Historical Slant

Sir:

Handwriting Analyst Muriel Stafford is right as far as she goes in analyzing Dean Acheson's "left-slanted" script [TIME, April 4], but she does not go far enough. History shows that none of the men who have distinguished themselves on the political scene, at any time, wrote a left-slant. Nor did a single one of them have low, "modest" capitals. They wrote a right-slant, were outgoing, and interested in "the greatest good for the greatest number." The left-slanter is, primarily, concerned with the "choice few."

NADYA OLYANOVA New York City

Air Bridges

Sir:

The cover on your issue of March 28 depicts how Pan American has bridged the Seven Seas.

One bridge spans the Pacific from the State of Washington to Siberia, overpassing the island of Sakhalin en route.

However did Mr. Trippe persuade Uncle Joe to let him build that one?

J. L. BOWKER San Francisco, Calif.

P: No Pan Am map, Artist Artzyba-sheff's cover background was a symbolization of today's airway bridges between the continents--and he did not ask permission to enter his native country where he pleased.--ED.

Sir:

Your article states: "[Pan Am's] Lisbon base for a time was the only Allied radio outpost on the Continent." As a wartime "rockape" or inhabitant of Gibraltar at Britain's Cable and Wireless station, I would protest that neither the Germans nor the Italians at any period of the war ever prevented Gibraltar from exercising its usefulness as a radio outpost . . .

TIME tripped up perhaps?

D. A. GRAYDON Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

P:Tripped and fell; for "Allied" please read "U.S."--ED.

The Big Reach

Sir:

In your April 4 issue, was surprised to read that Clifford Odets' The Big Knife" is doing a brisk business on Broadway." According to TIME's theater critic, as well as other critics, it was ... a very bad play. Evidently the public does not think it is too awful.

Also I was surprised ... at the remark: "Shouted Playwright Clifford Odets." I know Mr. Odets, and one thing which impressed me was his quiet manner of speaking; I often had to reach to hear what he had to say . . .

BLANCA HOLMES Hollywood, Calif.

P: Mr. Odets may speak softly to Astrologer Holmes, but he had to shout to be heard above the tumult at the Waldorf. Meanwhile, theatergoers certainly have been reaching to hear what he has to say at the National Theater.--ED.

Welsh Jawbreaker

Sir:

Have the linotyper and proofreader come back to work yet after their [struggle] with the Welsh spelling lesson and the line on Llanfair P.G.*[TIME, March 21]? And then to break a syllable! Right?

T. H. BARBER Evergreen, Colo.

P: No. TIME's Welsh-born teletypesetter broke the Welsh jawbreaker correctly--after the third "y" (which is "the" in Welsh). It could also have been broken after the second "r."--ED.

Education for Living

Sir:

It could be that Historian Max Beloff of Oxford did not explain what could be done about the immaturity of higher education in the U.S. [TIME, March 28] . . . because he wasn't asked. If he were asked, he need merely to point with pride to the method and record of Oxford . .

The student at Oxford, who has been carefully selected, is guided and advised, not compelled, by an assigned tutor. His degree is not awarded until he has proved his right to be recognized as having a college* education by taking comprehensive examinations which are largely non-factual in character. This measures the student's present proficiency and not his past success in cramming for numerous quizzes. Oxford has succeeded in encouraging both independence of mind and maturity of judgment . . .

Educator Beloff has adequately described the plight of the unfortunate U.S. college student.

CHARLES BAUGHMAN Durham, N.C.

Sir:

. . . Students at Goddard have no exams, and may choose the courses they wish to study and also the books they want to use. In their last two years at college, they work on individual projects and are bound by no requirements except that they must produce something original and of use to themselves . . .

We feel that we are being educated for living, not in order to pass an exam . . .

JANE BRAHAM

Plamfield, Vt.

Booby Traps

Sir:

Without intending to minimize the danger of tampering with the detonator unit in surplus I.F.F. radio devices [TIME, March 28], I recall vividly the explosion of such a set as I was about to lay hands upon it in the tail of an A26 bomber, late in the war . . .

The metal case of the set in question was bulged, and the contents shattered beyond use or identification, but it was no molten mass. Surely, if the bomb was as powerful as described, it would have been a fire hazard in the event of such an accident as I figured in?

LAWRENCE J. JOHNSON

Middlebury, Ind.

P: Reader Johnson was lucky. A "Destructor" contains enough dynamite to blind or maim anyone dismantling it, and enough thermite to create a fire which most people would have trouble putting out.--ED.

Helpmate

Sir:

Dr. Herbert Zipper is remembered by thousands for his yearly concerts in Baguio and Manila. He developed talent amongst the Filipinos, and was loved and respected by his musicians and his audiences as a brilliant man who knew our tastes and never tried to cram anything down our throats. He seems to be following the same pattern in Brooklyn [TIME, March 28].

His wife, as I remember her, is a beautiful and talented dancer, and it was largely through her efforts . . . that Dr. Zipper escaped from Germany . . . Where is she now?

MRS. A. M. CREIGHTON JR. Tucson, Ariz.

P: Dancer Trudl Dubsky Zipper (see cut) lives with her husband in Brooklyn and teaches at the New School in Manhattan.--ED.

Cycle

Sir:

Re the caterpillars, epizootics, snails and Achatina fulica [TIME, March 28]:

A friend of mine bought a house that was overrun with mice--hundreds of mice.

"How did you get rid of them?" I asked.

"Oh, it was easy," he said. "We just got hold of 50 tomcats and they killed the mice in no time. Of course we did have a little trouble getting rid of the cats--had to get a bunch of ferocious bulldogs. They really tore those cats apart."

"What did you do about the bulldogs?"

"Well," he admitted, "they were a little reluctant to leave. We imported ten Bengal tigers, and within a couple of hours there wasn't a bulldog left. Since we couldn't get near a house full of tigers, we had to find a herd of wild elephants and turn them loose on the tigers."

"So how did you get rid of the elephants?"

"Mice," he replied.

BYRON A. BONNHEIM Chicago, Ill.

*Short for Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogery-chwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

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