Thanks A Lot, Really

To the Editors of the Crimson:

Thanks for taking such a hard line on this Playboy thing. It's nice to know that Cambridge's only breakfast table daily is so sensitive to women's interests and so careful not to implicitly support a magazine like that.

Thanks, too, for telling us about Playboy's response to The Crimson's high-minded snubbing: "[The Crimson] are our best PR people. In 1979 they put us on the map. They got us into Time magazine. That's why we started with Harvard first. They'll pave the way for us." (--David Chan, Playboy photographer, quoted in The Crimson on March 5). Yeah, you showed 'em, all right.

And thanks as well for giving us the opportunity to watch Crimson officials on TV, explaining how their newspaper wouldn't be an accomplice to Playboy's objectification of women.

How about that Indy, eh. Ran the ad, no explanations, no justifications, no stories about how their editors debated the issue--just went right ahead and ran a potentially controversial ad. Thirty column inches. How insensitive.

Thank you, though, for all the unique insights you provided us with: your article on how the important people at The Crimson wrestled with the decision to run or not to run (February 26, front page--29 column inches); for the article telling us about how some women were applying to be photographed (March 5, front page--57-and-a-half column inches); for the story on how the photographer was now leaving campus (March 8, front page blurb--13 column inches); the entire opinion/editorial page devoted to the magazine and its recruitment (March 8--80 column inches); and for yesterday's full-page inside scoop on the workings of the interview process, complete with sample appliction (March 10, front page blurb--84 column inches).

Yep, it's great the way you guys have used, oh, 263-and-a-half inches to tell us about every detail of this affair--how much women would be paid, when Mr. Chan arrived, how many women showed up, and when he left, what it's like to pose for a Playboy photographer. But advertise it? Never.

Thanks, Crimson, for refusing to give in--for refusing to sell Playboy a single inch of advertising space. Instead, you gave them 263-and-one-half.

By the way, thanks for running that Dos Gusanos ad, you know, the tequila ad with the beautiful girl wearing the black shirt and...uh...is she wearing anything else? Really emphasizes your editorial stand on women's issues.

And one more thing--thanks for the laughs. C. Chandler Bryan Jr. '85-'86