Vin Suprynowicz

Dozens of times a day now, we at the Review-Journal receive e-mailed letters very similar to the following, which arrived at the newspaper on Sept. 16, signed by one Mary White of Russell Road, Las Vegas:

“I am disappointed in the media and the RJ for not reporting on all the undercover journal reporting done on Acorn by ordinary citizens,” Ms. White opines. “You guys are only interesting in making Obama president and turning our country into communists. I am look thru Sundays paper for any real news like what is reported on Fox News and Glenn Beck and am hugely disappointed. I cannot buy your paper anymore until you decide to really report news. Today, for your information since you are not paying attention, it is reported on Fox News that the senate is introducing legislation to ban all Federal dollars to acorn. Of course, we will not read this in the paper. Thought you might like to know. I may give you more updates in the future, just to keep you informed.”

The editors here being fairly busy, these letters usually receive only the briefest of polite replies. On this occasion, however, allow me to give Ms. White — and, by proxy, the scores of additional correspondents who apparently churn out these missives as instructed by some disembodied voice in the radio without bothering to actually toddle down to the convenience store and glance through a copy of the newspaper — a little more attention.

As I wrote on Wednesday, Sept. 16:

Hi, Ms. White — Congratulations on being able to tell us what is not in today’s paper without actually reading it.

I’m a little puzzled, though. For instance, if you HAD bought and read today’s Review-Journal (it’s only 75 cents — I saved ten times that amount on dinner Saturday with a single coupon clipped out of last Thursday’s “Neon” section), you would know that in the top story on page 9A today, under the large bold headline “Senator wants ACORN probe,” Ken Thomas of the Associated Press reports, in the Review-Journal: “The Senate voted Monday to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving grants to ACORN.”

This 20-inch story — in today’s Review-Journal — then goes on to offer considerable detail on the revelations of the undercover ACORN videos.

Turn a few more pages, and the top commentary on page 7B of the Sept. 16 newspaper is by Rich Lowry of the National Review, headlined “ACORN: the E.F. Hutton of prostitution.”

Our own editorial comments were to follow within a few days.

Yet you tell me — in an e-mail sent to us at 10:45 a.m., more than six hours after that Sept. 16 Review-Journal hit local newsstands, including the ones on Russell Road — “We will not read this in the paper.”

I’m further puzzled by your complaint about the Review-Journal’s efforts to “make Obama president.” After detailing Mr. Obama’s redistributionist tendencies and lack of broad, relevant experience repeatedly and at considerable length, and despite Mr. McCain’s own imperfections as a candidate, this newspaper firmly endorsed the other guy in last year’s general election … didn’t we?

That was less than a year ago. I’m puzzled how a regular reader could have missed that.

You DO say “I am look thru Sundays paper.” Did you somehow miss our lead Sept. 13 editorial, criticizing Mr. Obama for claiming to be in favor of educational choice yet doing nothing to save the Washington, D.C., school voucher program? It ran under a hard-to-miss 60-point headline. On the facing page, you take it as a sign of our support for Mr. Obama’s economic policies that we chose to publish former Republican Congressman J.C. Watt’s column accusing the president of “destroying the economy?”

And two pages further on in our Sept. 13 “Opinion” section — the section to which any regular newspaper reader would turn to find out where the paper’s editors stand, since we endeavor to keep our opinions out of the “hard news” pages — that huge play given to Charles Krauthammer’s weekly column, linking Mr. Obama to his friend and appointee, the communist Van Jones: more evidence of the Review-Journal’s unquestioning support for Mr. Obama’s politics and judgment?

We endeavor to maintain some balance in our pages, running an occasional commentary from the left — though our liberal readers complain we don’t do nearly enough of THAT, of course.

But you’ll pardon me, Ms. White, if I take with a grain of salt your threat to “not buy your paper anymore.” Along with the Wall Street Journal, the Las Vegas Review-Journal may well be the most free-market, smaller-government, lower-tax, anti-socialist, small-el libertarian daily newspaper of any size left in America. And I’ll wager you haven’t read an issue all the way through in a long, long time.

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I mentioned eating out on Saturday, which the brunette and I still do with some frequency, despite the battering this economy has taken from the private banking cabal known as the “Federal Reserve” and their enablers, our pork-fattened taxmasters in Washington, who started us all down this road to ruin when they abdicated their responsibility to set the value of the dollar as a fixed weight of gold or silver.

When you spend parts of your weekends touring the valley’s thrift shops (the Deserets are best), you can end up at some pretty far-flung corners of town when the last of the joints close their doors at 9 p.m.

Since no one seems to pay much attention to my nominations come “Best of Las Vegas” time, herewith a few of my own suggestions for locals, based on considerable trial-and-error.

While Ricardo’s (Flamingo and Decatur) is probably still the best Mexican on the West side, we end up far more often, these days, at Chapala’s, on East Trop near Pecos. Great food, great service, great prices, they do still run those aforementioned two-for-one coupons in the Thursday Neon section, and on Fridays and Saturdays from 5 to 9 you get to hear some really good acoustic guitar work from a hat-wearing duo called “The Trios.”

Yes, it puzzled us for a while, too. There used to be three guitar-playing brothers, see. One of them went back to Mexico, but they kept the name.

Greek food is harder. The best bacalava — and possibly mousaka, too — is actually to be found at the annual St. John’s Church Greek Festival, ending today down in the southwest valley at the church on El Camino Road. The Greek Fest has become somewhat of a victim of its own success — so popular these days that they’ve had to resort to shuttle buses and satellite parking — though it remains one of a kind. Try a bottle of Retsina.

We’ve had some great evenings at Opa, on South Rainbow, great food and live music, but a little beyond our weekly budget.

Our favorite local Greek restaurant has long been Paymon’s Cafe and Hookah Lounge, at the original location on Maryland at Flamingo. Haven’t yet tried their new, third location, downtown at Main and Charleston; we’d welcome a report.

But our impressive latest discovery is the new outdoor patio — tolerant of dogs, children, fountains, and smokers — at the Mad Greek Cafe, at the corner of Durango and West Sahara.

Yes, I’m sure that’s where it is — right across the street from the former location of Kirk and Connie Offerle’s late and lamented “Jazzed.” Pay no attention to any Internet sources that tell you the only “Mad Greek’s” is on the Strip. Also, if you have an older phone book, you’re going to have to look up the number under “Romy’s Cafe” to find this place. But it’s worth the trouble. Great food, great service, great patio, even rumors of occasional belly dancing.

Patronize our local eateries! Especially the ones that still let grown-ups smoke!