Letters to the Grapevine . . .

Dear Grapevine: Met Herb B. very early this morning and we stopped off to have a few drinks. We got to the corner and had a few more, then one of us got nasty. I wanted to go uptown to the decent places and Herb figured it was more romantic on the Bowery, so we parted. I am sorry to say that Herb hit all the dives and was drinking 10- and 15-cent hooch, but none of that cheap stuff for me. I know how to drink, so I went up to the Men's Bar at the Waldorf and had 70-cent drinks. I had a real good time. Whoa. . . ! This is all imaginary, see. But here's the point: I figured that in the past I would have spent $250 getting just as drunk as Herb in the past might have done on the Bowery for $50. We were just talking it over and we decided to send you both these amounts for the A.A. Cosmopolitan Club. We feel very good and don't have a hangover to look forward to. Perhaps it will help somebody else out of--I was going to say predicament, but it's really a pickle. Herb joins me in wishing to you and the A.A. continued success, especially to the new clubhouse in New York, which we know is an infinitely better place to hang out in than the gutter.