The Blessed Fruits of Giving
Sirs:
The picture of the little Viennese boy with new shoes [TIME, Dec. 30] expresses more eloquently than anything I have ever seen, or read, or heard, the blessed fruits of giving. The response of sheer unrestrained joy by that little fellow cannot be measured in dollars of giving. To get such a return for his money has the giver getting all the better of the bargain.
To help keep this embodiment of Christmas "alive in hearts enough" (as TIME expressed the hope), I offer my small contribution toward seeing another little face raised in the same radiant joy. . . .
RAYMOND C. FALLER Philadelphia
P: Other readers so moved should send their contributions direct to their local Red Cross (whither TIME has forwarded Reader Faller's check).--ED.
Time Flies
Sirs:
I'M THE OLDEST LIVING 26-YEAR-OLD WOMAN. I'M 29. ...
SLIM HAWKS Los Angeles
P: Mrs. Howard Hawks, the very Best Dressed Woman [TIME, Jan. 6]--who did it on a mere $10,000--certainly doesn't show her years.--ED.
A Doff, a Kick
Sirs:
In reference to potential Presidents as reviewed in TIME, Dec. 30: I wish to take my hat off to Harold Stassen, who seemed to be not afraid of admitting his political aspirations nor the formulation of a policy to meet the problems confronting us today. A kick in the pants to those would-be leaders who . . . hide behind an open door until they have sensed public sentiment. . . .
RUSSELL E. CRANMER Wichita
Mice & Men
Sirs:
Why can't Mr. Kirk of Brooklyn leave well enough alone?
On reading his formula for weighing mice
[TIME, Dec. 30], I was piqued into trying it with mine. The experiment went well until the reading of Edmund Wilson's Memoirs of Hecate County (which county, incidentally, we Westerners seem unable to pronounce).* At that point, the wildest of bacchanalian orgies ensued. At length, after recovering from shock, I relegated the mice to an unused bird cage and covered the whole disagreeable scene with one of my old sweatshirts.
And now, what's more, the mice lie immobile to any music except Debussy's Danse Sacree and Danse Profane, and then only come to life midway through the opus. . . .
HARRY H. ARNOLD Hermosa Beach, Calif.
Woman of the Year
Sirs:
TIME WOMAN OF YEAR IDENTIFIED YESTERDAY . . . MRS. CORA D. O'CONNOR, ABOUT 42 . . . CLERK Y.W.C.A., MOTHER OF THREE, INCLUDING LOIS ANN, A CHAMPIONSHIP SPEED SKATER. . . .
MRS. O'CONNOR, ABOUT 5 FEET, MEDIUM BROWN HAIR, CRISP BLUE EYES, DEFINITE CONVICTIONS, SAID: "I'M THE ONE. I'VE BEEN ASHAMED OF IT EVER SINCE."
LAST NOV. 25 ON MAIN STREET, UNABLE BOARD BUS, STOOD IN FRONT OVER 2O MINUTES CONTEST WITH DRIVER, STALLING TRAFFIC MAIN STREET MILE AND HALF. BOARDED NEXT BUS, DISAPPEARED.
SEARCH EVER SINCE BY WORCESTER TELEGRAM AND EVENING GAZETTE. [NEW] IMPETUS WITH TIME [JAN. 6] NOMINATION, DAY CITY EDITOR HENRY FORD TO STAFF: "FIND HER." BAIT: THREE DAYS OFF.
MRS. O'CONNOR FOUND HOUR LATER BY IVAN SANDROF, 35, TELEGRAM STAFF FEATURE WRITER, FORMER STARS AND STRIPES STAFFER
GERMANY. . . .
WOMAN FLABBERGASTED . . . SAID: "HE OPENED DOOR. I STARTED TO GET IN AND HE SLAMMED DOOR IN MY FACE. I RAPPED ON DOOR
BUT HE JUST SAT THERE WITH HIS ARMS
FOLDED, JUST AS IMPUDENT AS YOU PLEASE. THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT HIS ATTITUDE THAT JUST GOT ME. . . . "I WASN'T MAD, OR ANYTHING--JUST DEFIANT. I THOUGHT TO MYSELF IF I'M NOT
GOING TO GET HOME, NO ONE ELSE IS, EITHER. . . ."
ON THE SAME STALLED BUS, SITTING TOO FAR BACK TO SEE, WAS HUSBAND, HENRY P. O'CONNOR. HE GOT HOME FEW MINUTES BEFORE HER. SHE TOLD HIM STORY. "HE WASN'T AT ALL PLEASED ABOUT IT."
IVAN SANDROF
Worcester Telegram
Worcester, Mass.
In the Groove
Sirs:
. . . Being a radio man from beyond the banks of the Hudson, and therefore smalltown and unaccomplished to such an accomplished metropolitan engineer as your recording-perfectionist Mary Howard [TIME, Dec. 30], I am somewhat abashed to take issue with the great woman. . . .
Her recommendation--that radio stations should fit the grooves in her recordings by using needles set to corresponding angles and sizes to fit her day-by-day wishes in recording procedure--is just so much Miss Porter's School hogwash. The needles in these modern reproducers are set at the factory, and cannot be adjusted. The simplest method, I might add, would be to fit Miss Howard's recording to these needle adjustments, which, I might add also, have probably been made by engineers with perhaps more thoroughgoing engineering degrees than those passed out at Miss Porter's select school at Farmington. . . .
DICK VELZ
Richmond, Va. P: In short, as many another radio man has urged, it is high time that record cutters and reproducers got together and standardized their grooves and styli.--ED.
Undermined
Sirs:
For nearly six years, oldtimers on the News Leader have been hammering it into me that a "burglary" is "the forcible breaking and entering of a dwelling house in the night time, with intent to commit a felony therein," and I in turn have been hammering it into the cubs. Now comes TIME and undoes a lot of hard work. Some of the newcomers have been waving the Dec. 30 Miscellany column under the copydesk's nose and pointing to the line about "burglars" tunneling into the Clayton (Okla.) State Bank. The persons who swiped those 33,300 pennies were thieves, yes; burglars, no. Tell 'em so, will you?
JACK KILPATRICK
Richmond, Va.
P: Reader Kilpatrick is right according to common law, but not according to Chapter XV, Article 25, Oklahoma Statutes of 1942, Sect. 1931, which says: "Every person who breaks and enters any building or any part of a building, room, booth, tent, railroad car, automobile, truck, trailer, vessel, or other structure or erection in which any property is kept, with intent to steal therein or to commit any felony, is guilty of burglary in the second degree."--ED.
Right or Wrong
Sirs:
After reading Henry Buhler's letter in your Letters column [Dec. 30], I felt I had more cause to cry in disgust than he did.
Since when is it a disgrace to do your best for your country? Mr. Buhler spent his time in the service of his country; those German scientists invented their "fiendish weapons" (what about our atom bomb?) in an honest effort for their country.
May I recommend that Henry Buhler memorize the two following quotations (both by Americans):
1) "Our country. In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong."--Stephen Decatur, one of our more famous naval commanders.
2) "I hope to find my country in the right; however, I will stand by her, right or wrong."--John J. Crittenden. . . .
All Germans weren't Nazis, just as all Americans can't be said to be firm believers in democracy . . . but they were Germans, and as Germany went, so went they. Just such shortsightedness and intolerance as Mr. Buhler's letter shows is what we fought against. . . .
KEITH CASTELLUCCIO Richmond, Ind.
Sirs:
Please permit me to commend you for publishing and to congratulate Mr. Henry H. Buhler for writing his fine letter. As a totally disabled veteran of World War I, I heartily agree. . . .
NATHAN LEVY Atlanta
Bulldogs on Blocks
Sirs:
One grim aftermath of war is the slow, inevitable eruption of war memorials and statues of illustrious warriors. If art-wise people do not protect the public from its own lack of discrimination, we will find monumental atrocities going up that no one will ever dare remove because of public sentimentality. To the layman, any statue is a miraculous product of genius, even though it actually looks like a badly stuffed doll and four toy bulldogs on a pile of blocks--I can't go on. The thought that the proposed effigy of Churchill [TIME, Dec. 30] might somehow be erected throws me into a state of morbid anxiety and depression. PAUL ST.-GAUDENS Keene, N.H.
P: Let anxious Artist St.-Gaudens take heart: the proposed statue of Churchill has been turned down [TIME, Dec. 30], For a better war memorial (by Artist Paul's sculptor uncle, Augustus St.-Gaudens), see below.--ED.
* According to Wilson (and Shakespeare, sometimes) it's heck-it. According to others: hecki-ty.--ED.
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