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    Some entertaining and informative letters in response to Sunday's question about getting beers with too much foam (and my answer about getting a Manhattan with a fly in it):

I loved your advice, recommending a bottled beer seemed like the perfect fix to me! Nevertheless, as a waitress at a proud beer bar I had to write in, there is something you missed! Foam is a beer drinker's friend! Much of a beer's flavor and aroma are trapped in the foam and really add to the drinking experience. People in the industry call beer poured with no foam “beer-tinis.? Sure there are cases of over-pouring, but the ideal head is between 1" and 1-1/2," more or less depending on the beer. Don't believe me? Take a closer look at the picture on your coaster or at the draft pour in beer commercials!
My opinion, R.W. in Arlington should take your advice. I have a sneaking suspicion he doesn't like draft beer as much as he thinks he does.

Interesting. I am not a beer person, so this was news to me. However, R.W. stated that he doesn't get foamy beers in pubs, which, if this letter is correct, suggests that restaurants pour beer properly but pubs don't? That seems odd.

A nifty rhetorical move:

My father (of blessed memory) used to eat lunch at a favorite deli where they only filled the coffee cup three quarters of the way. One day he said to the owner: "I know how you can sell twice as much coffee." The owner's ears perked up and said he wanted to know how he could do that. "Fill up the cup," my father responded. (Do I need to tell you that solved the problem?)
That sounds like exactly the sort of thing my own father of blessed memory would have said. He was a rather trusting and optimistic man, however, and probably wouldn't have given me the advice below:

Returning a beverage or food because of a fly, etc. in it is risking that the unwanted object will be removed and the serving returned to you. The safe way is to point out the problem to your server, hold on to the original and return it when the unblemished order is correctly returned.
I wonder if the writer of this letter is a lawyer, an engineer--or a waiter?