EDITOR: That drunk diary of Kathleen Wilson's is the most pompous, self-aggrandizing thing I've ever read ["Now You Don't 'Cause You Can't," Jan 3]. She's got an alcohol problem? So what! EVERYONE I know does. Everyone's had it affect their lives negatively, only not all of us have such a forum to display our "Permanent Midnight" of how we gulped a higher level of danger and lived to tell it to all the little people.

That stupid article is not newsworthy. It doesn't affect my life or anyone else's who reads The Stranger, save for those who glamorize "edgy" urban scenesters who brag about their social lives and then bitch about it when it becomes a problem. Don't waste our time.

John L, Seattle

KATHLEEN WILSON: Well, Kathleen, I must say I read your account of your struggle to get through the sobriety process with interest on more than one level; I usually read your stuff with a grumble in my heart (to put it mildly) ever since I wound up in It's My Party (in a mighty derisive and snorty fashion), after committing the gossip-worthy act of having to abort my band's U.S. tour because of debilitating panic attacks.

I can't say I enjoyed reading that you've had to combat anxiety in large crowds since you've been off the bottle--I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy--and even though I swore I would one day kick you in the face, I don't think the irony is delicious. Nicer in print? A pinch more respect for human dignity is good enough (no need to spoil good print), and I have noticed, actually.... So I'm retracting the offense I took in the past, and I wish you nuthin but the best. Congratulations and take care.

Quitty, via e-mail

DEAR EDITOR: I went to a Caffe Vita this past Saturday and I picked up a copy of The Stranger. I was immediately drawn to the article called "Now You Don't 'Cause You Can't."

A couple paragraphs into it, it occurred to me that I had failed to catch the author's name. It turned out to be Kathleen Wilson. Ah, yes, Kathleen Wilson. I have read her column, It's My Party, for the last couple years, and while her observations and descriptions are always clever, they are also fraught with inside jokes and stories that only the people hanging out with Wilson at the shows would understand. Reading her column makes me feel like I'm back in high school and I'm still not cool enough to hang with the popular crowd.

However, my opinion of Wilson has drastically changed since reading the article. Wilson's raw description of her ongoing struggle with addiction was told with such painstaking detail that it forced me to look at my own methods of coping with despair. I could see shadows of myself in her words, and it scared the hell out of me. But most compelling of all was Wilson's revelation that she doesn't drink because she can't drink. It's not that she doesn't want to--she simply can't.

I can't tell you how long I was sitting outside the café reading, but I can tell you that I was so completely engrossed in Wilson's words that I hadn't noticed my purple frozen fingers. I admire Wilson's inner strength and willingness to expose personal flaws and weaknesses before the public to scrutinize. It took Wilson a tremendous amount of strength to write the article. I know it's affected me, because I'm still thinking about it days later. Thank you.

Noelle, Seattle

HEY!! Who said Kathleen Wilson could write my biography pre-sobriety? Only I drove a Plymouth Valiant and I can't remember any of my blackouts, thank God! Luckily, I was able to quit cold turkey, not because I knew I should or I knew I was a jerk when I was drunk, but because it took too long to recover from a hangover. It's been 14 years. I'm also lucky because I spent a lot of drunken blackout periods walking around the Lower East Side of Manhattan (and other places) looking to get laid (I think). I guess that's what I was looking for, because I usually woke up next to somebody whose name escaped me. Best of all, I never got hurt, raped, or robbed (I don't think). Anyway, congratulations, and hang in there. Life is definitely worth remembering!!!

Michele, via e-mail

EDITOR: Just this morning I saw the letters The Stranger published in response to "Now You Don't 'Cause You Can't." I thought [Kathleen Wilson's] writing was excellent. I, too, was stunned that The Stranger would run a story like Wilson's. But then of course I realized that it's exactly the kind of longer, insightful, and well-edited article I wish your paper would run each issue--or at least once a month. All the frivolous stuff is fine, besides the short news articles, but there's more to the pulse of this city than TV, movies, shows, and personals. Wilson's article should open the way for similar "reporting" of what life is like in this town.

Congratulations, and tell Brian to crank one out.

Russ Goedde, via e-mail

DEAR SIR: In regards to [Last Days, Jan 3] Ms. Desiree Mack, the crack dealer being trained to be a carpenter (Wednesday, December 26): While most of us in the trades would enjoy more straight women in the field, believe me when I say we do not need anyone with an eighth-grade education or a history of selling crack. While our hands are working, so are our brains and mouths. Like you, we enjoy intelligent conversation at work. Also like you, we don't want to worry about our things, i.e., tools [and] CDs, being stolen at the workplace.

Please also consider that a lot of times a skilled journeyman and his/her helpers will be in your house by themselves, sometimes for months, while you are at work. Perhaps people such as Ms. Desiree are better suited [for] working in publishing.

James Bowen, journeyman ceramic tile setter

DAN: Regarding your January 3 Five To Four [column] entitled (appropriately) "Idiot!"--wanted to let you know that (a) I have voted in every election in the five years I've lived in Seattle, and (b) for local election issues, nothing is a bigger influencer of my vote than the regular Stranger Election Death Squad analysis and recommendations.

I regularly wait to vote my absentee ballot until the Stranger comes out before the election, and it takes a strong argument to make me vote contrary to the recommendations in that issue. I have to admit I don't follow all the candidates for school board or Port commissioner--and usually vote "the Stranger ticket" (shouldn't you copyright that?). Also: years of reading your reporting on Sidran's semi-fascist leanings made me an anyone-but-Sidran vote in the 2001 election. My God, he doesn't want teens to dance!

db, via e-mail

EDITORS: It's one thing to be quasi-clever like Sean Nelson and badmouth top 10 lists, and then offer his own list of 1981's top 10 films. But to offer up the WRONG films for his best of, especially with 20 years of reflection, is just pathetic. ["The Top 10 Films of 1981" by Sean Nelson, Jan 3] Reds? Sure. Pennies from Heaven; absolutely. Raiders; I suppose. Decline of Western Civilization; whatever. Modern Romance; good call. But overrated crap like My Dinner with Andre? Mephisto? Time Bandits? Never-considered-good Arthur? Gallipoli was supposedly "great" when it came out, but has Nelson seen it lately? The movie is sort of watchable, but watch the final 30 seconds and tell me it doesn't date the movie worse than 20 Forrest Gumps. Where's Body Heat? Where's Cutter's Way, or Christiane F.? Where's Gregory's Girl? WHERE THE FUCK IS DAS BOOT? Jesus, with 20 years to think about, Nelson still sucks as a critic.

Richard Huffman, Lake Forest Park

HELLO: I enjoyed the "Pinker than Pink" story by Pat Kearney [Jan 10]. It seems strange, however, that the accompanying photos were black and white... seeing the range of pinks in full color would certainly add a lot of impact.

Steve Raglin, via e-mail

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: While urging you to call Marco Lowe, Mayor Greg Nickels' community relations director, last week's Five to Four ["Your Man in City Hall," Josh Feit, Jan 10] gave the incorrect phone number. Lowe's number at city hall is 684-8853. Theresa Nestor, who works in the city attorney's office, would like to thank Stranger readers for all their calls.--Eds.