Complaining Works--or Does It?

Sir/ Re your Essay "The Need to Complain More" (July 3): Complaining to works, but like bailing out an ocean liner with a cracked cup, the process can be as dismaying as the original malfunction.

Having written a dozen letters of protest in as many weeks, and having returned to stores spoiled chicken and dispensers that failed to dispense, we are left with small vic tories, much unnecessary mileage, enormous frustration. We'd throw in the pen. but this is the one that always leaks.

BETH and BLAIR THOMPSON El Verano. Calif.

Sir / Your Essay "Louder! -- The Need to Complain More" was better as a partial inventory of what people have to complain about than as a solution to this growing problem.

The "right" to yell is offset by the "right" not to pay attention. CHAS. T. SCHIROS Temple City, Calif.

Sir / Complaining in vain is a practice that can be enjoyed as well in countries outside America.

On a recent visit to Germany I felt justified in complaining to the manager of the hotel at which I was staying for a few days.

"My room is very cold," I said. With a shrug of his shoulders and a gesture toward the street, he replied. "Well, my son. it's very cold outside."

CARLTONS PEARSE Denver

Sir / In response to your Essay on the need for complaining: I've been a letter-writing, telegram-sending complainer for quite a few years now, and I agree with you that complaining releases "bile" and occasionally gets results.

I want to give one word of warning, however. Never complain to anyone while sitting on a ski lift. A year ago while in As pen, I happened to be riding a lift with an automobile executive.

When I launched into an invective against his company's wasteful production policies, I was reminded by the executive that it was a long way down from where we were sitting.

MARGARET C. PHILPOTT San Diego

Sir / What Mr. Baker says about complaining is undoubtedly true. It might also be effective, however, for people to write and phone in praise of a person or company that has gone out of its way to assist a customer. Surely, we have all run into one such incident. A little positive reinforcement can't hurt.

CHRISTINE BERGLUND Hoffman Estates, Ill.

Sir / Maybe the griper is the reason that the waiter/clerk/driver hates his job. What ever happened to the tradition of cultivating good service by a generous tip rather than poisoning it with no tip at all?

Complaining on Mr. Nader's level may help in the long run. But in the mean time, griping in the supermarket is like griping in the Army: the louder you shout, the worse it gets.

THEODORE L. BREWSTER Washington, D.C.

Sir / I quite agree with your Essay on the need to complain more. My complaint is about your tale of the "bedbug letter." This one is at least as old as TIME. It used to involve a complaint about bedbugs in Pullman cars.

ED DREWS Hollywood

No Sex Symbol

Sir / I loved the article on "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Woody Allen" [July 3]. It was an experience. The man is a genius. When I finished reading the article, I wanted more and more. I wouldn't exactly call Mr. Allen a sex symbol, but I dig him as my new "mind symbol."

DIANE ARONSON Brighton, Mass.

Sir / In view of Woody Allen's expertise with "switcheroos," it seems obvious to me that the title of his new movie should be Everything You Always Wanted to Ask About Sex (But Were Afraid to Know).

JOHN CURRAN Bon Air, Va.

Sir / The world seems as it should with Woody Allen on your cover. I adore him!

GABE GIBBONS Houston

Sir / The question is not "Can Woody Allen believe in God?" The question is "Can God believe in Woody Allen?"

C.P.WETHERHEAD Caldwell, N.J.

Sir / You could have told me everything I always wanted to know about Woody Allen without printing a single word.

THOMAS POVINELLI Hamburg, N.Y.

Sir / As Woody Allen's replacement as res ident gag writer at David O. Alber Associates, I noted with interest your reference to Woody's starting salary of "a miserable $25 a week." If it were not for Woody's having prematurely left the company, thus creating an opening for me, I might not have been able to work my way up from office boy to my current position as office man.

In appreciation of Woody's unselfish contribution to the furthering of my career, I would like to state publicly that he has a standing offer to return to his old job at a sal ary of $50 a week, commensurate with what he would be earning if he had not left here 20 years ago.

MIKE ALBER President David O. Alber Associates Inc. New York City

Inspired by a Miracle

Sir / "Low Blows from Munich" [June 26] left me slightly amused, especially at the statement by Olympic Official Willi Daume indicting Bobby Lee Hunter as a bad influence on youth.

Well, I am a "youth." and I am inspired by the miracle that there are some imprisoned men, such as Bobby Lee, who can find some way to rehabilitate themselves within the confines of our atrocious penal system!

Not that I think Bobby Lee Hunter is a saint. But his earnest dedication to rehabilitation is to be admired.

BERNIEP.FARESE Needham, Mass.

Sir / I am a German citizen and I wish that Bobby Lee Hunter might be sent to the Olympics. I know the risk involved in sending him to Munich -- many people will say, "The Americans try to win their medals with gangsters." Unfortunately, such narrow-mindedness is very deeply rooted.

At the same time I wish, too, that Hunter might become a sign of hope for all people in prison.

JOeRG MAUZ Tokyo

Sir / I agree with Mr. Daume, who says that "an Olympic athlete should be an example to youth." Send an athlete like Bobby Lee Hunter after he has served his sentence. But never let him represent his country while he has not yet finished his term in prison.

JERRY H. SMITH Atlanta

Critics of the Moose

Sir / The Supreme Court's Moose Lodge decision permitting discrimination in private clubs [June 26] is an unfortunate one. In many places, Oklahoma, for instance, public bars are not permitted, and all liquor drinking is done in "private clubs" where they sell you a membership at the door. This decision legalizes segregation in all the drinking spots in Oklahoma.

MICHAEL J FAIRCHILD Tulsa

Sir / Anybody "of good moral character, mentally normal and believing in the Supreme Being" would not belong to the Loyal Order of the Moose.

MRS. WILLIAM BATY Lynchburg, Va.

How Many Slaughtered?

Sir / In your story "Border Ambush" [July 3], you say "Israeli jets raided Lebanon in an overreaction to two guerrilla attacks made the day before."

Please enlighten an unenlightened Jew. How many Israelis have to be slaughtered and permanently maimed to justify "reaction" -- and how many slaughtered and maimed to result in "overreaction"?

The Israelis, and not TIME, will determine the worth of their butchered brethren.

EDDIE GERSHATER Houston

Sir / I am sure Premier Meir would appre ciate your advice as to what would constitute a "normal" reaction to the guerrilla at tacks. And to the skyjackings. And to the airport massacre.

And so would I.

DORIS B. MAMOLEN State College, Pa.

Brave Endeavor

Sir / "TIME makes me sick," I said loud ly when I read your "Grave New World" [June 26] about World magazine.

I had expected you to encourage Nor man Cousins in his brave endeavor to start a new magazine. I had hoped it would be a "dead stodgy" ringer" Saturday for our Review dear and old not at "wordy all like and the present supermodern one from which Norman Cousins "stalked" away just in time -- thank goodness.

MRS. A. STUART MACDONALD Tacoma, Wash.

Racnegro

Sir / As a black person who lived in the South during the early stages of integration, your article about those guilt-ridden whites who overreacted to the title The Legend of Nigger Charley [July 3] reminded me of an inept elementary school teacher who changed the name of one of the animals pictured on order her wall from "raccoon" to "racnero" in order to "make 'them' feel to welcome."

DAVID L. EVANS Assistant Director of Admissions Harvard College Cambridge, Mass.

Gloria's Hipbone

Sir / I do admire the beautiful and talented Gloria Vanderbilt [July 3], but quite honestly, I don't see anything the least bit attractive in that protruding hipbone.

MS. K.W. JENKINS Jamesport, N.Y.

Sir / It was a nice picture of the Glorious Underbuilt.

J.N. SWEENEY Silver Spring, Md.

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