Meat or Poison

Sir:

TIME'S reporting of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip was a joy to read [TIME, Dec. 1]. It seemed to reach in and capture the very essence of that most beautiful and impressive ceremony. . . .

JOSEPHINE HAWKSETT

Minneapolis, Minn.

Sir:

It is difficult to find words to accurately describe my thoughts relative to the article concerning the wedding of our well-beloved Elizabeth. As a fourth-generation Canadian, and, I hope and pray, a good British subject, I feel a hot flush of disgust for your article.

TIME, as ever, ready with innuendo and sarcasm, could only find ridicule and malice to report what should have been a happy augury for the future of our Empire. . . .

I despise your attitude towards our sovereign, his family and our-Empire, and it would please me very much if your magazine were banned from Canada. . . .

FRANK L. GODFREY

Newsdealer & Tobacconist

Sidney, B.C.

Sir:

Congratulations. ... Of all the "billions of words about it," you have written the most understanding and understandable. This is the kind of writing which has made TIME the great magazine it is.

ROBERT W. WHITE

Sackville, N.B.

Gastronomical Debris?

Sir:

Re "Sludged Blood" [TIME, Nov. 24]: if Physiologist Knisely will feed his human experiment subjects a diet of fresh raw fruit --nothing else--the sludge spots (in the blood) which he finds so mysterious will disappear and no infections will exist.

When man ceases to make his stomach a burial place for the bodies of dead animals, with the resultant collection of billions of bacteria from oxidation of those bodies; when he eats natural food--fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts; when he stops poisoning his body with alcohol, tobacco, "medicinal" drugs, manufactured carbonated drinks, and the gastronomical debris that passes for the full life in our day, then his bloodstream will be clean (and unsludged!), his body will be well and will function as the wonderful and fearful machine that it is. ...

ELSE SONNE NISSEN

Iron Mountain, Mich.

"Belly-Wiggler"

Sir:

Being in a Cuban prison, sometimes articles about me do not reach my hands until a late date. But I definitely resent your stating that I am a "Belly-Wiggler" and a "HonkyTonk Dancer" [TIME, May 5]. ... Perhaps I haven't worked Carnegie Hall, but I have always taken my dancing seriously and have studied (very hard) the semi-classical dances. . . .

SATIRA

(PATRICIA SCHMIDT)

Guanabacoa, Cuba

P: For a semi-classical example of Satira's art, see cut.--ED.

Man of the Year

Sir:

My nomination for Man of the Year is Mohandas Gandhi. In a warring world, here is a man of peace, whose mastery of body by mind has enabled him to conquer the British .Empire without firing a shot.

(MRS.) C. C. WESLEY

Hyattsville, Md.

Sir:

. . . Custodian of U.S. security, articulate exponent of the atomic age, David E. Lilienthal. Behind the curtain of AEC security measures, he is doing a job of greater importance and consequence than anyone anywhere in 1947. Applications of atomic energy in industry and medicine are more enduring contributions to progress in this or any year than forensic effort.

MICHAEL MILTON

Detroit, Mich.

Sir:

. . . Bill Jones, the white-collar worker . . . because of his sincerity, hard work, and, above all, his PATIENCE !

ELIAS BULL

Cordesville, S.C.

Sir:

. . . The Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada, W. L. Mackenzie King. Under his firm guidance Canada has risen to take her place among the great nations of the world. . . .

HARRY E. GOVE

Cambridge, Mass.

Sir:

. . . Robert M. Hutchins . . . the world's foremost educator [who] has worked untiringly for peace and international understanding, is ... coordinator of nuclear research . . . and Chancellor of the University of Chicago. No other man can equal his record of selflessness and humanitarianism.

RICHARD HULLVERSON

Chicago, Ill.

Sir:

. . . Henry A. Wallace . . . who has brought us to a realization of the Red Menace. . . . His rantings unwittingly brought the issue to a head. . . .

F. J. PENNISI

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sir:

Secretary of State George C. Marshall . . . should win the distinction. . . .

JOHN J. GATTAS

Clarksdale, Miss.

Sir:

. . . Philip Mountbatten [Duke of Edinburgh], who rose from almost obscurity during 1947 to become the husband of the future Queen of England.

ROGER EMERSON

Lake Worth, Fla.

Sir:

. . . J. Parnell Thomas, who, with his House Committee on Un-American Activities, has done most this year in the usurpation of civil liberties by government.

PETER ROSENBAUM

Winnetka, Ill.

No Cigars

Sir:

It was with utter amazement that I read about the smoking of a big, black cigar at the opera by Mrs. Cleon Throckmorton. Mrs. Throckmorton is my sister. Mrs. Throckmorton and I have been going to the opera since we were little girls of eight and nine, when our father, the musical critic, Algernon St. John Brenon, took us to hear Parsifal.

Thereafter, we were taken regularly by our parents to the opera as part of our education, which was very rigid and very circumspect. We were never allowed to leave our seats ... to stroll in the lobby with our more sophisticated friends. We were never allowed to go into the refreshment room, save at Christmas time for a holiday ice. . . .

We wore long white kid gloves, bangs, and white dresses with pink and blue sashes. The opera was a polite and serious affair. In subsequent years, in going to the opera we have always felt it to be something of a rite, and it was with a feeling akin to guilt, even in later years, that either my sister or myself entered the refreshment room for a discreet cup of coffee.

In view of our bringing up, our large and conservative (at times) family were astonished to learn that Mrs. Cleon Throckmorton had become a smoker of big, black cigars at the opera, particularly in view of the fact that for some months-past she has been in Bermuda, where she still is, with her husband, the scenic designer, who is designing the first legitimate theater on the island. Throck may be burning the midnight oil and smoking big, black cigars, but Juliet, never.

AILEEN ST. JOHN BRENON

New York City

P: TIME, misled by an erroneous picture caption, apologizes to Mrs. Cleon Throckmorton. The stogie-puffer was Antoinette Dallas Turcas Throckmorton.--ED.

Citizens' Complaint

Sir:

Mayor Denny's letter [TIME, Dec. 15] attempts to make believe that because twelve criminals are now in jail all is well again in Indianapolis. . . .

Mayor Denny's letter to TIME illustrates perfectly that complacent attitude of Marion County officialdom toward crime which is culminating in an orgy of rape and murder. Decent citizens won't tolerate it. ...

ADOLPH MUELLER

Indianapolis, Ind.

P: Indianapolis' citizens made that pretty clear in November when they elected Democrat Al Feeney to succeed Mayor Denny. Feeney campaigned vigorously against the spoils system and especially against the incompetence of the police department and the courts.--ED.

Who's a Sucker?

Sir:

What is in a name? Everything, it would appear, when TIME [Nov. 24] refers to the Boyman's Museum, Rotterdam, and other purchasers of Van Meegeren's pictures, as suckers, owing to their acquisitions having proved the work of a contemporary artist, instead of genuine Vermeers. Has their merit wilted thereby? Is the Christ at Emmaus any less beautiful, because the authorship is changed?

Suckers are the people who are sold on names, and who acclaim any daub that bears a famous signature. . . .

My sincere congratulations go to Van Meegeren for being a great craftsman, and for having exposed . . . the snobbism which prevails in the art circles of our day.

H. E. ARATHOON

Guatemala Citv. Guatemala

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