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Greg Barker, One Clever Vegan

Robb Walsh, the restaurant critic at the Houston Press, is one of my favorite writers, local or otherwise. The guy knows food, but he also knows how to tell a story, something many food critics can't do because they're too busy making pretentious asses of themselves. Even when I don't agree with Walsh's assessment of a local eatery, I always enjoy his writing because it's that good.

For some, however, it's impossible to separate opinion from one's lifestyle. Hence Greg Barker, a highly opinionated if barely literate vegan, writes to the Press regarding Walsh:

Maybe you guys are just catering to the popular culture by allowing your sneering food critic to bash vegetarian food ad nauseam ["Fat City," by Robb Walsh, January 17], or maybe you just don't read his columns (I don't blame you). Whatever, his shit about how worthless vegetarian food is is tired and dumb-assed.

Don't you guys realize that vegetarianism is more popular among your core readership than it is for the average population of this Darwinist smog patch? Figure it out! Get someone that maybe is vegetarian to do the vegetarian restaurant reviews, eh? Also, why don't you send a vegan to a steak house to get his honest (truthful) opinions of what he sees? Robb Walsh's thoughts on my food are for shit. I understand he feels the same way about mine. I could give a damn.

Greg Barker

I'm sure Greg was very pleased with himself after that piece of work. I mean, how can a good writer like Walsh compare to the obvious brilliance of "his shit is ... dumb-assed" and "Darwinist smog patch?" I'm guessing this was the worst letter sent in on Walsh's column, and the guys at the Press ran it as a semi-serious joke on Mr. Barker.

[Posted at 23:23 CST on 02/13/02] [Link]

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