When you’re a blogger you have a certain amount of freedom from bosses looking over your shoulder and criticizing your work, which is nice. The flip side to that is that the entire world can read your work and criticize you if they so desire. Comments are part of a bloggers life, both the nice ones and the really mean ones. Sometimes you reply to the comments - I try to respond to the nice ones and the ones that are critical but not mean (I don’t respond to the mean) when I can - but usually it’s just a sentence or two to let the reader know I appreciated their taking the time to read my piece.

With that in mind, readers should much appreciate Errol Morris‘ tenacity in responding to comments he received for a blog post he wrote the use of reenactments in his films.

His last blog post on his NYTimes blog Zoom, Cartesian Blogging, Part Two, is all about answering questions and concerns his readers had about his original posts. His response to an inquiry about his use of Burger King in the The Thin Blue Line is nothing short of amazing.

Here is the comment:

“This thread is probably dead now but . . . I distinctly remember that it was a Whataburger that they were at not a Burger King. I find it very interesting in light of the subject that this issue is completely glossed by Errol Morris (whom I admire a great deal).

I grew up in the southwest and Texas was the home of Whataburger. So it makes sense that that is where they were.

How and why did it become so clearly a Burger King–especially when you have to listen to the officer’s words again and again to hear it? Was it because the film got funding from Burger King for placement or was it thought to be more comprehensible?

In end you can see the logo so clearly I can’t believe it was random.

I will listen to the piece again but I listened to the soundtrack many, many times and always wondered about this.

Posted by Roger Valdez in Seattle

You can read the complete and detailed answer HERE but I’ll leave you with the end of his answer below.. it made me smile:

“Texas may be the home of the Whataburger, but in Texas there are also a lot of Burger Kings.

One more thing. You suggest a reason why the confusion was made – namely, that I was taking money on the sly from Burger King.

Oooo.

I really wasn’t. I admit that when Burger King first offered table service, I was curious and went with my wife for an evening, dining out. It was disappointing. I was hoping for checked tablecloths, a waiter with a cloth napkin over his arm and candles in Chianti bottles covered with melted wax. But the tables looked much the same as ever and no one came to serve us.

My connection to Burger King has not been extensive. O.K. I’m on the road occasionally. And get hungry.”

Don’t we all…

Go read the entire piece and takepart to learn more about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers‘ victory over Burger King in their fight to receive appropriate wages.

Read on:

• Tomato Pickers’ Wages Fight Faces Obstacles
• Errol Morris on Re-enactments in Documentary Film
• Errol Morris returns to his Times blog for the first time…

*picture by me (g.r.tela) of me blogging