Latex: Printing Letter vs. A4

I love the fact that math can be typeset so easily in Latex. But, I hate the fact that it can be so difficult to get it to format documents for letter paper. Previously, I've been able to edit /etc/texmf/dvips/config/config.ps and either move "Letter" entries to the top and/or comment-out "A4" entries. That trick didn't work this time. What did work was to skip dvips and use pdflatex. Somehow, it was already configured properly ("p letter" in /etc/texmf/dvipdfm/config/config) to use the Letter paper size. Not a problem since pdflatex works great and PDF is easy to print. I just wish someone would simplify the dvips configuration...