Not to criticize or anything....

Earlier this month Terry Teachout wrote "Whatever Happened to Regional Critics?" for the Wall Street Journal and a couple of readers commended it to me because, as one of them noted, "he used to be a critic at the KC Star."

Teachout here repeats a claim he's made in the past, that his journalism career began with an "entry-level job" at the Star. But it's not true, according to longtime staff writers who were here at the time. "Terry was a freelance reviewer who for a while had a more-or-less weekly column about jazz recordings," says our film critic Bob Butler.

As for that so-called "decline" in regional crix, don't look at us. We've still got a full arts staff at the Star ... and we still use stringers.