Raising Hell with Nasser
Sir:
Thank you for your thought-provoking stories on the Middle East. We should have a Nasser around this black man's hell and white man's paradise to kick out the color-conscious white men, whose only interests seem to be getting good salaries out of this so-called democratic British colony.
MOHAMMED TORAH Nadi, Fiji
Sir:
May I ask what makes Nasser, the mixed-breed Egyptian, a better qualified Arab nationalist than King Hussein, the purebred Arab and descendant of Mohammed?
REGNA CARLSON
Jersey City
Down to the Sea in Subs
Sir:
After reading about Russia's pigboat fleet, I considered it a welcome change to know that Uncle Sam is finally doing something about the threat of enemy subs. Hurrah for Rear Admiral Thach and his men of the Navy's ASW (antisubmarine warfare) [Sept. 1]. Maybe now the Navy will show the public that they can do more than just eat good chow and shoot craps.
PETER A. JOHNSTON Cincinnati
Sir:
Any submarine skipper who'd fall for Thach's "other shoe" routine deserves to be shot from one of his own torpedo tubes.
GREGORY FOKSZEY Toronto, Ont.
Sir:
In reading your interesting article, I came across your picture captioned "Alfa Helicopter Pilot on Pursuit Exercise." This picture appears to have been taken through the nose station of a P2V-7F Neptune patrol plane. Having flown the latter plane, I am positive your picture was taken through what we call our "Poker parlor."
DANIEL I. KARLIN Lieutenant (jg), U.S.N.R. Chicago
Sir:
Breathes there a Navy or Marine Corps pilot who did not instantly recognize Admiral (nee Commander) Thach from the many fine tactical films he made during the unpleasantness of the '40's ? In the story, however, your hypoxic staffer was understandably carried away by overexposure to so much brass in such rarefied atmosphere. The good greying admiral never could have done a "snap roll" tied to another plane's wing. Slow roll yes, but a snap roll is an axial roll involving a partial stall, and were you to try this maneuver tied wing-to-wing with another fly machine, you would experience a feeling of togetherness which you would never get over. J. SHELDON LEWIS Chief Pilot
Thatcher Glass Manufacturing Co. Elmira, N.Y.
P:TIME, erring, promises itself a refresher in aircraft-identification, formation aerobatics.--ED.
Sir:
I thought you might be interested in knowing that the July 21 issue of TIME was a part of the small wardroom library that sailed to the North Pole with us on Aug. 12 and 17, 1958.
JAMES F. CALVERT Commander, U.S.N. U.S.S. Skate % Fleet P.O. New York City
Art's Ossorios
Sir:
In the Aug. 11 Art section you discuss the paintings of Abstract Expressionist Alfonso Ossorio. In the Aug. 25 issue you reproduce two portraits: Goya's Don Vicente Osorio, a young Spanish prince, and Millais' Cherry Ripe, a girl of four who is today Signora Edie Ossorio, aged 84. Their names are almost identical. Are they related?
J. C. BEAVER Los Angeles
P:The tot who posed for Cherry Ripe is the great aunt of Artist Ossorio. Goya's model is no kin.--ED.
Leotights & Legotards
Sir:
The outrageous fad known as leotights and legotards is known as lollitards in this town. Lunatards would be a more appropriate label, since they make the wearer look like something from outer space.
KATHRYN SMITH Jackson, Miss.
Preconvention Buildup
Sir:
The Democratic state ticket in N.Y. is so weighted by Carmine De Sapio's egregious public display of bossism [Sept. 8] that nothing can prevent its defeat this fall. The only question is whether intelligent Democrats and independent voters will seize the opportunity to kill De Sapio politically by making this defeat in New York completely overwhelming by voting Republican. The Democratic Party is the only one that can give vitality to a hopeful future, but only its members can make it worthy of that great mission.
JULIAN JACK New York City
Southern Backwardness
Sir:
There is a wave of shocked incredulity seeping over Europe at the news of the James Wilson case [Wilson, an Alabama Negro, was sentenced to die for a $1.95 theft, has now won an indefinite stay of execution]. As an American citizen, residing for the last seven years in Europe, I share the shock. As a native Southerner, I do not share the incredulity. Having spent the first 20 years of my life in the South, I know, with sad certainty, that the bigotry of our mutually beloved region cannot be overestimated. But I am just as certain that we can no longer afford our eternal march in double-quick time backwards into the past. I believe that America is the best hope of man.
FRANK YERBY Menton, France
Sir:
England exiled Napoleon to the island of St. Helena; why can't the U.S. find Governor Faubus an island home?
D'ARCY K. BANCROFT Winnipeg, Canada
Sir:
Being a resident of Louisiana and having observed the racial superiority doctrine in action, I believe I can comment on it: what most supporters of "states' rights" do not, or do not want to, realize is that the Southern idea is white states' rights, which is not real self-government at all. I deplore the need for calling out the troops, but if it takes the troops to make a locality stick to its moral, religious, logical and legal obligations, then let's have them.
O. J. RUSSELL Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Lolita
Sir:
You have reached rock-bottom with your review of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita [Sept. 1]. You may be likened to a dribbling slug who creeps in darkness because the spreading jungle has blotted out its view of the sun.
VIRGINIA FICKEL
Carlisle, Pa.
Sir:
Your review of Nabokov's Lolita could not have been more accurately written. As I have already read the book, I was both surprised and happy to find that you have reviewed such a shocking novel. Thank you.
ERNEST S. CAPONI Leominster, Mass.
Bringing Up Murphy
Sir:
Our 30,000 alumni were disappointed when no mention was made in your story on Robert Murphy that he had received his earlier training under the Jesuits of Marquette. He is rather proud of the fact that he is an alumnus of this university--the largest Catholic one in the U.S.
RAY H. PFAU
Marquette University Alumni Association Milwaukee, Wis.
Cathedrals & Faith
Sir:
Bishop Robert Dwyer's comment that cathedrals must go [Sept. 1] reveals that he, too, has yielded to the secular pressure of modern life. The great cathedrals of Europe were built by men of faith and devotion. The one comment that might be made about the church of today is that it has ceased to build cathedrals; faith and devotion are lacking. Men no longer believe; so they don't build. But let's build more cathedrals!
(THE REV.) GORDON W. MATTICE First Presbyterian Church Jamaica, N.Y.
Sir:
"Death to the Cathedral" recalls the story of a Catholic who, after seeing Manhattan's Cardinal Spellman rush into the private office of famed real estate man William Zeckendorf, gasped, "Oh my gosh, there goes St. Patrick's Cathedral."
WALTER E. HUELLE
Cambridge, Md.
Tax & Other Figures
Sir:
Am I the only American taxpayer getting weary of digging deep to pay for foreign aid to countries whose feeble efforts to collect income taxes from their own citizens reminds one of a Keystone Cops comedy [Sept. 1]? It's a shame that Gina Lollobrigida isn't as generously endowed with a sense of civic duty as she is with anatomy.
CARROLL WILLIS
Wichita, Kans.
Sir:
You printed inexact facts about the income-tax figure of my wife, Gina Lollobrigida. Your figure of $18,583 for 1957 represents the net tax to be paid by Signora Lollobrigida at the request of the Comnne di Roma (municipal administration of the city of Rome), which has fixed the taxable income for 1957 at approximately $128,000. MILKO SKOFIC
Rome
Sir:
Many thanks for your picture of Lollobrigida. It brought a fact to my attention I had never noticed before--she is also very pretty.
NORMAN J. MEUNIER Northampton, Mass.
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