License Seeker

Sirs:

In your issue of TIME dated Feb. 22 you state in your article called "Fiddler Growing Up" on p. 40 that "Yehudi Menuhin is 15," you continue to say on p. 42, "He demanded an automobile license, too, last spring, got it in California by taking a test on San Francisco's busy Market Street."

For the past year I have been demanding a license of my father, and as yet I have not been able to obtain one. Will you please tell me how and in what State I, who am over 15, am 6 ft. tall, and weigh 160 lb., might legally obtain a driver's license. I feel that I am a competent driver and would be willing to take a test anywhere and in any State, and also I would cherish it as my most treasured possession. . . .

JAMES J. DAVIS JR.

Washington, D. C.

Senator's Son Davis could obtain an operator's license in any of 27 States-- Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming-- but still Junior Davis could not operate his car in Pennsylvania or the District of Columbia.--ED. Add Washington Streets Sirs:

For many years I have been a subscriber to and cover-to-cover reader of TIME, and at last find an opportunity to write you. In your issue of Feb. 29, p. 36, third paragraph of last column, you mention that Rome, Perugia, Florence, Budapest and Berlin were renaming streets for George Washington.

PLEASE ADD BERGEN, NORWAY.

Although the street has not yet been designated, I have a communication from Bergen's mayor informing me that the city council has decided to take this step in commemoration of this year's celebration. I believe this will be the first street in Bergen named after a foreigner.

On Washington's birthday, the local broadcasting station devoted the evening to an American program, consisting of a short address by the undersigned, a talk on George Washington by Professor Visted, and a 100% American musical program, beginning with "The Star-Spangled Banner," and including "America," "The Red, White and Blue," and "Old Black Joe," et cetera.

I understand there was a tree-planting at Oslo and that a street in Hamburg, my last post, is also being named after Washington.

E. TALBOT SMITH

American Consul Bergen, Norway

Fork-Wise Prince

Sirs:

In TIME, Jan. 25, you state that the Crown Prince Asfaou Ouossan, 15, in England, speaks no English, attacked bacon & eggs with a spoon, etc. Wrong again. Your information "spells" French-like. The Prince's name is "Asfa Wassan" in English. He is 16, speaks English (likely better than any English prince speaks Amharic). American quite fluently, French better, interested in many things other than bicycles, and is quite familiar with the use of knife & fork. ERNEST WORK

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

P.S. My reason for the above is that I have been acting as an adviser to the Ethiopian Government since October 1930 (see TIME of about that time) and among other duties have been teaching the Prince. I thought that you might like to know the facts and also to know that TIME is read with much interest in Ethiopia.

All thanks and praise to Tutor Work and to educable Prince Asfa Wassan.--ED. Flagg Flayed

Sirs: If I ever looked upon a tough piece of earthenware; a cracked clay tankard, the handle of which is a huge flyswatter intended, presumably, to be an ear, it is the cut of James Montgomery Flagg in the March 21 issue of TIME. Flagg's mug appears as though it had been clawed by a lion, chewed by a bear and laugh-bitten by a hyena, and, if ever kissed, which I doubt, such a favor would be attempted only by a horsefly or a tarantula. This clay model visage looks like a map of No-Man's-Land minus the compassion which even that scene would evoke. An earthquake must have been under way at the time of Flagg's conception . . . and when he first saw daylight a hurricane, which happened to be in progress at the moment, swept Flagg through a couple of barn doors. He was, however, blown back into his crib with the mark of fair-weather defeat writ all over his pan and not a tear could wash out a feature of it. Result--cut in TIME. To gaze at this conceited cookie-cutter countenance takes the courage and strength of a Daniel to bear up under the shock. Just what does this reputed connoisseur of female pulchritude know about real beauty in woman? What he might consider beautiful no one else would, as witness what the majority of men marry! I challenge this brute to specifically define a beautiful woman. What are the ingredients--the formula? . . . Did it ever occur to this deep-thinking student of feminine loveliness to wonder why ugly women are ugly? That his own vain sex should take the blame would never enter his head. The ugly woman might well chant: Who made us what we are today?

O-U-R F-A-T-H-E-R.! He was not a handsome man And now we are to blame.

O-U-R FATHER!

FLORENCE CRABBE

New York City

In accepting a beauty contest judgeship from Syracuse University Artist Flagg declared: "All sorts of colleges every year do this to me . . . and I have had to gaze on some of the most god-awful female mugs in this broad tho' narrow land. . . ." --ED. Chaunk v. Chomp

Sirs: "

According to my cousin, Dr. Lois Gannet. the Hon. W. E. Edge "frequently 'chaunks' in Paris" instead of "chomps."

She has doctored more green apple colics than ordinary and she says all apple eaters "chaunk'' apples & it's the "chaunkings" that the youthful stomachs won't stomach.

And furthermore "chaunk" connotes the apple-eating tune more faithfully.

I think you should leave it up to the Ambassador before you add "chomp" to the dictionary. If he says he would rather "chomp" than "chaunk" all right. I give up. But after "chaunking" all my life and supposing it was "chaunking" I am going to be disappointed to go to "chomping."

KARL Rix Adams, N. Y.

To TIME'S ear for onomatopoeia it seems that the difference between "chaunking" and "chomping" lies in whether the apple-eater keeps his lips open or shut during mastication. Polite, Ambassador Edge chomps, with lips shut.-- ED. Jump Gadgets Sirs:

I read with much interest this week both your review and that of Editor & Publisher on the "new jump gadgets" "invented" by Col. Lloyd Collis and now being tried out by the New York Evening Post (TIME, March 21).

Col. Collis' plan lor making run-overs easier to find is comprehensive and workmanlike, but hardly original. Witness that the Ionia (Mich.) County News used a somewhat similar system for several years.

Under this system jumps carried no heads but merely numbers. I enclose a sample from an issue of Sept. 17, 1931 to give you a better idea of how easy this made it to spot run-overs.

... I do not know who started it. I inherited it from at least two previous "desk skippers" when I became news editor of the County News in April 1930.

Our jump system had only one drawback. While it made jumps easy to find, its omission of heads spoiled inside page makeup. Consequently the system was dropped when the paper passed to new owners last October.

As Col. Collis is copyrighting his plan, however, and intends to charge for its use, persons handling makeup on other newspapers may be interested to learn of the old News plan for jump heads which antedated his. . . .

J. R. MAGNEY

Ionia, Mich.

Walsh for McCormack Sirs:

1) The picture labeled "Massachusetts' McCormack" (TIME. March 28, p. 54) is really a picture of Massachusetts' Senator David I. Walsh, or

2) the resemblance between the two Congressmen is extraordinary. . . .

J. P. WERNETTE

Harvard University Cambridge. Mass.

Sirs:

. . . An immediate apology to the host of admirers of Massachusetts' own "David I," that perfect example of masculine pulchritude. Only quick action (how about a "cover" picture?) can rectify such an error ad absurdum. Massachusetts' McCormack may be grateful that the typographical error was no worse, it has limitless possibilities!

MARIE MURRAY

West Roxbury, Mass. Sirs:

What a fine looking OLD gentleman "Massachusetts' McCormack" has become since going to Washington! HARVEY A. GALLUP North Adams, Mass. Sirs: ... It is not a particularly good likeness of Senator Walsh, who has always been considered a very handsome man and a great favorite with the women voters. This may account for the error. . . . RAYMOND P. ATWOOD

Newton Highlands, Mass.

Sirs:

. . . How could you. TIME, make such a reprehensible and inexplicable error? With all deference to Congressman McCormack . . . even down here in West Virginia, we cannot allow our David I. to be pictured as someone else.

FRED H. MITCHELL

Morgantown, W. Va.

Sirs:

... I am reminded of the story of the little boy in an East Side school in New York. The teacher of the class held up a picture of a bird and asked Johnny what it was:

"It is a boid," said the alert Johnny.

"No," said the teacher, "it is a bird."

"Well," replied Johnny, "it looked like a boid." . . .

H. W. CASE

Portland, Me.

To Acme Newspictures, Inc. a thoroughgoing rebuke for furnishing a mislabeled photograph. To the Gentlemen from

Massachusetts, apologies. Herewith, a true likeness of Congressman McCormack. sponsor of the penny-a-shell tax bill to save wild fowl. -- ED.

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