Some Don't Like It Hot

Your "Top 5 Sexiest Wait Staffs" piece [Restaurant Listings, Oct. 6, 2005] defied sense, taste, tact and purpose. There was nothing hip or funny, informative or insightful about the content. It didn't even rank as clever fluff. Please don't do it again.

Tim Dougherty
Via E-mail

[Fall Book Quarterly, Nonfiction Shorts, "Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport," Justin Bauer, Oct. 6, 2005] was incorrect on some technical counts: Jennifer Shahade is not a "grandmaster,"and she does not have a problem in the chess world. You have been led into the web of hypocrisy that Shahade both critiques and benefits from: The division of chess into gender categories. Women are allowed to compete with males in chess, yet many, like Shahade, choose not to gain notoriety in this way. Instead, they use their looks, not their games, to find success in the chess world. Male chess players also propagate this practice by welcoming cheesecake on covers of chess magazines and on chess Web sites.

By striving to play better games than men, and eschewing fame based on their appearance, women may prove that they are not excluded from top chess honors because of cognitive deficits relative to men. Chess organizations, if they wish to promote women's chess, should not separate it from men's chess, give special favors or lower standards. A generation after feminism, we should be aware of this issue, and aim to correct it.

Amanda Weinberg
Port Richmond

I usually agree strongly with Bruce Schimmel, but in the case of Daylin Leach, I must take exception [Loose Canon, "You Need Daylin Leach," Sept. 22, 2005]. Schimmel failed to point out that much of what Leach was publishing on his Web site was racist (particularly toward Arabs in general and Palestinians specifically), as well as sexually inappropriate (references to sex with minor girls). Philadelphia and the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania can't afford baggage like Daylin Leach.

Andrew E. Mathis, Ph.D.
Center City

Leach is my representative. You hit the nail on the head about his Web site and I appreciate it. As someone who sorely misses the city and the ease of being entertained and educated there, his recognition that the suburbs would not exist without the city is exhilarating. To be attacked by an organization that should be engaged in analysis of situations, yet confronted with the need to survive in a capitalist society, you would think the Inky would like to do stories on the legislative and executive branches of government as it affects their largest source of readers, like their coverage of the sex scandal of the Archdiocese. You have to bring eyes to your product, and to attack a guy who can help you is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

The good news is that he will be re-elected and hopefully will still try and engage the city and suburbs in meaningful legislation.

Robert Martin
Via e-mail

Due to an editing error, Chemical Heritage Society archivist Andrew Mangravite's first name and title were missing from [Arts, "Chemical Romance," Ashlea Halpern, Oct. 6, 2005].