Dear Editor,In the Oct. 4 issue of the East Tennessean, in the Viewpoint section, Luke Brogden writes a rambling story about his experiences one night in my business – The Acoustic Coffeehouse.

His description of the Coffeehouse is filled with inaccuracies, such as his statement that Arlo Guthrie has played there. That is not true.

He also wrote that I have played there with my string quartet, also not true.

Maybe it’s alright to make up things for an opinion piece, but I’ve never seen anything in print like this statement from Mr. Brogden:

“Afterward our other buddy decided we needed to pay reparations for our performance and offered the young dude a toke in the gravel lot behind the building … we decided to sneak out … to toke and dissect the set we’d just seen …”

I find it hard to believe that the university adviser to the newspaper allowed a student to incriminate himself in this way.

Later in the article Mr. Brodgen states: “about five of us proceed to smoke the night away … and that’s a little something like what might happen any night at the … Acoustic Coffeehouse.”

Of course I’m assuming that Mr. Brogden isn’t talking about smoking cigarettes.

It sure doesn’t sound like that to me, so I hope he understands why he can no longer come to the Coffeehouse.

We do not condone or allow illegal activity on our property and anyone caught in this type of activity is told to leave.

As for his statement that “You might get stiffed when your band plays a show because of some disorganized accident,” this doesn’t happen at the Coffeehouse.

We don’t “stiff” any bands, including Mr. Brogden’s band.

We do appreciate the patronage of all students and faculty who visit the Acoustic Coffeehouse.

We are especially appreciative of the new students who have come in this semester.

And thanks to the newspaper for letting me comment on Mr. Brogden’s piece.

-Jim Benelisha

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