“Nuns on Top” is base | Mountain Xpress | Asheville, NC

Mountain Xpress printed my letter criticizing the crudity of their article announcing Thirsty Monk owner Barry Bialik's proposed expansion "Nuns on Top" and urging the editors to ask Mr Bialik to change the name to something better suited to Asheville. I continue to urge everyone to write Mr. Bialik at hello@monkpub.com asking him to change the profane, sexist, and crude name to something befitting family-friendly downtown Asheville.

 “Nuns on Top” is base | Mountain Xpress | Asheville, NC: 

Dear Editors of the Mountain Xpress,

I am a citizen of Asheville, a strong supporter of local business and a frequent reader of the Mountain Xpress, my most trusted source for news in Western North Carolina. Your articles are usually the finest journalism covering the area and often champion what is best in Asheville and the surrounding area, fighting to make Western North Carolina a better place for all. 

So I was surprised and appalled at the language Emily Patrick chose for the opening paragraph of her Sept. 5 article "Nuns on Top set to join the Thirsty Monk,” and equally shocked that the editors allowed it to be published as written. The name of the proposed establishment is bad enough, an issue I have taken up with owner Barry Bialik and urge you to do the same, but Ms. Patrick's references to nuns mounting the Thirsty Monk in addition to monastic life getting "boozier" is uglier and grosser than the name alone. It certainly highlights the profane and lascivious nature of the name, but even if the name is risqué, I expect better journalism from the Xpress; I expected a journalistic spirit that does not sink to the basest of humor, degrading women, Christianity and our city in one-fell swoop. 

I strongly urge at least the rewriting of the article for the website. 

I support Bialik's entrepreneurial success and cheer that a bar I consider on of the finer downtown establishments is expanding its space and offerings especially in these times of economic struggle. I trust and respect the Mountain Xpress and admire its general integrity and solid public voice, hoping that voice continues to ring clear and true. But the proposed name and the language of the article tarnish our community, the Thirsty Monk and the Xpress. Asheville is a better city than that, the Thirsty Monk is a better place than that and Bialik is a finer man than that. 

Please refrain from such low and cheap humor — even when it stares you in the face — and consider publicly and privately asking Bialik to change an unfortunate and profane name, one he shouldn't want associated the great name of Thirsty Monk. 

— David Michael Mayeux

An open letter to the Asheville City Council

Honorable Mayor, Distinguished Councilors,

I am a citizen of Asheville, a city that I dearly love, and a member of the parish of St Lawrence. Due to work, I will not be able to attend tonight's meeting of the Council that determines the fate of the Haywood St lot whose destiny rests in your hands by the providential hand of God, but I wanted to make sure that I shared my voice concerning the hopes for the Haywood St development. I have looked at the various proposed plans, and I see merit in them all. But I urge you to consider with favor the Diocese of Charlotte and the Basilica of St. Lawrence's proposal for the St. Lawrence Plaza. Being so close to the issue, it is hard to be objective, but I have given over my heart in prayer and while I do not think that any issue of such importance should be dealt with objectively, I have tried to consider this with the eyes of reason, as well as those of heart.

In many ways, for me the issue is not one of aesthetics—I actually think the McKibbon Hotel Group did a nice job of conforming their proposed architecture to match the Vanderbilt Apartments—or of finance—of COURSE Asheville could use the taxes—but one of family. 

Our city thrives on tourism, and I'm elated that so many people find our city interesting and beautiful enough to be worthy of their time, interest, and yes, money. But Downtown is the heart of the city, and with Haywood St the site of Malaprops Bookstore, Earth Guild, the Woolworth Art Gallery, the Chocolate Fetish and many many other fine business ... it is the heart of Asheville's renewal from a listless old resort town. And yes, with the Basilica at one "end" and Church St essentially at the other, it is a spiritual heart of the city as well. It is a street of cherished family memories. What brings tourists into the city and into Downtown are not the amenities or the nearness of the hotels to our city's heart and soul, because those amenities and spirit were there before the hotels. Tourists love the purity of our city, that it is a place that we lovingly care for and make our own. We gladly share with open and charitable arms to any who visit, but Asheville is home first, which is why it's so inviting to visitors.

Every home has a guest room, but it's never smack dab in the middle of the Family Room. When houses become so filled with guests that you have to set up people on the couch ... people notice, and then what should be a fun visit, becomes a cramped and awkward situation. Putting up a hotel on Haywood St is filing up the family room with guests (and we all know what Mark Twain said about guests and fish). We don't want that; they don't want that.

Haywood St has a nice symmetry to it: I already mentioned the spiritual houses that cap both ends; there's an even number of eateries and shops, county and city services; architecture of historical interest, particularly in the S&W building and, again, the Basilica. Why not achieve greater balance of Haywood St, with public spaces at both ends, Pritchard Park to the North and the St Lawrence Plaza to the south. In fact, I have often thought that the particular curve of Haywood St at that location, creates something of a dead-end for tourist traffic. Opening up that space with a Plaza opens up that end of the city, so that more people flow toward the Grove Arcade and the other wonderful shops that border it. Some of you have shown an interest in whatever funds become available to the city related to this development  being available for affordable housing. Homes should be at the heart of this matter, and it is wonderful that the Basilica's proposal includes such homes in its design.

You have heard all these arguments, but it boils down to this: our city, our community, should consider family first, always. The St Lawrence Plaza is a good idea, and it's one proposed by your friends and your family at St Lawrence Basilica. Thus, the St Lawrence Plaza is in the best interest of the city; it is in the best interest of Family.

Thank you,

David Mayeux

the lexical treasures of m. john harrison

M. John Harrison has the richest vocabulary I think I've ever encountered in an author. His adjectives, especially, come from obscure realms of biology (esp. ornithology), geology, medicine, and what I imagine to be crumbling tomes of cant and argot.  The list below are words from his Viriconium stories the epic The Pastel City and mind-boggling A Storm of Wings. Every page was a lexical treasure trove of obscure words but were bon mots one and all, inspiring the imagination with their poetic sound. I kept pen and paper ever at my side as I read.

I share because, if you're reading this, you likely someone who enjoys arcane additions to your lexicon, or you know that I do, so you put up with it.