Fitch Slap

Shallow end: I really enjoyed Ben Paynter’s article that exposed the entire Abercrombie & Fitch philosophy (“Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful,” September 4). I’ve been disgusted with this company for over six years now, what with their soft-core pornography “advertisements” and “pretty people only” reputation. Nothing would please me more than to see the company LOSE their lawsuit for discrimination and be put in their place where they belong!

I do, however, have to take issue with the main interviewee in this piece. I believe that he quit because he didn’t like feeling that he had to hire people because they were beautiful and was embarrassed to be working at A&F. At the end of the piece, Paynter quotes him as saying that he prefers to hang around “good-looking people” and that it is not shallow. YES IT IS! But I guess empty and vapid people all flock together.

Keep this good stuff coming. I’ve recently moved to this area and finally found the Pitch, and I love it!

Name Withheld Upon Request

Sales forced: I am a 21-year-old male who shops at Abercrombie & Fitch from time to time. While I was in the Town Center Plaza store about a year ago, the girl working there asked me if I would be interested in a job. I thought it would be cool, because someone thought I was good-looking enough to work there, and it would be kind of a confidence booster as well.

I filled out the application and went back in to give it to the manager, who told me to show up for the group interview. I asked him about what kind of help they were looking for and what the starting pay was. It was only a couple of days a week, working only half-day shifts at only minimum wage. I never went back for the interview.

After reading this article, it makes me thankful I never had a job there; it doesn’t sound like they even care about their employees.

Eric Fluderer

Lenexa

Clothes the deal: If the purpose of Ben Paynter’s article was to generate sympathy for the poor little employees of Abercrombie & Fitch, then perhaps he should have omitted the part where he actually interviewed them. Their use of the terms average and subpar when referring to those falling short of supermodel good looks makes me question their motivation in taking part in the article.

If their mission was to alert A&F’s unsuspecting clientele to what’s really going on, then the joke’s on them; anyone with an IQ higher than that of a hot-pink hoodie is aware of A&F’s marketing angle. It seems more likely that they used the scandal to fuel their own publicity. After all, didn’t they get their pictures in the paper? Perhaps Dan Moon and his colleagues should consider relocating to Los Angeles. I’m quite certain there’s a reality series out there that could use them.

Andrea Sumpter

Lenexa

Size small: Ben Paynter’s account of Abercrombie & Fitch mandates was like the aftertaste of a shot of bad tequila. I have been away from Abercrombie for a handful of years now and have often walked into the store and felt the sting of guilt for at one time compromising my integrity to follow “company standards.” I hope that current employees will find their way to higher ground sooner than later.

Keep up the good work!

Rob Hays

Overland Park

Getting Mooned: While poor Dan Moon’s plight is amusing, it’s secondary in entertainment value to the author’s confusion about the status of Abercrombie & Fitch and its employees. As anyone who has a keen eye has noticed, the only people who wear A&F are dorky seventeen-year-olds possessing decades-old fashion sense. These are the same people who, years later, find themselves in the “VIP lounge” of Plaza restaurants, fancying themselves as the vanguard of KC nightlife.

Chortle.

Perhaps when Dan Moon or Andrea Mandrick are next sipping on their $8 vodka and tonics, pontificating the heady lyrics of Dave Matthews, they might want to think twice about agreeing to embarrassing stories such as these.

Tony Agee

Overland Park

Shrink to fit: For the past several weeks now, I have been disappointed with the Pitch because of its meaningless front-page stories, but Ben Paynter’s really tops the cake — way to go on finding the most meaningless story. Six worthless pages about so-called “hot” people working at Abercrombie & Fitch and how the store exploits their “hotness,” making them feel so used? Well boo-freakin’-hoo, people; news flash for ya: NO ONE CARES.

The people in the story have no business saying that just because people make fun of their clothes that those people are maybe jealous. Good Lord, people, shrink the sizes of your egos. Not everyone is envious of the pretty boys and cheerleader types of this world. Some of us like substance and creativity over partying, drunk, snotty people who are either too scared or too boring to find a more creative style and wouldn’t know what to do if all the clubs in the world burned down. I mean, like, where would they, like, go to stand around and, like, look pretty?

There are more things going on in this city that could be reported on rather than the trials and tribulations of some preppy kid working in an Abercrombie & Fitch store. And I don’t think they should be complaining about their time working at Abercrombie & Fitch when they still wear the A&F cologne and still parade around in the clothes that represent the A&F lifestyle.

Oh, and on another note: To all you people writing in and complaining about how the dating scene sucks in KC, please feel free to move.

Sarah Johnson

Kansas City, Kansas

Squid Ink

Dancer in the Dark: We thank you very much for the notice and positive review (“Class Action,” September 11). However, the choreographer’s name is Gaby Lucas, not Ruth Dyer. Ms. Dyer was our assistant director. Again, thank you for your time, the good review and, above all, your continued support of Princess Squid Productions.

Kara Armstrong and Michael Smith

Princess Squid Productions

Bad Rep

Think locally: I was glad to read Steve Walker’s corrective article on the Missouri Rep in his Stage Postscript column (“Made of Honor,” September 4).

Three things concern me most. First, why are so many of the Rep productions now originating from other theaters? Second, why has the Rep board selected a producing artistic director with no experience as an actor or director and limited experience as an educator? A vibrant educational connection between the Rep and the university, specifically the theater department, was essential to the Rep’s founder. That connection is apparently being eroded … feels like abdication. As Elizabeth Robbins points out in Walker’s Postscript: We ARE a regional theater. In my book, regional theater is where risks are (and should be) taken. As long as they come from the region in question.

Finally, why is Kansas City still suffering from this chronic cultural inferiority complex? Haven’t we learned by now that it is almost a parlor game for Easterners to sneer at the heartland? Such condescension, evident under current Rep management, should not be met with shame and knee bending. The only response to such unearned snobbery is a large, hearty laugh.

Catherine B. Morris

Kansas City, Missouri

Identity Crisis

Musical number: I have read Andrew Miller’s review of Pomeroy’s Identity several times (Here and Now, September 4), and I still haven’t quite decided what to draw from it. His attempts to criticize Pomeroy are so passive that they are virtually ineffective. I will give Andrew this: His review is the fairest thing ever to be printed about Pomeroy in the Pitch. It is certainly better than the childish name-calling and unsubstantiated insults that Geoff Harkness resorted to when calling Pomeroy’s Elevate “four and a half minutes of sheer musical hell” (Hear and Now, October 10, 2002).

Miller, or Geoff Harkness for that matter, should take the time to compare the band’s previous release, Cocoon Club, to this new EP. If they can’t hear the vast improvement in sound immediately, not only should they be fired immediately for stupidity, but they should probably have their hearing checked as well.

Yes, to quote Andrew Miller, “Pomeroy still blends underground-style hip-hop, free-flowing funk and falsetto choruses.” Though Miller passively tries to make this sound like a bad thing, what he still doesn’t quite get is, it’s this blending of diverse elements, and Pomeroy’s unique sound, that not only draws in a wide range of fans, but keeps them coming back as some of the most loyal fans I’ve seen.

Shelly Stewart

Columbia