Dear editor: Based on the enclosed feature article, “Stuck Key,” by your managing editor Rob D’Amico, I will not renew my subscription to The Boerne Star. This article may be appropriate in a newspaper in New York City, but Boerne, Texas — give me a break.
Bille F Busby
Boerne
(Editor’s note: Thanks for writing to express your displeasure with the “Stuck Key” column on beef. Reader feedback is the only way we can determine what type of a job we’re doing for the community. First, let us apologize for the fact that the column angered you. It certainly was never written with any intent to do that. Rob D’Amico’s column “Stuck Key” each Friday is just that — a column, not a news article. Columns have been published by newspapers since their inception centuries ago in many forms — political, humorous, financial, etc. Newspapers contain a variety of columns on a variety of topics by writers of different outlooks on life. Variety in outlook and opinion is what any well-rounded newspaper strives for. Any time a newspaper serves just one facet of a community to the exclusion of others, they are no longer serving their obligation as the semi-public utility newspapers have always been. The column on beef was simply one person’s satirical look at meat and meat consumption in general with tongue-in-cheek looks at how people buy meat, the average consumer’s ignorance of the industry, and what society has already done to meats other than beef. Humorous columns are not intended as news articles, simply to amuse or to entertain. However, humorous column writing is an art form, and like other forms of art, the artist occasionally misses their mark or the intended audience does not see the artist’s intent. While D’Amico’s column typically draws many favorable comments each week for his dry-wit outlook on life, you were among others this week who did not see the humor intended in the beef column. We apologize to you and to anyone else for any offense taken as none was intended.)