Denise

Like letter writer John Starling ("Hampden owes a lot to Denise Whiting," June 13), I too became familiarized with Hampden because of Café Hon and moved here. I have watched its owner, Denise Whiting, only become better at what she does. There have been many businesses and restaurants that have opened in Hampden because they knew it would be profitable "settling" in a neighborhood that would embrace them, and we should thank Ms. Whiting for doing that groundwork! Arlene Layton, Hampden

Every year we hear complaints from merchants or residents who don't like Honfest for a variety of reasons. This is fine. The good news is that we all have the ability to choose the festivals (and businesses) we wish to support (or not). The even better news is that if we all have the opportunity to create our own festival, honoring whatever we want to honor and placing restrictions on whatever we want to restrict (or not). We just have to be willing to take the initiative and risks involved, develop and grow the creative idea, do all the hard work, garner volunteer support and sponsorships, deal with the city's permitting process, put up our own capital and then start all over again for the next year.

I moved my company to Hampden and bought a house here nine years ago. From what the original Hampdenites (some of these families have been here since the mills were operating in the mid-1800s) tell me about life here 15 or 20 years ago, I don't know if I'd be living here and raising a family without Denise Whiting and Café Hon. From what the real locals tell me, it was basically a declining population of hard good working folk and an ever-increasing amount of drugs and thugs. Amazingly, now I live, work, coach soccer and run a mentoring and martial arts program here, and I think it is hands-down the best neighborhood in Baltimore City.

Cafe Hon owner Denise Whiting stepped up after Sheila Dixon's fall to assume the role of top Charm City villainess. Now, with Honfest protests looming, a city stripped of its favorite term of endearment watches to see if Whiting will lose her hold on "hon" just as Dixon lost her fur coats and Jimmy Choos. Will rebel vendors defy Whiting's orders and sell cat's-eye glasses? Will aspiring mayors and other pols ignore her no-politics-in-a-public-street decree and work the crowd? One hopeful sign that, given enough pressure, Whiting's greedy grip can be loosed: She got so busy defending her "hon" copyright last winter that she let her Twitter account lapse.  "Cafe Hon abandoned this account, so we could swoop in and parody them," writes whoever is tweeting as @cafehon.

Not counting her seven custom-made beehive wigs, her cat's-eye glasses and her flamingo purse, Charlene Osborne holds little closer to her heart than the bedazzled rhinestone tiara that was fixed onto her lacquered bouffant as she was crowned Baltimore's Best Hon two years ago at Honfest. But this year, Honfest will be at least one beehive short. Osborne is among those who have pledged to boycott the annual event to protest what they consider to be the co-opting of a Baltimore institution: the fabled hon. "I consider myself a hon, raised by a real hon in Dundalk, which is hon territory," says Osborne, who's 49. "But I do not support the trademarking of the word and the strict handling of all things hon — it's very un-hon.

Not everyone in Baltimore thinks the image of the "hon" or its glorification through Honfest is cute, funny or endearing. It is actually rather insulting to a generation of working, lower-middle class people and does not put on Baltimore's best face for the tourists. What was once a quirky, local reason-to-drink has become an event that tourism guides tout as a reason to visit our city and watch us mock ourselves. That said, Café Hon owner Denise Whiting, the organizer and promoter of the event, is actually the hero of Hampden — and its only voice of reason.

Cafe Hon owner and "hon" trademarker Denise Whiting wants Baltimore to know she's sorry. Not sorry that she trademarked the town's classic term of endearment. Just sorry that she spoke about it so clumsily that her adopted hometown came to think of her as greedy. And sorry that nobody seemed to be listening a month ago, when she made basically the same apology in a letter to the editor in The Baltimore Sun. The newest apology came in the form of a news release Wednesday.

Cafe Hon owner and "hon" trademarker Denise Whiting wants Baltimore to know she's sorry. Not sorry that she trademarked the town's classic term of endearment. Just sorry that she spoke about it so clumsily that her adopted hometown came to think of her as greedy. And sorry that nobody seemed to be listening a month ago, when she said basically the same thing in a letter to The Baltimore Sun. The newest apology came Wednesday in the form of a news release. "I apologize to everyone in Baltimore for misspeaking," Whiting says in the release.

He's calling it the first shot fired in the Battle of the Hons. An area writer has thrown down the gauntlet — or is it a housecoat? — challenging the legitimacy of the three-letter trademark that has had Baltimore up in arms through the holiday season. Bruce Goldfarb, a Catonsville writer who runs the website "Welcome to Baltimore, Hon," plans to start selling coffee mugs emblazoned with the word "Hon. " He's doing it with hopes of proving that Denise Whiting, the founder of Honfest, the city's annual homage to an apocryphal Baltimore gal known for her beehive hairdo and cat's-eye glasses, has no legal claim on the word.

One of the best Christmas cards out there can be found at NotCafeHon, the Twitter feed created after cafe owner Denise Whiting trademarked the word "hon. " There's a photo of Whiting celebrating with the mayor who came to her rescue a little over a year ago when the restaurant's pink flamingo was imperiled. "Merry Christmas," the card reads, "from a disgraced woman who stole from Baltimore … and Sheila Dixon . " On the same topic, a Baltimorean posted on Facebook: "Just realized that the Boycott Cafe Hon Facebook Page is registered under the username ' Cafe Hon .' What a huge mistake on Cafe Hon 's part for not getting to it first.