Sounding Off, Talking Back

NOV. 10, 1924

A few weeks ago you called me a Bolshevik, which I am not. Now I notice that you call the Searchlight on Congress a Ku Klux Klan organ, which it is not. The Searchlight on Congress has nothing to do with the Klan. You have, since it appears that you are supporting the Klan Kandidate Koolidge. UPTON SINCLAIR Pasadena, Calif.

The charge that TIME supported Candidate Coolidge (or any other candidate) during the campaign seems to the editors to be baseless. --Ed.

SEPT. 28, 1925

Is the glorification of the negro now an accepted policy of your magazine? I had hoped that after the protest of one Southerner you might show some consideration for the sensibilities of our people by the discontinuance of your practice of referring to the colored man as "mister." I was deeply grieved, therefore, to find two new instances of this kind in your Sept. 7 issue. This practice, in the face of previous protest, impresses me as a flagrant affront to the feelings of our people. If it be your desire to alienate and force from your ranks such readers of TIME as hail from the South, you are pursuing a most effectual course. BARLOW HENDERSON Aiken, S.C.

It is not TIME's desire to lose the good will of its Southern friends. TIME will, however, continue to employ the "Mr." in referring to men who lack other titles. Would Mr. Henderson himself care to be styled plain "Henderson"? --Ed.

DEC. 19, 1927

Personally, there is only one item I object to and that is where I advocate the players should not eat bananas. This should read "unripe bananas" as I have no objection to the fruit when it is ripe.

I have some very good friends in the banana business and I would not care to say something about their business which is unfairly unfavorable. K.K. ROCKNE Notre Dame, Ind.

JAN. 26, 1931

I have read your article on "Ponzi Payment." Found it interesting, but none too accurate. My hair is neither chestnut nor grey. It's gone. Have never worn lavender pajamas nor pink ribbons on my night shirt. Fur coat and overshoes on extremely cold nights have been my limit...

Your statement that the destruction of my wrecked "web" brought down several Boston trust companies is perfidious. Under any other form of government, it would call for a challenge to a duel. For this time, I shall refrain from perforating your hide on condition that you make public amend by printing this letter verbatim...

You know, I like you in spite of your jabs, because you have given me an opportunity of spending an hour writing this letter. If you come over to Boston after I am out, I have a d___ good mind to buy you a drink. Two, if you can stand the gait. Will you libate with me? CHARLES PONZI Massachusetts State Prison Charlestown, Mass.

JAN. 11, 1932

I was in the class of '86 at Harvard. I was not expelled in '87 nor any other year. I never did anything very bad at Harvard nor anything very good either. I was rusticated in '86 for an excess of political enthusiasm and a certain deficiency in intellectual attainments. I did not return to be graduated. There did not seem to be either reason or hope. I think the less said about my college career the better. Perhaps that is so with the rest of my career. However, exercise your own judgment, only please print the facts, or perhaps I should say, please don't. WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST Los Angeles, Calif.

Rustication: An old-fashioned academic penalty whereby delinquent or intractable undergraduates are sent away, generally to their homes to continue their studies under a supervisor designated by the college. --Ed.

AUG. 6, 1934

I do not know when I ever saw such a conglomeration of lies. The 638 was not the engine my husband was killed on and was never a passenger engine, and as to my son being a highway laborer, that was a base lie; he was never on a highway in his life unless he drove over it. Whoever gave you the information did not get it from me. I just want to tell you that I do not like one thing you said and please never attempt it again without my permission. MRS. CASEY JONES Jackson, Tenn.

SEPT. 14, 1936

I can talk but I hate to interrupt Groucho. I spoke in public last year in Portland when I asked for a raise in salary but I don't think anyone heard me. I make a practice of speaking every time Chico makes a grand slam, so you can look for another speech in 1937. Regret I can't get Zeppo in this wire. HARPO MARX Culver City, Calif.

OCT. 11, 1937

The records on "spittin' image" should certainly be kept straight. I don't think that the expression has anything to do with saliva. It originated, I believe, among the darkies of the South and the correct phrasing--without dialect--is "spirit and image." It was originally used in speaking of some person whose father had passed on--and the colored folks would say--"the very spi't an' image of his daddy." JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS JR. Atlanta, Ga.

OCT. 16, 1939

TIME erred (perhaps only slightly) in saying that Col. Lindbergh in his broadcast speech represented "everybody." Although this is of no interest to the Colonel (or to TIME, or posterity) I beg to say that he did not represent me.

Neither I nor any other veteran of the First World War can quarrel honorably with the Colonel's sincere pacifism. But his choice of a simile, "We must be as impersonal as a surgeon with his knife," seems to me singularly unhappy. It is an insult to the medical profession.

If surgeons were truly impersonal (or, one might say, truly neutral) they would not heed the calls of distress from suffering humanity when they themselves were otherwise engaged in watching the ticker, or playing bridge, or writing thoughtful treatises on the insanity of their fellow men. They would not go to the considerable trouble and risk of using their knives to remove the malignant growths in the body of civilization. They would always find comfortable refuge behind that ancient question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

What Col. Lindbergh should have said is, "We must be as impersonal as the professional mourner, who doesn't lament the seriousness of the plague, or the number of fatalities, as long as it helps his own business." ROBERT E. SHERWOOD The Playwrights' Company New York City

JULY 28, 1941

Many thanks for the flattering reference to my gaudily crowned head but may I file a gentle demurrer to your repeated use of the adjective "dwarfish" in describing my person. Although I actually stand five feet four inches in socks, I have never objected to being ribbed about my size. Your pet word, however, strikes me as inappropriate as it carries a connotation of the monstrous and stunted. Let me suggest that such phrases as "smallish," "minute," "miniature" and even "pocket-size" Billy Rose would be considerably more appetizing. Of course, if your mind is made up, I assure you that I would rather be labeled "dwarfish" than not be mentioned in your splendid magazine at all. BILLY ROSE New York City

JAN. 5, 1942

TIME used the words "yellow bastards" and "Hitler's little yellow friends" in speaking of the Japanese. I suggest that none of us use the word "yellow" in speaking of the Japanese, because our Allies, the Chinese, are yellow.

In this war we must, I think, take care not to divide ourselves into color groups. The tide of feeling about color runs very high over in the Orient. Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, and others are sensitive to the danger point about their relation as colored peoples to white peoples. Many Americans do not realize this, but it is true, and we must recognize it or we may suffer for it severely. The Japanese are using our well-known race prejudice as one of their chief propaganda arguments against us. Everything must be done to educate Americans not to provide further fuel for such Japanese propaganda. PEARL S. BUCK Perkasie, Pa.

TIME emphatically agrees with Novelist Pearl Buck that raising a race issue is as unwise as it is ignoble. However, "yellow bastards" was not TIME's phrase but the factual report of typical angry reactions documented by correspondents all over the U.S. As for actual skin-color, U.S. white, pink or pale faces may well be proud to be fighting on the side of Chinese, Filipinos and other yellow or brown faces. --Ed.

JAN. 18, 1943

I appreciate greatly that not once was the word obscene mentioned in your article. Epithet too easily used which assailed unanimously the appearance of "Interpretation of Dreams" by Freud, psychologic document which is and always will remain in spite of all the most important and sensational of our epoch. SALVADOR DALI Carmel, Calif.

MARCH 6, 1944

TIME's story on the Hollywood Free World Association v. the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals indicates no editorial preference for either organization but reveals in comic style an anti-Hollywood bias. We film-makers realize our community is a gorgeous subject for satire. We grant, or anyway most of us do, that we are the world's funniest people. You can write more jokes about us than you can about plumbers, undertakers or Fuller brush salesmen. Hollywood is guilty of deliberate withdrawal from the living world. It seeks to entertain, and we suspect that the success of the withdrawal is what makes Hollywood funny. But let TIME Magazine view with alarm or point with pride, but not laugh off Hollywood's growing recognition of the fact that every movie expresses, or at least reflects, political opinion. Moviegoers live all over the world, come from all classes, and add up to the biggest section of human beings ever addressed by any medium of communication. The politics of moviemakers therefore is just exactly what isn't funny about Hollywood. TIME mentions "room-temperature burgundy and chopped chicken liver" as though these luxuries invalidate political opinion. TIME, whose editors eat chopped chicken liver and whose publishers drink room-temperature burgundy, knows better. ORSON WELLES Hollywood, Calif.

Well-fed TIME feels that the public should be kept informed about Hollywood politics, from soup to nuts. --Ed.

AUG. 20, 1945

Re letter from Army Sergeant's Name Withheld in TIME in which Sgt. Withheld intimates that the Catholic Church is responsible for the disunity between the Americans and the Russians:

Catholics have been brought up to fear and dislike Communism because of its avowed ungodliness. As Catholics we are indeed convinced that Christianity and Communism are irreconcilable in the same way that as Americans we believe that totalitarianism and democracy are incompatible.

Nevertheless, insofar as such an action does not interfere with our own way of life, we heartily ratify the action of our Government in joining hands with a state, no matter what color its banner, if such a union will further our aim of beating Japan. Few Quixotes still proclaim that this war is being fought for ideals, and I believe there is no American--Protestant, Catholic, etc.--who is unwilling to welcome any type government into an alliance which will cooperate in preventing future wars. WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR. Lieutenant, U.S.A. Camp Gordon, Ga.

DEC. 17, 1945

I would like to send a word of thanks to the reviewer of my book Prater Violet. I think he did a marvelous job, and he certainly helped to start the book off in the biggest way.

I have only one mild word of protest. I am not, as you have twice stated in your columns, the original, or part-original, of Larry in Maugham's The Razor's Edge. I can stand a good deal of kidding from my friends, but this rumor has poisoned my life for the past six months, and I wish it would die as quickly as possible. CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD Santa Monica, Calif.

JAN. 7, 1946

When I have a highball or two I tell the truth about things. The truth, as you continually show in your pages, is tough. It is not then so much my talk that is tough as the stuff it deals with. But I'm not the town drunk. With the reputation you give me I'll be expected to drink everybody in Kansas City under the table and I can't do it--not me. THOMAS H. BENTON Kansas City

Said TIME: "Tom Benton, who does know how to drink..." No town drunk does. --Ed.

NOV. 10, 1947

...I was impressed...by the manner in which the details of my career were gleaned from all parts of the country in a few weeks' time and so effectively pressed into a capsule of four pages. The next time I want to cut a show, I'll call you all in... OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN 2ND New York City

NOV. 8, 1948

It has come to my attention that in your Current & Choice section, Lauren Bacall has consistently been left out of the cast of Key Largo. Inasmuch as there are those of us in Hollywood, Miss Bacall among them, who would rather make Current & Choice than win an Academy Award or make Men of Distinction, won't you please include her in the cast of Key Largo in Current & Choice just once, as she is my wife and I have to live with her. Miss Bacall is extremely tired of being labeled et al. HUMPHREY BOGART Beverly Hills, Calif.

JAN. 17, 1949

I didn't know I had been hired and fired by Theatre Arts until I read about it in TIME. What else has been happening to me lately that I ought to know about? WILLIAM SAROYAN New York City

TIME regrets that it is fresh out of Saroyan news. All that the present editor [Charles MacArthur] of Theatre Arts knows about this crisis in American letters is that it occurred while he was in Europe and that he remains as ever Mr. Saroyan's most faithful fan. --Ed.

AUG. 17, 1953

...I am happy that Eleanor Steber had such a wonderful success in Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten...I remember...exhausting rehearsals with Richard Strauss...I went to his home in Garmisch--he studied the part of the [dyer's] wife with me.

He really was a very simple family man, entirely devoted to his temperamental wife--he was really a henpecked husband...I sang a lot of his lieder, and often his wife Pauline would listen. Some of the lieder seemed to bring back happy memories to them both, and Pauline would run to him, throwing her arms around him, saying with big sobs of touching sentimentality, "Do you remember, Richard?"--and he would have tears in his eyes, too. They were a strange couple. They fought like mad--needless to say, Pauline always started the fights...He said to me when I departed: "You have seen a lot which you will find strange in this house. But believe me, all the praises in the world are not so refreshing as my wife's outbreaks of temperament."

He was so accustomed to meeting people who adored him, bowed before him in reverence. He did not like it; he was a thoroughly straightforward man--and his Pauline was like a draft of fresh water... LOTTE LEHMANN Santa Barbara, Calif.

AUG. 30, 1954

You inform your readers that in my last book [The Doors of Perception], I "prescribe mescaline, a derivative of peyote, for all mankind as an alternative to cocktails." Snappiness, alas, is apt to be in inverse ratio to accuracy. In actual fact, I did not prescribe mescaline for all mankind. I merely suggested that it might be a good thing if psychologists, sociologists and pharmacologists were to get together and discuss the problem of a satisfactory drug for general consumption. Mescaline, I said, would not do. But a chemical possessing the merits of mescaline without its drawbacks would certainly be preferable to alcohol. ALDOUS HUXLEY Hampstead, London

APRIL 23, 1956

In New York last month...I gave an interview to a representative of the London Sunday Times, who (with my agreement) passed it on to the Reporter. I did not see the interview before it went into print. If I had, quotations from it which have appeared in TIME could never have been imputed to me, since they contain opinions which I have never held, and statements which no sober man would make and, it seems to me, no sane man believe. That statement that I or anyone else in his right mind would choose any one state against the whole remaining Union of States, down to the ultimate price of shooting other human beings in the streets, is not only foolish but dangerous. Foolish, because no sane man is going to make that choice today even if he had the chance. A hundred years ago, yes, but not in 1956. And dangerous, because the idea can further inflame those few people who might still believe such a situation possible. WILLIAM FAULKNER Oxford, Miss.

Says Correspondent Russell Warren Howe, New York correspondent for the London Sunday Times: "If Mr. Faulkner no longer agrees with the more Dixiecratic of his statements I, for one, am very glad, but that is what he said." --Ed.

MAY 26, 1958

I'd like to give my opinion of the Kokoschka picture of my sister. I think it's a hideous mess. As great an artist as this man may be today, he certainly goofed in 1926. My sister is a very pretty girl. FRED ASTAIRE Beverly Hills

FEB. 29, 1960

There was a slight error, which I do not think you will mind my calling attention to. It concerns my African name. I would like to spell it correctly for you:

Zenzile Makeba Qgwashu Nguvama Yiketheli Nxgowa Bantana Balomzi Xa Ufun Ubajabulisa Ubaphekeli, Mbiza Yotshwala Sithi Xa Saku Qgiba Ukutja Sithathe Izitsha Sizi Khabe Singama Lawu Singama Qgwashu Singama Nqamla Nqgithi.

The reason for its length is that every child takes the first name of all his male ancestors. Often following the first name is a descriptive word or two, telling about the character of the person, making a true African name somewhat like a story. MIRIAM MAKEBA New York City

FEB. 24, 1961

I am glad to see you are still batting 1.000 regarding any information concerning me. As usual your information stinks. I need a house and a nightclub in Palm Beach like you need a tumor. FRANK SINATRA Beverly Hills, Calif.

TIME reported: "Word appeared in the columns that Sinatra was about to buy a Palm Beach pad and a nightclub, too, so he could wage war with an established nightclub owner who had refused to offer Frankie $5,000 for a one-shot appearance."

APRIL 6, 1962

Poem to the book review at TIME:

You will keep hiring picadors from the back row and pic the bull back far along his spine you will slam sandbags to the kidneys and pass a wine poisoned on the vine you will saw the horns off and murmur the bulls are ah the bulls are not what once they were The corrida will end with Russians in the plaza Swine, some of you will say what did we wrong? And go forth to kiss the conquerors NORMAN MAILER New York City

SEPT. 13, 1963

I myself never called my father a "coward." He often sighs: "To live in peace, cowardice is sometimes necessary." But right or wrong, he is my father, and I never came to calling him names.

Concerning "provocateurs in monks' robes," my term "beat them three times harder" comes from my deep feeling of noblesse oblige. In Viet Nam, the religious, because of the respect due to their state of presumed holiness, cannot indulge as easily as others in wrongs of humanity and must be treated harder if they do.

Concerning the term "monk barbecue show," Viet Nam is a strange country where people often commit spectacular suicides before the gates of people whom they wish to curse. I find that custom barbaric. My aim was to try to stop the spreading of bad examples by ridiculing what I considered grotesque customs. I am stunned to see my well-intended purpose maliciously distorted by ill-intended elements who use my words to fit a false, ugly, obsolete and well-organized anti-Catholic propaganda which tries to present the Vietnamese people as an innocent Buddhist majority under a cruel dictatorship of Catholic minority overwhelmed by a fanatic Inquisition mood symbolized by me.

I have never been against conciliation of the Buddhists. I am only against one-way conciliation. If sometimes I have to step in the fray, becoming a target of most cruel blows, it is not at all by natural taste, but because someone must finally make up his mind to take a position, dangerous, maybe, but necessary to break the paralyzing fear of others. What else can I do when I feel responsible for half of the population which I have done so much to liberate? Because of my utmost sincerity, I think that if I show some awkwardness, I need understanding rather than insults, which too many sectors of the American press are pouring on me with glee. MADAME NGO DINH NHU Saigon

MAY 21, 1965

As an anti-American, I thank you for your rotten article devoted to my person. Your insult to a head of state and your odious lies dishonor not only your magazine but also your nation...

I assure you that I would much prefer to die from the blows of the Communists (who are certainly hostile to royalty, but who have no contempt for us) than capitulate before you, who symbolize the worst in humanity, i.e., racism, discrimination, injustice, death and lies. NORODOM SIHANOUK Chief of State Pnompenh, Cambodia

APRIL 1, 1966

On the current cover of TIME magazine my name appears, along with the titles of many of the shows I have produced. There is, however, a very strange drawing of some person or other also on the cover, which is very puzzling to me. Could you possibly have substituted, in error, next week's cover picture in place of mine? I consider this figure you have attached to my name monstrous in appearance, bearing no resemblance to my likeness, which appears on the inside in the body of my story--the one in which I am attired in my Ascot suit, the one I wore when I played the lead in My Fair Lady. Therefore, this is to notify you that I am suing you for $1,000,000 for defamation of caricature. DAVID MERRICK New York City

JULY 21, 1967

TIME owes it to its readers to name the anonymous Governor whom I allegedly told that "Dick Nixon is a loser." It will be especially interesting, since I have never said it or thought it. I am sorry that at a time when Republican leaders are working hard for party unity, TIME would stoop to quoting nameless sources in an effort to destroy that unity. RONALD REAGAN Governor Sacramento, Calif.

TIME's source is not at all "nameless," but we are bound to honor his request that he not be identified--a request with which Governor Reagan, as a political figure, can surely sympathize.

SEPT. 5, 1969

Re your comment in the Buckley-Vidal story: George Sanders didn't divorce me, I divorced him. ZSA ZSA GABOR Washington, D.C.

True enough. Sanders filed to divorce Zsa Zsa and she then cross-complained, whereupon the judge ruled "ladies first" and granted her an interlocutory decree on April 1, 1954.

JAN. 4, 1971

The children and I have always understood the significance of my husband's work and would have preferred to ignore Mr. Hoover's ungentlemanly attacks on my husband, but my husband is dead and cannot reply for himself. Moreover, his memory is too precious to us and to tens of millions of Americans, black and white, to permit unfounded slurs to remain unanswered. J. Edgar Hoover, in alleging that he called my husband a liar during their meeting in 1964, has exposed himself. There were witnesses present, three distinguished clergymen, who explicitly denied that Mr. Hoover made such a statement or any other attack on my husband's veracity to his face.

It is unfortunate for our country that a person of such moral and mental capacity holds a position of such importance. It is equally unfortunate for race relations that a person revealed in this interview to be so arrogantly prejudiced against Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and blacks is a high Government official. MRS. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. Atlanta

JAN. 1, 1973

Whose voice gave Tarzan's call? I ought to know: I was there. Johnny Weissmuller can--and did--do his own Tarzan call. End of discussion? MAUREEN O'SULLIVAN ("JANE") New York City

APRIL 8, 1974

Harry Reasoner recently took TIME to task on ABC-TV for certain instances of its obsessional and below-the-belt reporting on Watergate, which he said had betrayed the canons of both objective and ethical journalism.

It was predictable that sooner or later TIME would begin to pay the price for its editorial overinvestment in the destruction of the President. That price, as Reasoner noted, is the loss of journalistic prestige and credibility. How ironic, and how fitting, that a distinguished media colleague and certified Nixon critic like Reasoner should blow the whistle on TIME for its phobic Watergate reporting!

No President of the U.S. except Lincoln (in retrospect, now to be considered another impeachable character) has ever been more savaged by the press than Nixon. For one solid year the press has been beating on him mercilessly. And he has shown that he can take it and take it and take it, with cool and courage. But few journalists--none on TIME--have had even the sportsmanship, no less the journalistic objectivity, to report that whatever Nixon is or is not, he is one helluva gutsy fighter. CLARE BOOTHE LUCE Honolulu

DEC. 15, 1975

Although I appreciate your unequivocal "No" answer to the question of my alleged presence in Dallas at the time of J.F.K.'s murder, I would like to point out that my noninvolvement rests not only on "drastic differences" between the specimen photographs, but more conclusively upon the sworn testimony of several witnesses who confirm that I was in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 22, 1963. It is a physical law that an object can occupy only one space at one time.

Correction: I am not a Watergate "burglar," but a conspirator. HOWARD HUNT, Fed. Prison Camp Eglin A.F.B., Fla.

MAY 3, 1976

You quoted me and identified me as a "black leader." I consider this journalistic racism. No one refers to George Wallace as a "white Governor" or Gerald Ford as a "white President." If a label must be attached to my leadership, as a minister of the gospel I prefer "moral leader." Moral leadership, which essentially deals with ideas and values, is a universal category. Black is not. (THE REV.) JESSE L. JACKSON Chicago

MAY 19, 1980

The conclusion in your essay on the presidential nominating process is accurate when you say that the system favors the candidate who wins the early primaries. As one who struggled to stay in the race, I found it discouraging that 99% of the media focused on polls, momentum and money, rather than the issues. Some contenders who understood the issues never really had a chance because the media ignored experience in government and politics. I shall always believe voters would be interested in an early analysis of all the candidates and their grasp of the issues. BOB DOLE U.S. Senator, Kansas Washington, D.C.

AUG. 11, 1980

Just to keep the record straight: I do not buy $5,000 dresses; I do not have an extensive jewelry collection, or paintings, or antiques; and I do not have a hairdresser and interior decorator in tow. I get my hair done once a week, and I'm at a loss as to what an interior decorator would do. Perhaps rearrange the furniture in all the Holiday Inns I've been staying in. NANCY REAGAN Pacific Palisades, Calif.

AUG. 25, 1980

You do Governor Reagan a great disservice. I am an actor of some years' experience and I assure you that Reagan was completely sincere in his acceptance speech. He was not acting, and even as a Democrat I was most moved. KEENAN WYNN Los Angeles

JUNE 8, 1981

In your article "Molasses Pace on Appointments," White House Personnel Director E. Pendleton James is quoted as saying, "Foreign policy is not being hindered because we don't have an Ambassador to Denmark."

Does this slighting remark reflect the attitude with which ambassadors are appointed? Perhaps U.S. foreign policy would even improve if we didn't have ambassadors anywhere. VICTOR BORGE Greenwich, Conn.

JULY 27, 1981

Your essay "Looking Straight at the Bomb" reveals the dilemma we face because of "no thought" and the inability of our leaders to dare to spend billions for peace negotiations rather than for armaments and bravado. Mr. Reagan and his circle should remember that pride goeth before a fall. ANSEL ADAMS Carmel, Calif.

Nov. 2, 1981

J.D. Reed's review of my novel Reinhart's Women, being utterly favorable, is of course a model of good taste. But when, in the subsequent biographical notes, I am quoted as having said, "I am so into cooking that...," I must protest. I do not speak or write (except as parody) in the dreadful jargon in which "into" is lazily substituted for "interested in" or "involved in" or "dedicated to" or "fascinated by," any more than I should say "relationship" to mean a connection between a man and a woman, or "life-style" with reference to a way of life. Please permit me to correct the record, lest I be despised by my students at Yale--all of whom, incidentally, write in a language of commendable purity. THOMAS BERGER Palisades, N.Y.

MARCH 29, 1982

Writing in TIMEstyle (which, in self-improvement, I hasten to adopt), R.Z. Sheppard judges my work to be, among other shames, "made by high intelligence." That is the kiss of death. CYNTHIA OZICK New Rochelle, N.Y.

OCT. 11, 1982

In laying out the prison problem you stopped short of telling us what works: restitution. As you point out, virtually half of all inmates are convicted of nonviolent offenses. Why not require these offenders to pay back their victims and go to work for their communities, rather than crowd them into expensive and violent jails? Valuable cell space could then be saved for the dangerous offenders who should be in prison. CHARLES W. COLSON Prison Fellowship Washington, D.C.

APRIL 2, 1984

I think your article "Journalese as a Second Tongue" is very good stuff. Obviously, however, space limitations prevented you from referring to that sort of political mission known as "fact finding." I went on such a mission once, found a fact, picked it up with my tweezers, and now keep it in a cigar box in my garage in case there is ever any demand for it.

The phrase "between a rock and a hard place" is, to my knowledge, a ruralism. I first heard it in Arizona about 1940 and had the impression it had been in use long before that. Country sayings almost invariably have a much higher poetic component than their big-city equivalents. Some of these observations have become classics, like "nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rockin' chairs." One of my particular favorites is "as lonesome as a peanut in a boxcar." STEVE ALLEN Van Nuys, Calif.

JAN. 21, 1985

Peter Ueberroth as Man of the Year? Outrageous. Most of the world cannot even spell his name, let alone know him. Is the planet so emaciated in human leadership--the Mother Teresas and Geraldine Ferraros--that we have to adulate the American dollar? Let's vote for Cap Weinberger. He will blow us up and make such further nominations unnecessary. MELVIN M. BELLI SR. San Francisco

OCT. 21, 1985

Your article endorses uncritically the ridiculous claim that our expressions of concern about pornography and explicit violence somehow arise from uneasiness over social activism like the Live Aid concert. Surely you know better than that. Millions of parents like me who grew up with and love rock music are concerned about the new phenomenon of popular songs aimed at younger children that glorify sadomasochism, explicit sex, suicide, incest and the occult. The Parents Music Resource Center is opposed to any Government action to address this problem, but feels that the music industry has a responsibility to address it voluntarily. TIPPER GORE Carthage, Tenn.

NOV. 25, 1985

Certainly I agree with you that we must preserve a sense of proportion and not panic over the spread of AIDS. After all, American aid has caused far more deaths in Viet Nam, Cambodia, Guatemala, Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and no remedy has yet been found for this disease, in spite of efforts in Congress. GRAHAM GREENE Antibes, France

JAN. 20, 1986

When author Carlos Fuentes, 57, was asked how he was enjoying his year at Harvard, he replied, "You don't have too much time to stop and say, 'Hey, I'm a celebrity,' because such things mean nothing in the face of death." I read the piece, shuddered, then ran my eyes back over it, hoping to find a mention of cancer or some other dread affliction. No such luck. Fuentes was apparently referring to his age. I am 57 and feel happy and horny. Don't do this to me, Carlos. ORSON BEAN Venice, Calif.

MARCH 9, 1987

If you are going to assert that "Racism [Is] on the Rise," you should indicate the benchmark you use to measure the alleged increase. Isn't it rather that omnipresent racist attitudes have manifested themselves in racist behavior? In the course of the article, you cite as evidence of increasing racism "a record 72,000 complaints of discrimination filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year." That figure is for 1985; the 1986 total is 68,822. These numbers reflect discrimination in all EEOC enforcement areas, based not only on race but also on religion, age, national origin and sex. Age discrimination is the fastest-growing area of complaint. CLARENCE THOMAS, Chairman Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Washington

TIME regrets having printed incorrect figures on discrimination complaints to the EEOC for last year.

SEPT. 18, 1989

My negative remarks about psychiatrists were uncalled for. I know there are many dedicated, caring psychiatrists, and to have made such a sweeping generalization was absurd. I should have taken my own advice: Measure twice; saw once. ANN LANDERS Chicago

June 4, 1990

In his story on the may day demonstrations in Moscow, Strobe Talbott cites slogans from two banners carried by the demonstrators. Your readers could gain some insights with translations of some of the slogans that appear in your photographs. One states, POWER TO THE PEOPLES AND NOT TO THE PARTIES! Another says, THANK YOU, CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU, FOR THE LIGHT OF CHERNOBYL, WHICH HAS ILLUMINATED THE ENTIRE COUNTRY AND IMMERSED IT INTO DARKNESS. And then there is the one proclaiming, I HAVE A DEVILISH DESIRE FOR A BIT OF SAUSAGE. LUDMILLA THORNE, Director Soviet Studies, Freedom House New York City

JAN. 3, 1994

Your item "Larry The Shrinking Violet" noted that I had dropped by a party held by Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen the night of the Administration's NAFTA victory. I was en route to a taping of my show at CNN, and I was not wearing a "cozy white warm-up outfit," as you said, but my usual on-air uniform: dress shirt, tie, suspenders, respectable dark dress trousers and my favorite baseball jacket, which celebrates Japan's Nippon Ham Fighters team. That didn't seem to bother anyone; President Clinton even asked where he could get a jacket like mine. I own no white warm-up outfits, cozy or otherwise. I always dress nice. LARRY KING Washington

Oct. 24, 1994

Reading "Beyond The Sound Barrier" about the new Miss America, Heather Whitestone, and the controversy in the deaf community over her choice to speak rather than use American Sign Language brought to mind a similar uproar. It occurred when I spoke rather than signed at the 1988 Academy Awards while presenting the Oscar for Best Actor. I was labeled "offensive" by the deaf community, and my family and I endured years of mean-spirited criticism. My response to those who disapprove of Whitestone's choice is that all of us have dreams to fulfill and each one of us takes a different path to achieve them. The ability to accomplish goals deserves nothing but the utmost respect. Heather is a shining example of what a person can do when she follows her heart. For that I applaud her reign. MARLEE MATLIN Los Angeles Oct. 31, 1994

The article written by Richard Corliss, titled "The Last Leading Lady, Jessica Tandy: 1909-1994," was not simply well written but was also so eloquent and so rewarding that I only wish I could have shared it with Jessie. In those last few weeks, when she wanted so desperately to die (never with tears, never with self-pity, but just because of exhaustion), I kept trying to remind her what an extraordinary success she had had as a wife, as a mother and as an actress. I hope that it registered and that in her darkest moments she may have remembered and even believed it. HUME CRONYN New York City

MARCH 25, 1996

For years I wanted to make the cover of TIME in the worst way. And I did. On April 4, 1994, there I was, in mug-shot gray, looking worried over President Clinton's shoulder in the Oval Office, underneath an accusing headline: DEEP WATER: HOW THE PRESIDENT'S MEN TRIED TO HINDER THE WHITEWATER INVESTIGATION. The story wasn't much prettier than the picture. Two years later, nothing remains of the criminal charges leveled against me by anonymous sources in TIME except, of course, my yet-to-be paid legal bills... GEORGE R. STEPHANOPOULOS Senior Adviser to the President for Policy and Strategy Washington

JULY 14, 1997

I felt bad that you called me quirky and deemed two of my movies "box-office poison." Then I noticed you said that Dennis Rodman's sometime religion is "Moron" and that Farrah Fawcett has Jell-O for brains. Now I realize it's an honor to be mentioned in such a classy magazine! GEENA DAVIS Los Angeles