To the Editor, Chicago Sun-Times:

Is it impudent to ask, I wonder, why Jim Quig's "Folks" must be inflicted on we, the gentle Sun-Times readers, on a regular basis? For I can scarcely remember a columnist whose witless meanderings contained more forced whimsy, whose sense of structure and timing more readily deflated the most facile humorous conceit. One can only imagine that the objective of running the "Folks" column is to make a great Midwestern daily appear ever more amateurish, the choice of the well-read Rube.

Reading "Folks," one has an appreciation for what Garrison Keillor might write if he were suddenly afflicted with a crippling brain ailment and shackled to a word processor. Its presence puts the lie to the Sun-Times' new slogan "The Bright One." That it continues to appear boggles the mind; that it is even occasionally promoted on the front page is a thing to marvel at.