DEAR ABBY: I would like to comment on the letter from "Paying the Price," the grandmother who had a cup of coffee with a male acquaintance and got herpes.

I am an 84-year-old man who has never had a venereal disease, and I'm an avid coffee drinker. I have three or four 12-ounce mugs every day. I have been drinking coffee as long as I can remember. Abby, coffee will NOT give you herpes. -- OLD COFFEE HOUND IN TEXAS