A Letter to the Editor

Graydon Carter
Editor
Vanity Fair
New York, New York  10036

Dear Mr. Carter,

I know I haven't been in touch, but after reading February's issue I felt I must drop you a line.  I enjoy reading Vanity Fair as its superior, snarky, devil-may-care content makes me feel like a gal in the know.  However, A. A. Gill and his perspective of the Creation Museum was a stand-out.

I'm not from Cincinnati, but I have visited there a few times.  Being from the midwest, and not knowing better, I found the town delightful.  Truly embarrassed now I have corrected my thinking and realize "they have meager pickings to boast about."  Referring to the pilgrims visiting the site arriving in their "surreys with the fringes on top" is a particularly clever and fresh way to describe - ha! have you heard this before - the "flyover states."  And, you sly dogs, making fun of people for their clothes and weight, it's so fresh!  So amusing!  I simply cannot get enough.  But then again I am from "Nowheresville" myself and do find the thought of being in the presence of an English actor startling.

To that point, flying Paul Bettany to Cincinnati to take the pictures does seem a wise move.  The overweight woman on the stool!  Poetry!  With ad pages down a mere 30% or so it's just the kind of thing to hook new readers.  A justifiable expense, no doubt.

It's just terrific that you are using your pages to show the right people, you know, the ones on the coasts, a true picture of what goes on in the middle.  Thank heavens I have your magazine to show me the real New York as well.  It helped so much when the gypsy cab driver yelled, "Fuck YOU!" in my face at the Gift Show last year.  If I hadn't known better, I might have assumed that all New Yorkers were rude.  Or worse, provincial.

Do give Mr. Gill my best.

Sincerely,


Mrs. Blandings

p.s.  The Monkey Bar does look fabulous.

I have no personal beef with Mr. Gill or his take on this attraction.  I am not fat.  I do not wear bib overalls.  I am not a creationist.  In fact, I'm not a member of any organized religion and while I do not believe in the creationist doctrine it doesn't seem any more far-fetched than the religion of my youth.   We, here in the middle, just get enough of this nonsense.  Sure, we've got some wingnuts; it's just not a reflection of our entire town/state/region.  Any more than Jersey Shore is.


I apologize for my language.  It seemed fitting.

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