Let's Go editors refute what they see asZevin's accusation that the R-Ws are poorlychosen.

"We look for travel experience, familiaritywith the country, writing and language ability,the ability to work hard and responsibility," saidFitzpatrick. "Nathan had all those qualities; hewas a Middle-Eastern studies concentrator and wasvery responsible; he would stay at the hotel andwork while Dan would go out and drink. The onlything was that he had never been there [Turkey]before."

Fitzpatrick blamed the article's negative slanton Zevin's disillusionment with the life of aworking travel writer.

"It really seems that the reporter wasfrustrated that he didn't have a better time--heexpected the life of a R-W to be more glamorous,"he said.

"It's not the R-W's job to go on vacation. Thejob is to make sure the [facts are right]," Gagesaid.

Let's Go editors said that the mistakes whichZevin observed actually serve an importantpurpose.

"The people who are using the books areinexperienced like the R-W--they [the R-Ws] makemistakes so that people won't have to," Gage said.

The article also alludes to the stereotype ofthe Harvard student as a snobby rich kid, withreferences to Nathan's mother telling him toretreat to Paris when his travels becamedifficult.

Zevin compared Let's Go to The Berkeley Guides,the self-proclaimed "hipper than thou" competitionwho know what "cheap is all about." He describedLet's Go Publishing Director Peter J. Keith'94-'95 as a freshly scrubbed executive who"presides...from a glass-enclosed, Lou Grant-styleoffice overlooking Harvard Yard."

Let's Go executives say Zevin's article wasdoomed from the start by the fact that "it is notinteresting to write in Rolling Stonemagazine how great Let's Go is. He [Zevin] didn'tfind much dirt at all because we areprofessional," Fitzpatrick said.

Instead, executives cited the words, whichZevin himself described, of one student fromSeattle conveyed "over a cheap dinner of Turkishdelectables."

"Let's Go is my Bible. Don't take it away fromme.!