Love Life

Sir:

For years I have admired you from afar and have loved your little old magazine like a brother. But now I hate you, I hate you. My reason? Your report of the studies of one Professor N. Tinbergen (a likely name!) in re the procreative functions of sticklebacks [TIME, May 24], to wit:

"Professor Tinbergen concludes that breeding sticklebacks do not see their mates as fish of the other sex. The male sees only an egg-distended shape; later he smells fresh eggs. The female sees a flash of red belly; later she feels a prodding. They sense little more of each other."

. . . Man has squandered a great many centuries disillusioning himself about himself and the world he lives in, stripping away charming idiocies and comforting misconceptions. Now he is so depraved that he will not allow even the inoffensive stickleback to breed in privacy and the peace that only ignorance affords.

A pox on you, Professor Tinbergen--and upon you, too, TIME ! Do you not know that there are still extant a few of us anthropomorphic-minded souls who still clasp Uncle Remus and Ernest Thompson Seton to our bosoms? We prefer to believe, since birds do it and bees do it, that they (and the sticklebacks) feel romantic about what Professor Tinbergen insists is merely another dismal reflex . . .

ALLEN R. ROBERTSON Weslaco, Tex.

Fan Mail

Sir:

May we take this opportunity to compliment TIME on the excellent article on television [May 24]. We have purchased copies for our key personnel who are expected to have an active part in the development of our television station, which is now under construction . . .

RALPH G. ELVIN

Vice President and Managing Director Detroit Broadcasting Co. Detroit, Mich.

Sir:

In your interesting layout on television you have a picture of Kyle MacDonnell, and refer to her as ". . . already becoming television's No. 1 pin-up girl."

Why not . . . the beautiful and talented Mary Kay Stearns, who was recently crowned "Queen of Television?" . . . Mary Kay and her husband . . . have a pocket-size dramatis comedy . . . about newlyweds ... In response to their very first telecast they received over 8,000 letters . . .

JOHN A. ROGERS

New York City

State of Israel

Sir:

Amazed that the cover of TIME, May 24, did not honor Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel, rather than Britain's "stooge" King Abdullah of Transjordan . . .

LEROY L. LANDAU

Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Sir:

... Is TIME . . . unaware of the historic and spiritual significance of the establishment of the state of Israel?

H. G. LOEB

Richmond, Calif.

Sir:

. . . Considering the autocratic nature of the Arab states ruled by Abdullah and his partners in perfidy, the obvious democratic nature of Israel, the still-standing decision of the United Nations in favor of partition, the undisguised aggression of the Arab states into Palestine, and TIME's espousal of democratic causes and hatred of aggressors, don't you think a cover featuring the President of the new democratic state of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, would have been more fitting?

FRANK EHRLICH Brooklyn, N.Y,

P: No. TIME considered Abdullah the key figure to the unlocking of the British mandate. The rise of the state of Israel is another story, now beginning to unfold.--ED.

Sir:

Thanks to TIME for including the quote from the statement of policy of the American Council for Judaism in its report on the state of Israel.

The analogy in the last paragraph that TIME drew from the Council statement, however, is not an accurate reflection of the thinking of the American Council for Judaism.

TIME implies that "Jew" is equivalent to Irish or German, which would imply the unsupportable theory of a worldwide "Jewish" nationality. The American Council for Judaism denies such a concept and repudiates any programs that derive from it ...

We are Americans by nationality, Jews by religion only . . . The American Council for Judaism asserts for its members that there can be no acceptance of rights or obligations to Israel that are not rights or obligations common to all American citizens.

ELMER BERGER

The American Council for Judaism New York City

Cover Lions

Sir:

Didn't you think there was something missing from the picture of King Abdullah of Transjordan on your cover?

Yes, you guessed it. It was the British Lion. He must have run off to help the Arabs destroy Jerusalem.

MARY BERMAN Maiden, Mass.

Sir:

I think the caption under the picture of King Abdullah of Transjordan, "I shall do as I please," could well be changed to read: "I shall do as it pleases England."

JAY N. FISHBEIN, M.D.

Providence, R.I.

"Under the Drippings"

Sir:

Please accept my congratulations upon your accurate story about Professor Joseph Armstrong [TIME, May 17]. I am one of the "thousands of Baylor students who have taken his poetry course on Robert Browning," and I have never forgotten the pleasure and privilege. Through your [story] I once again relived the days when, as Dr. Armstrong puts it, I was "under the drippings of the sanctuary."

HERBERT A. PLUMMER Port Arthur, Tex.

Sir:

In April 1889 ... a famous poet .,. recited How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix into a toy designed to preserve the spoken word upon a wax-covered cylinder. All went well until the poet came to the words, "Speed! echoed the . . ." Then he hesitated, and said: "I forget it." Upon being prompted, however, he went on: "Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest." Again the poet paused, and presently said: "I am exceedingly sorry that I cannot remember my own verses, but one thing I shall remember all my life is the astonishing sensation produced upon me by your wonderful invention, Mr. Edison" . . .

Can TIME or Professor Armstrong tell us what became of this wax cylinder recording of the voice of Robert Browning?

RENEE HAWEIS CHIPMAN Montreal, Quebec

P: The original recording has been lost; a duplicate cylinder (perhaps the original--the records are vague) was apparently destroyed when the Browning Museum in London was blitzed.--ED.

Dallas Double

Sir:

A letter in TIME [May 10] stated that a double equestrian statue of Lee and Jackson which had been erected in Baltimore was thought to be the only one of its kind in the U.S. and perhaps in the world.

In 1936 a double equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee and a young soldier was erected by the Southern Memorial Association and unveiled by President Roosevelt in Lee Park at Dallas, Tex. It is a fine work of art by A. Phimister Proctor, who has just completed a group of horses called "The Mustangs" for the University of Texas campus.

ELIZABETH ROGERS Dallas, Tex.

Bebop

Sir:

Do not dismiss "bebop" so lightly [TIME, May 17]. After all, jazz is the only genuine contribution to contemporary music that America can boast of. Our jazz masters are the world's finest, which is more than I can say for our "serious" composers. Bebop is a tremendous thing--it must be heard with the brain and felt with the soul; it packs as much emotional intensity as any symphony . . .

If you can discover no element of beauty or genius, I fear that you are missing one of the most exciting things that has happened in the music world in many, many years.

CARLETON RYDING

Detroit, Mich.

Sir:

Dizzy Gillespie*--how great can you possibly get?

M. J. SWARTZ Omaha, Neb.

Sir:

"Rebop," according to beboppers, is a term used only by squares (those who aren't hep).

"Hep," according to hipsters, is a term used only by those who are not fly (those who aren't hip).

JOHN ADKINS LEW SPENCE Tucson, Ariz.

* Highflown trumpeter and highfalutin high priest of beboppers.

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