Adulterous Solution?
Sir:
Your article "Breach of Marriage" [TIME, Aug. 9] incensed me. I doubt that any intelligent person will subscribe to the opinion of the Church of England in this matter . . .
The commission deems artificial insemination "permissible" only when the husband is the donor. They apparently neglect to consider that its purpose, in almost all cases, is to render fertile those marriages in which the husband is partially or completely sterile--and this, I am told, comprises about one in every 15 marriages.
I am the mother of two lovely children, and I'm expecting a third, all of them conceived artificially. It was only after several years of childless marriage that my husband and I discovered, to our astonishment, that he was sterile. Had it not been for the sympathetic cooperation of a certain obstetrician we would have had to remain childless, and thus ruin our whole future happiness, or else undertake the difficult and uncertain business of adoption--an alternative which is full of psychological problems for both parents and children, and certainly no completely satisfactory substitute for bearing and raising your own.
I fail to comprehend how this solution--a perfect one, as far as we can see--can be regarded as unlawful or adulterous . . .
(NAME WITHHELD) Evansville, Ind.
New Look
Sir:
In regard to Mrs. C. W. Jackson's letter [saying] that "the Democrats are looking backward on the events of the past, the Republicans are looking forward on the events of the future" [TIME, Aug. 2].
Can it be that the Republicans are ashamed to look back?
J. ROBERT HEHN
Billings, Mont.
At Mach 4 & Plus
Sir:
After reading your article [TIME, Aug. 9] concerning turbojet engines with speeds to Mach 4 and plus (enabling a pilot to lunch in New York and then fly to Honolulu to breakfast on the same day), I am prepared to give ground (or sky) to the future "zoomies." As a former Navy fighter pilot I had heretofore considered our navigation and power plant problems more difficult than would be our successors' with their simple jet engines and new navigational aids. [But] the pilot of the future will need a chronometer that runs backwards and is inscribed Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow! . . .
WALLACE C. ROBINSON
Georgetown, Ky.
The Ostrich & the Horseshoe
Sir:
I wouldn't be seen dead in a genealogy room, but you may want to check whether or not this 15th Century illumination (see cut, left) is the same device used in the Wallace coat of arms which you describe as "an ostrich about to swallow a horseshoe" [TIME, Aug. 9].
In my edition of Shakespeare, the drawing illustrates ... one of Jack Cade's last boisterous speeches in Henry VI, Part II: ". . . I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich."
Aptly, "shag-hair'd" rebel Jack Cade was the self-styled leader of the Third Party . . . who elsewhere says to his vacillating mob of followers:
"I thank you, good people: there shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score . . ."
RAYMOND HENRI
Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
Skid Road
Sir:
I note that you, and many others, make use of the term "Skid Row" [TIME, Aug. 9]. The correct term is "Skid Road."
In the old days of logging, skids were placed athwart the road five or six feet apart and several logs with the bark removed from the under side were coupled together end to end, and drawn over the skids by a team of several yokes of oxen. The bull-puncher, the dandy of the camp and cock of the walk, with his straw hat on the back of his head and a goad stick in his hand, danced alongside the team and kept the procession moving, while a strong boy with a bucket of skid grease and a swab would put a dab of grease on each skid just ahead of the moving logs. When the loggers went to town for relaxation it was most natural to call the part of the city they frequented the "Skid Road." ... I was there. I greased the skids.
FREDERIC A. CALLARMAN Seattle, Wash.
P: By popular usage, Skid Row is now an acceptable description of that part of town.--ED.
Mahler's Eighth
Sir:
. . . The report on the Hollywood Bowl performance of Mahler's Eighth [TIME, Aug. 9] ... goes beyond the limit. An American music editor really ought to have a little more respect for a work which, in civilized countries, is regarded as one of the most important of the beginning of the 20th Century, and is often mentioned in one breath with Beethoven's Ninth. That it as yet escapes the understanding and appreciation of an audience whose taste has been for the last 30 years nourished by Tschaikovsky and Rachmaninoff ... is certainly not the fault of the piece.
Your editor's comparison of the Eighth with Texas is probably the greatest compliment Texas ever got, in spite of "flat and windy stretches" . . .
ORVILLE ENDICOTT
Oakville, Utah
Chuck Roast Checkup
Sir:
Referring to the article about Mr. Hartkopf [TIME, Aug. 9], I am one of the millions of stupid women who buy steaks and loin chops rather than chuck roast. I always felt dissatisfied when I bought a cheap piece of meat, as if I had picked up a bargain that did not turn out to be a bargain after all.
This time I decided to check a few facts, so I went to the store and selected a nice lean chuck roast. The smallest piece the butcher was willing to sell me weighed 2 Ib. 9 oz., for which I paid $1.76 or 69-c- a pound. I rubbed the juice of half a lemon into the meat and put it into the refrigerator. Next morning I seared it in hot fat to close the pores and roasted it in the oven at 300DEG. When I took it out and weighed it, there was i Ib. 14 oz. left besides 34 CUP gravy . . .
As Mr. Hartkopf stated, it could not be sliced, so my husband cut it in chunks . . . The meat was not exactly tender, but we could chew it. After dinner I scraped the meat from the bones and weighed both separately. There were 8 ounces of bone and gristle and 9 ounces of meat left, most of which was fat ...
If I had not followed Mr. Hartkopf's advice, I would have bought a pound of veal steak for Sunday, which makes three generous portions, and which would have cost me 99-c-, and for Monday I would have bought three center cuts of pork chops for 65-c-. I would have had two delicious meals and saved money, lemon and gas . . .
(MRS.) ANN MEYER
Lexington, Ky.
Labor Trouble
Sir:
In connection with the labor troubles at the Metropolitan [TIME, Aug. 16 et seq.], is there any truth in the report that Mr. Petrillo insists upon changing Madame Butterfly's name from "CIO-CIO San" to "AFL-AFL San?"
HENRY J. C. HUMPHREY
San Diego, Calif.
P: Little Caesar never listens to the mocking bird.--ED.
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