
    I guess, without realizing it, I was experiencing my own bit of Pearl Harbor, a day which lived in infamy for me as well.