Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., Publisher
Bill Keller, Executive Editor
Sally Singer, Editor, T
Yasmin Namini, Senior V.P. Marketing and Circulation
Arthur S. Brisbane, Public Editor
Dear People of The New York Times ,
Could we work out some type of arrangement where you would never deliver another copy of T, The New York Times Style Magazine, to my house? Please! Last Saturday T and several other elements of the Sunday edition were thrown on my lawn along with the Saturday paper. On Sunday evening, during a storm that knocked out our TV satellite reception, I picked up T and, despite knowing better, opened it.
The pictures on the contributors page included one of Didier Malige who was described as “the hair visionary.” Malige’s contribution was six full pages of girls with boys’ haircuts. I don’t know what it is you folks on 8th Avenue find attractive and inviting, but back in Indiana where I grew up and out here on Long Island where I now live we know what boys look like and we don’t want girls looking like boys. What the hell is wrong with you people?
Girls are wonderful. They’re great to look at, fun to be with and talk to. Leave them alone. There are already enough boys. We don’t need a bunch of girls talked or conned into looking like fake boys. Okay?
Since Malige was described as “the hair visionary,” I’m hoping that means he is one of a kind - the world’s only “hair visionary. ” One is surely enough. But why do I think you probably have other “visionaries,” waiting in the wings to be introduced to your readers? Is there a nail visionary? If so, finger or toe or both? Is there a skin visionary lurking out there somewhere, unknown and certainly unappreciated by stiffs like me? A leg visionary? Yes? No? An upper body visionary? I’ll stop. You do run a family newspaper, most of the time.
It isn’t only the odd people wearing ridiculous clothes in unnatural poses that I find mindless. It’s the copy too. The headline of one piece talks about a “fantasy world of hardscrabble glamour.” I glanced at the article and could see no evidence the writer had tracked down anyone who had a genuine hardscrabble existence and asked that person how glamorous it was on a scale of 1 to 10.
I implore you to find a way to spare me this elitist swill. When T is delivered to my home, it is a waste of paper, ink, dyes, plastic, gasoline and time. Is it possible to get a schedule of T publication dates? That way I could synchronize my vacation plans with those dates and make sure I’m gone. I always stop home delivery when we’re away.
Or would it be easier for everyone involved if the circulation department simply informed the delivery company it was welcome to keep any and all of my copies of T?
I do enjoy much of what is in the newspaper most days and hope we can find a mutually satisfactory and quick solution to this matter. One other point: If you insist on continuing this wretched T thing - and I’m sure you do - can’t you at least work with ad agencies that hire a few models who look as if they have had a couple of Big Macs once upon a time or several helpings of good old mac and cheese?
Sincerely,
Larry McCoy
(Posted August 26, 2011)