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Dear Editor & Readers,
    It's very difficult to imagine people abusing the wonderful #MeToo movement, but that’s what’s happening.
    Drugs, sex, and rock & roll were a hallmark of the staff culture at Spider House. ["Tangled Web," News, Dec. 21.] It was a big party fueled by stolen booze (as proven by two comptroller audits and weekly third-party audits). This eventually bankrupted us when sales were great. I was the principal staff management leader with primary responsibility for replacing ineffective GMs. My true “crime” at Spider [House] was to occasionally replace a GM – shaking up the “family.”
    I did have a chip on my shoulder. Only two or three times since 1996 did anyone admit anything about the theft to Conrad or me. I yelled and cussed at times, but I’m not a violent person. I can’t hurt a fly. (When I yelled and cussed at Jeremy, the bar was empty. He was just setting up and a sober Dallas probation officer witnessed his rudeness.)
    I’m generally a very happy, fun-loving person but my silliness was repeatedly spun into horror stories. I feigned to chase Megan Groover to the restroom and she's claiming I grabbed her, and she tearfully barricaded herself in the office. Did her co-worker really forget such a thing?
    My getting onstage with a comedian morphed into my having grabbed her breasts in front of a crowd. This allegation was repeated in comments to Jeremy’s post – which he has since deleted.
    Any of these stories would have exploded throughout the staff and community. Conrad attempted to ban me after I yelled at Jeremy. Nobody was protecting me.
    Conrad and the management decided that, given the times, banishing me was necessary to save Spider House. Only Conrad could have convinced staff that I was truly banned, but the GM and AGM were there at the time of the alleged assault and knew such an offense was never reported.
    (To be clear, I am still the president of Cafe Ro Inc. dba Spider House – with all my rights intact.)
    I chose not to sue Tiffany because I think she has participated out of fear. For a window into Jeremy’s true character, read the comments to his Facebook post wherein he admits to slapping a woman in the face at the Mohawk for “more than” pinching his butt. A Chronicle reader in online comments to the “Tangled Web” article states[,] “I watched him slap the shit out of one of my best friends outside of the Mohawk last year leaving her on the ground in tears.”
    Hopefully, the truth will eventually prevail.

Dear Editor,
    Michael King describes Kirk Watson, Eddie Rodriguez, Celia Israel, and the new Democrats in the Texas Lege anticipating "a session more productive (or at least less disastrous) for actual political progress" [“Point Austin: The Gavel Descends,” News, Jan. 4].
    If so, they haven't been paying attention to what Republican-dominated legislatures do these days when their hold on power seems threatened. See North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Putting partisanship aside – or even a smidge off-center – is not likely to be on the agenda.