Letters to the Editor

by the Readers

Cat's Meow
Lori Hill was so right when she wrote that cats are usual sights at bookstores like Borders [Cover story, Summer Book Quarterly, June 23, 2005]. [Vendors like] Amazon are why people usually think more along the lines of cheap, rather than quality. Featuring Molly's Cafe & Bookstore was perfect to demonstrate this; I'd be happy to volunteer there anytime.
Kathy Morris
Via email

More Tours
I recently read your entertaining reviews of the historical tours available in Philadelphia [Cover story, "Tour de Forced," June 30, 2005]. I like that you included historical accuracy — except for the fact that different reporters reviewed the different tours, thus having different standards on judging the tours. It was an interesting piece of journalism that should be included in your paper on a regular basis.

Perhaps a theme should be to have all tour operators certified so that they are all on the same page – historically, that is. They certify bus operators at other historical sites like Gettysburg, or up in Boston, or at the Grand Canyon. If the city ever did decide to certify the myriad tours, they would have to have qualified people in charge, someone with a masters degree in U.S. history who regularly discusses problems of historical accuracy with colleagues and who winces when they hear about Ben Franklin's 300 illegitimate kids or Dolley Madison's lack of respectability after she was widowed during the yellow fever epidemic.

But nobody really wants too much big-government interference so the last thing tourism needs is someone from the city coming out and telling tour operators whether they are historically accurate or not. I guess your paper is the only watchdog to give the poop on some of these rip-off tour companies.
Paul Rastatter
Drexel Hill

You gave the National Park Service a 7 for factual accuracy, yet you did not state what you found inaccurate. Just because a tour guide doesn't mention slavery or women's voting rights doesn't make the information inaccurate. It just means you didn't hear what you wanted to hear.
Bill Caughlan
Drexel Hill

As a veteran tour guide here in Philadelphia, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your adventures in the "industry." Allow me, however, to correct you on your "historical accuracy." The City Tavern burned in 1854; that's no offense to Ghost Tours. It's also true that while renovations were underway for the Bishop White House and the public was not permitted inside, some Independence National Historical Park personnel were afraid to go inside alone. I myself had a visiting ranger from Florida on one of my tours. He heard the Bishop White House story and decided to go inside with another ranger. A few nights later, he saw me about to start a tour and came running up to me. "The Bishop White House," he proclaimed, "is haunted!" He told me how he had gone inside a closet with another ranger and that it was unnaturally cold. They felt a strange wind swirling around them. That would be enough for anyone not to want to enter alone!
Beth Diamond
Via email

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