Dumas' Mushrooms
Sirs:
According to Musician Wolcott (TIME, Jan. 25) of Disney's party, he wanted to borrow an umbrella, drew a picture of it, and the Argentine innkeeper brought him mushrooms.
Many years ago, when old Alexander Dumas was traveling through rural England, he stopped at an inn and wanted some mushrooms for his dinner. He could not make himself understood and drew a picture. You probably guessed it! They brought him an umbrella.
Time marches on!
JACQUES COE
New York City
Dog Commandos
(From a letter forwarded to TIME by Mrs. Amy H. Bergey, of Newark, N.J.) Dear Mrs. Bergey:
... As soon as it gets across to the public to cease clearing out the dog pounds in patriotic fervor and to donate some real honest-to-goodness dog flesh, the faster we will be able to come, close to matching the Axis' fifty-odd thousand trained dogs. . . .
We have all types here--chiefly Airedales, shepherds, collies and Dobermans. When a dog becomes thoroughly obedient and responds correctly to every command and signal, he is schooled in defense of his master and in attack. If they don't defend us, they are ruled out, and it is here that most dogs fail.
I had a little dog (a wire-haired fox terrier) named Delia. She was brown and pawed the air. I poured all my love and affection into her training, working night and day so she would pass the tests. Her size was against her to begin with. She weighed 28 pounds and the minimum is 50. She obeyed me like a machine. She'd sit on a "stay" command while I marched out of sight and no one could budge her. I'd reappear from over a rise perhaps 200 yards away and signal "down" and she would drop like a shot, never taking her eyes off me. Then she would sit on signal (too far away to hear), and on the "come" signal fly to me. When she was still 50 feet away I'd signal "down," and she'd drop flat, skidding on her little stomach, and really it made your heart swell to see her. The Colonel reviewed us and I worked Delia as a solo demonstration and she won top honors. . . . She knew it too, and was so proud heeling at my side and prancing like a high-spirited horse. Yesterday was her final test in defense and attack. She thought the "agitator" wanted to play and failed miserably--breaking my heart. She was rejected. The Colonel's wife took her for a pet.
This morning, I found her lying half-dead near her kennel, which she had tried to retake from a vicious 110-pound Doberman who had replaced her. He tore her to ribbons and she was still trying to rise and fight back. She had run from the Colonel that morning and made a beeline for the spot where she usually met me, and she fought this big dog for what she considered her rightful place. The veterinarian, who likes us both, says he will see her well and will intercede to give her another chance. . . .
CORPORAL N. A. PAOLUCCI
Fort Robinson, Neb.
The Gooney Lottery
Sirs:
... I thought you might like this quote from a letter received from Ensign Malcom S. Walker, Midway Island, dated Jan. 16:
"We are anxiously waiting for the Gooney bird eggs to hatch. They are due to break any day now. A lottery was drawn up some time ago, with tickets marked for every minute of every day for about two weeks. When the captain of the base sees the first young Gooney, he will mark down the minute, hour and the day and the one holding the ticket corresponding to this will win the big prize (about $1,000)." . . .
SHEPLEY CLEAVES Boston
Big Farmers v. Little
Sirs:
YOU SAY (TIME, JAN. 25) "PARISIUS HAD A GOOD AND TESTED IDEA: TO DRAW A MILLION SMALL FARMERS INTO THE NATION'S CRITICAL FOOD PRODUCTION BATTLE BY PROVIDING THEM SUPERVISION AND CREDIT FOR NEEDED EQUIPMENT, FEED AND FERTILIZER." BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS REPORTS THAT 2,OOO,OOO LOW-INCOME FARMERS PRODUCE ONLY 3% OF FARM PRODUCTS GOING TO MARKET. EVERY FARMER KNOWS THAT NEEDED FOOD INCREASE CAN COME ONLY FROM 4,OOO,OOO FARMS PRODUCING 97% OF COMMODITIES GOING TO MARKET AND MAINLY FROM 3,OOO,OOO TOP FARMS THAT PRODUCE 86%. ALL CREDIT TO PRACTICAL FARMER CLAUDE WICKARD FOR REJECTING PARISIUS PLAN.
J. J. LACEY Director of Information American Farm Bureau Federation Chicago
> Let Reader Lacey ponder other Agriculture Department figures; 54% of the total U.S. farm increase in milk production in 1942 over 1941 came from the 500,000 lowest-income farms, 5% of the increase in pork, 10% eggs, 32% beef, 19% chickens.--ED.
Imagination Totters
Sirs:
Has TIME no thought whatever for the future culture of the U.S.? In the issue of Jan. 11, in the article on Russia, you translate the word Nichevo as meaning "Everything is fine."
Now, I'm not a singer any more, so this can't hurt me, but even the strongest imagination totters at the vision of mixed rage, chagrin, bewilderment and utter frustration in the minds and hearts of countless young singers in this nation as they become aware of your iconoclastic attitude on the subject. Indeed, society as we know it may crumble completely. . . .
And all because you, happy, cheerful, thoughtless, with the winning, innocent tactlessness of a child, shatter a belief which, I daresay, not one in 3,000 ever thought to question.
Helen Jerome's poem, Nichavo, set to music by Mana-Zucca to become the darling of student singers, distinctly translates the word (with the change in spelling) as "What's it matter?"
ALLAN Louw
San Francisco
> Nichevo is a bland answer to anything. How are you getting along? O.K. (Nichevo). What's cooking? Nothing. (Nichevo}. It can also mean "Every thing's fine," and "What does it matter?" It is not a definite negative or a definite affirmative. -- ED.
The Return of Royalty
Sirs:
At various times there have been hints given in TIME and newspapers regarding the possibility of the return of royalty to the thrones of Europe. . . .
Any attempt to set up states in Europe primarily as a balance of power and a block against Communist Russia will result in the same mess that came out of our first World War. The return to power of the old reactionary groups in Europe can never contribute to the establishment of a safe, secure, prosperous world. . . .
Our Government, or any party in the U.S. that favors the establishment of governments in Europe that do not require deodorizing, will receive the support and enthusiasm of the American people. But if a return to the cynical indifference of the '20s is desired it may best be obtained by the support of the reactionary plans of our State Department.
ROBERT RAGSDALE
Hollywood
Overseas for C.O.s?
Sirs:
Your article about conscientious objectors in the Jan. 18 issue was excellent and fair, but . . . it left out the one thing which is most important to many of us in the C.O. camps.
Far from being content and satisfied to be off in these camps, a very large percentage of the C.O.s in this country want to do ambulance or feeding work abroad, or work of genuine social service in this country. . . .
The Friends Service Committee (Quakers) has consistently pleaded with the Government to send C.O.s overseas in ambulance units, but the Government has so far refused to allow this. . . .
ROY FINCH
Coleville, Calif.
60 Hours to Anywhere
Sirs:
A statement which has captured my imagination is contained in the advertisement in the Jan. 18 issue of TIME by Consolidated Aircraft:
"Today, wherever you may live, no spot on the once-wide globe is farther than 60 hours away from your local airport."
To my mind, that simple and electrifying sentence deserves to be run in bold red ink across the front page of every American newspaper daily, from now until the time of the peace conference.
Those few words seem to me to sum up the case against isolation. . . .
LAWRENCE H. SINGER New York City
The Nisei Plight
Sirs:
Representative J. Leroy Johnson is asking Congress to investigate the relocation centers. The new California Republican has heard rumors that rationing was not being applied to the [internment] camps and that this was causing much discontent among people on the West Coast suffering food shortages.
Please note that we evacuees have been suffering shortages since last May. We mothers have been frankly worried about the vitamin-deficient meals ever since we were first confined, and have had to supplement our diet with purchases from the outside, of meat, butter, eggs and fruit, which have never been adequate. It might interest you to know that our supper tonight consisted of a bowl of sweetened bean soup, which most Nisei do not like, two pieces of vinegared beets and two slices of pickled radish. Tea and rice completed the meal! . . .
We evacuees would gladly and willingly suffer food shortages on the Outside if we were permitted to live in normal communities. Many of our sons and brothers are in the armed forces of the only nation we know and it is with real pride we would make "sacrifices" so that our soldiers should remain the best-fed in the world. . . .
(MRS.) HANNA KOZASA Heart Mountain, Wyo.
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