Inalienable Right
Sir:
On account of your worldwide circulation of over 3,000,000, it is my inalienable right to congratulate you. Of course, sometimes I have felt a genuine desire to punch some TIME writer in the nose, but more often I have felt a stronger desire to shake hands.
ALLAN TALLQVIST
Helsinki, Finland
The Kenya Cover
Sir:
Apparently if one is a black agitator and a Red collaborationist, the cover of TIME will be open to him easily--as in the case of Tom Mboya [March 7].
I first heard this man in a TV speech in which he made the statement that if the West would only practice its democracy, the Communist danger would not exist. A ridiculously silly statement, of course. This is, apparently, the kind of demagoguery that TIME approves of!
VINCENT GODFREY BURNS
Annapolis, Md.
Sir:
TIME has been quick to grasp the importance of the vast continent of Africa and the part it is destined to play in the future of the world. I take this opportunity to offer my congratulations for your really first-class cover story on the great young nationalist, Tom Mboya, and your analysis of the rapidly changing face of Africa.
JAMES A. BALL
London
Sir:
I do not think that it is wise to describe the Kikuyu rite of female circumcision as barbaric just because it is not practiced in the U.S. I would like to remind you that female circumcision is common in many parts of Africa and in other parts of the world also.
LAMBERT OSITA OPARA
Indiana State Teachers College
Terre Haute, Ind.
The Dines at Home
Sir:
While violently chewing my way through the March 14 issue of TIME, I happened upon a picture of my "uncle," Painter Claes Oldenburg, engaging in a "happening." My mother, who was violently washing dishes at the time, calmed down long enough to read me your article on what's happening with the "happenings." I was very interested in a remark attributed to my father, Jim Dine, to the effect that he wanted to show the violence in the home. In my ten months of life, I can recall only three violent acts committed by my father in our home. Two of them were attacks of indigestion, and the third was laughter and violent giggles in response to your article.
JEREMIAH DINE New York City
P:For Jeremiah (and his ghostwriting mother), here is Daddy Dine with one of his happenings.--ED.
Nomination
Sir:
Only in TIME can one get the best in reporting, such as Mr. Lauritz Melchior's wonderful idea about our younger generation missing out by not being exposed enough to the nicer things in life [March 7]. How about Mr. Melchior as our first Minister of the Fine Arts?
MRS. RUDY VOIT
Uncasville, Conn.
Emotional Response
Sir:
I think what most non-Catholic voters fear was conclusively illustrated when you quoted an official as attributing much of Senator Kennedy's success in Wisconsin to "the emotional response among Catholics" [March 7].
The only thing more un-American than not electing a man because of his religion, I believe, is to elect him because of his religion.
EMILY WILSON ROY
Wrightstown, N.J.
The Race for Space
Sir:
Never has more precious and timely truth concerning college entrance been printed in so prominent a place [March 7]. Thank you. I hope that it will be an eye opener and a help to many youths and parents.
H. L. RASMUSSEN
Chairman, Admissions Committee
Walla Walla College College Place, Wash.
Sir:
So impressed am I with the article that I plan to suggest to the administration at the high school that they make it required reading.
KATHARINE S. SINCLAIR
Claremont, Calif.
Sir:
If a student could make one application to a College Board admissions bureau, with a list of his colleges in order of preference, he would stand a much better chance of gaining admission to the college of his choice, for he would not be competing with all the boys who don't really want to go there but have applied for safety's sake. He would receive one, and only one acceptance. If he were not acceptable to any of his choices, his application would be rejected in the first place, and he would know where he stood.
G. CARPENTER
Stamford, Conn.
Sir:
Your article, "The Race to College," it seems, could be better entitled "The Race to Harvard."
FRANK P. STAFFORD Glenview, Ill.
Sir:
Why this craze of what college to go to? I don't know. A man said to me the other day (he has a boy in college), "It's not what college you go to, it's what you send there." That was our experience.
CHESTER CLARK
Crown Point, Ind.
Sir:
I spend a great amount of my time in counseling seniors about colleges. Apparently I shall have to move my office to one of our elementary schools in the future. I suppose I should also pull my own five-year-old away from Captain Kangaroo and force him into making a vocational choice.
JOHN J. FAHEY
Snyder, N.Y.
Sir:
It seems to me that the quickest and best solution to the problem facing us of overcrowding our colleges is to reduce drastically the number of females permitted to matriculate. Let's face it, 99% of the girls entering college are in search of only one degree:
MRS. DALE J. BELLAMAH
Albuquerque
Quick Flacktion
Sir:
As nimbly as I can, this flack has hurried to correct your observation that Gambler Frank Costello bought the Hoffman touch [March 7]. Frank Costello never bought my touch--he sought my advice and got it for nothing. I have done as much for former Ambassador Joe Kennedy. I gave him free advice for Son Jack. "Get him a haircut," I advised.
Aware that I could not be bought and grateful for my advice, Costello once asked me to lunch: "I know I can't offer you any money, but I had an idea. I wuz readin' in Winchell's column the other day where your brudder was made dramatic critic of the Hollywood Reporter. Now here is my idea. I'm connected with a hotel in Las Vegas. We got a room there where we got entertainment. How would it be if I made your brudder dramatic critic of the hotel?"
IRVING HOFFMAN
Hong Kong
A Physical Education
Sir:
So Dr. Conant has found "an almost vicious overemphasis on athletics" in the junior high schools he has studied [Feb. 29]. If he will continue his study he will find that the staff required to operate a typical high school in an average American small town is about as follows: six coaches, two physical education instructors, a band director, a coordinator of clubs, five to ten spinsters (either male or female) and two or three dozen assorted baby sitters (preferably with college degrees).
JOHN J. WATSON
Bluff City, Tenn.
Lecture Formula
Sir:
I was pleased to see that two heroes of mine, Albrecht Altdorfer and Gyorgy Kepes, made TIME in one week [March 7].
If you think that Kepes' speech is "thickly accented" now, you should have heard him about ten years ago. I once happened to attend a Kepes lecture when he was at his most esoteric. The audience did not have the faintest idea what he was talking about in his fantastic Magyarized English; some actually thought he was speaking in Hungarian and that an English translation would follow. I have never seen a more successful lecture. Nobody wanted to admit ignorance, and the final ovation was thunderous.
JOHN MAASS
Philadelphia
O Brave New World!
Sir:
Re "Finding the Truth" [March 7]. The lie detector is the greatest management tool since the cash register.
W. J. McCLURE
Truth Incorporated
Greensboro, N.C.
Sir:
Your allocation of space as a sounding board for the almost incredible assertion that a lie-detector test "is not too much to ask of a prospective employee," confirms my suspicion that TIME subtly utilizes the methods of Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal.
If the monstrous implications of this article are not attacked, we are suffering from what has been termed "moral schizophrenia."
JON CRAIG
Oceanside, Calif.
Sir:
By eliminating dishonest employees the opening gambit has already been made, leaving employers and customers one-up. In the second stage the test should be applied to employers, eliminating all employers who have ever gypped a customer, leaving only the customer one-up. The third stage would be really hilarious, eliminating all dishonest customers and making all players even-up.
JOHN PIERSMA
Grand Haven, Mich.
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