The best news stories don't end when they are written and read. At the least, they are conversation-starters; at most, the stories themselves provide the impetus for a new chain of events. Here are some recent examples that grew out of stories in TIME:

Last September, Dr. Woodson W. Fishback of Southern Illinois University began to train school board members for the responsibilities of their jobs, and TIME reported his activities on Jan. 26.

His project, said TIME, "was beginning to look like a small significant landmark in U.S. education."

Ever since the story appeared, the "landmark" has been looming larger. Dr. Fishback has heard from people in 25 states and Alaska, most of them wanting more information and help in getting similar projects started in their own communities. More than 50 letters asked him for copies of his reading list for school board members, mentioned in the story.

Dr. Fishback has been invited to speak before a Kiwanis Club, to attend a school administrators' conference, and to set up a program to train candidates running for the school board in one Ohio city. A hospital administration consultant in Indiana thought Fishback's methods could be extended to hospital boards; a Texas social worker suggested it might be used for public welfare boards; and an Illinois minister asked: "How about setting up a board like that for my church?" Wrote one abashed board member: "Having been on the school board for about 20 years, I believe it is high time to know more about the job one is supposed to do conscientiously."

When Paramount Pictures' production head, Don Hartman, first told Songwriter Irving Berlin that Rosemary Clooney was to be cast in the top feminine role of White Christmas, Berlin, believing the part should have been filled by an established movie star, gave only dubious assent. But recently Hartman heard from Berlin, calling excitedly from Miami Beach. Said Berlin: "I thought you ought to know I'm very glad we have her in our picture. I'm glad to see that she's living up to the expectations you had for her and that she's already taking on stature and importance." Then the composer explained his change of heart: "I have a copy of TIME here, and I'm very excited by the cover and article on Rosemary Clooney [TIME, Feb. 23]."

The Tucson, Ariz. Daily Star provides us with an appropriate sequel to an item which appeared in TIME's Miscellany section Dec. 8. The story told of Pfc. Richard Barcello of Tucson, wounded on Triangle Hill, being carried to a field hospital by another soldier from Tucson, and then being treated by a doctor from Tucson. When Barcello reached the base hospital near Tokyo, the Star reported, the nurse assigned to him was Lieut. Norma Ashburn--from Tucson.

From halfway around the world, TIME-Reader George Willstead Rodrigues recently wrote us about his job as an assistant harbor master of the Calcutta Port Trust. The Calcutta harbor is one of the world's most difficult to navigate. And one of the toughest jobs there is that of the assistant harbor master, who pilots ships up the treacherous Hooghly, one of the several mouths of India's sacred Ganges.

Says Rodrigues: "Sometimes I board a ship at 6 in the morning and get her moored as late as 10 at night. In the interval there may be long hours waiting for the tide to bring in more water. I spend such hours reading . . . Usually I carry TIME in my shoulder bag, and it makes it easy, not only for myself, but also for the captains of ships I navigate, to pass the time. Often ship captains and I have friendly arguments over TIME stories."

Rodrigues recalls discussions with one British captain over the apartheid policy in South Africa, with another on the Anglo-Iranian oil troubles, with a Japanese captain on his country's contrition about the war, with an Egyptian captain on the merits of Naguib and Farouk, with a German captain on the EDC army, with a French captain on the instability of his government, and with an American captain on U.S. foreign aid. But Rodrigues has never argued with Russian captains. They pretend to understand nothing, he says, but navigational directions.

Cordially yours,

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.