I mentioned last week that this is the fifth newspaper for which I’ve written a regular column and that I’d never before endorsed a candidate for public office.

Another thing I’d never done is answer a letter to the editor. Most readers write to the editor because they’re hacked off and often they’re not nice about it. I’ve been unfavorably compared to barnyard animals and parts of the human body. How to you answer someone who says your I.Q. is lower than a mule’s?

But the Oct. 18 issue of this newspaper carried a letter responding to my column of Oct. 8 comparing life in Alabama to life in New York City — and I want to reply to it. Thank you, Gaye Lindsey, for taking issue with me in a thoughtful and courteous way and I am happy to acknowledge that you are entirely right. My column seemed to imply that south Alabama has no cultural life apart from National Public Radio and compact discs recorded far from here. Not true!

You mentioned several cultural organizations in our area which my wife and I know well and often enjoy.

I sang for a time in Musica Sacra, the choral group in Mobile that provides several splendid concerts each year. I suppose a picky concert-goer might say, “They’re OK, but they’re hardly the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.” Of course they’re not, but I don’t want a clone of some other musical group. Musica Sacra does what it does extremely well and it is a delight to hear them sing.

The Mobile Symphony is also excellent. Over the years my wife and I have been subscribers to the symphony seasons in Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Those are all great orchestras. Maybe I’m a musical dunderhead, but I enjoy a Mobile Symphony concert every bit as much as a concert by one of those celebrated ensembles. And it costs a lot less.

I’ll stand by my comment about church music, however. At least a dozen Manhattan churches offer music every Sunday that lifts my soul to the eternal habitations, and nothing around here can compare to it. Alabama churches tend to favor what its fans call “praise music” and what its critics call “happy-clappy.” I don’t mind singing those songs, but both the text and the music can wear thin. Not so with what is sung in the great churches of New York.

There’s also enjoyable and well-acted theater in south Alabama. Pam and I rarely attend professional theater (and we certainly didn’t see a Broadway production in New York since it would have exceeded the cost of our plane tickets to LaGuardia).

We like community theater. One advantage of community theater is that you can act in the play. I’ve acted in four productions of Theater 98 in Fairhope and have enjoyed other performances there. And the theater is so intimate that you feel as if you’re part of the play even when you’re not.

Then there’s the art world. No place on earth, I suspect, can rival New York for the sheer abundance of art venues — museums, galleries, auction houses. But who needs to see 5,000 paintings? You can’t possibly remember them all. And while Vermeer, van Gogh and de Kooning are always on display in New York, there’s quality art to see around here as well and you can afford to buy some of it.

The Mobile Museum of Art has a good and varied collection, and the Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival is one of the nation’s top juried shows. Pam and I have nine items in our home purchased at the Fairhope festival over the years, including watercolors, sconces, and studio glass. Those pieces aren’t valuable, but they give us great pleasure. We’ve also hung several prints from the Walter Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs — New York has nothing to compare to Walter Anderson (no place does).

So yes, Gaye Lindsey. You were right on target and I thank you for writing to correct a false impression I gave in my column. I also thank you for not comparing me to something you wouldn’t want your children to mention. Please write again. Any time.

Richard H. Schmidt is a retired Episcopal priest, editor and author who lives in Fairhope. He can be reached at courier@gulfcoastnewspapers.com.