An Open Letter To Mr. Stuart Emmrich, Travel Editor of The New York Times

This week, Stuart Emmrich, the travel editor at The New York Times, is fielding questions from readers for the paper's popular "Talk to the Newsroom" feature. My favorite part of the interview is when two readers call the Travel section out for being completely focused on high-end crap that no normal person can afford. Another highlight is when Cole Couture, a questioner who claims to work in the airline industry, takes Mr. Emmrich to task for the frequent errors in the flight information at the end of destination articles. Mr. Emmrich is forced to admit that his section is rife with "recurring mistakes" of this sort. Ouch. But Emmrich's interview really didn't address any of the issues that I have with the Times travel section, so I've written him a letter of my own and posted it here.

Dear Stuart,

As a travel enthusiast, I am underserved by your coverage. The Times makes many great recommendations for shopping, dining, hotels, and ski resorts, but I never manage to find articles about the things I like to do on vacation -- drinking, drugging, and having the sex. You never publish pieces advising where to find good hookers or handjobs. After the ridiculously stressful grind of sitting in my house writing blog posts all day, sometimes I just need to relax by getting a nice full-service massage.

Sex isn't the only area where your travel section is lacking. I grew up thinking journalists traveled the world all hopped up on dope and on a never-ending quest for the next great high. But the Times Travel section never runs articles on, for example, which countries have the most lax pharmaceutical regulations, or where one can find the best hallucinogenic toads to lick. What's up with that? What ever happened to the good old days when the Times newsroom was practically packed to the gills with cub reporters filing stories after spending nights doing lines of coke in the bars of the Lower East Side?

Finally, I am continually disappointed by the absence of round-the-clock baby animal coverage in your paper. You guys need to start being more like Gridskipper. It's time to get with the program.

Best,

Hunter Walker

Full Disclosure: Before coming to Gridskipper, I worked as an intern on the business side of the New York Times. There I fielded angry phone calls from investors and swooned every time the cute girls who work for TV networks would make deliveries.