Laughing Ghost
Sir:
If George Bernard Shaw waited until 1903 to say: "There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it" [TIME, Sept. 19], he ought to have given proper credit for it to Oscar Wilde . . .
DONN MICHAEL F ARRIS
New York City
Sir:
. . . Fifty-seven years ago Oscar Wilde, in his play Lady Winder mere's Fan, said: "In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst, the last is areal tragedy." Behind several Shavian faces is the laughing ghost of Oscar Wilde.
T. ROGER BRAY Urbana, Ill.
P:Says Shaw: "I thought it up quite spontaneously, but I have since found [as TIME has] that Wilde was first in the field with it."--ED.
Whistle-Stop Stumper
Sir:
Referring to the statement that Harry Truman "obviously planned to be in it [the 1950 campaign] to the last whistlestop" [TIME, Sept. 19], and similar predictions in the daily papers from time to time, I would like to pose this question:
Do the American people elect a President to lead them and work for the good of a great nation of millions of people, or do they elect him to stump various states for the election of favored candidates for Congress?
I think it is a disgraceful misinterpretation and neglect of duty for him to concern himself with local politics and relegate matters of national import to secondary consideration.
PEARL E. SPENGLER Buffalo, N.Y.
Long Shot
Sir:
After reading that Pope Pius had decorated [William Randolph] Hearst, for "civic qualities, comprehension of spiritual values, and devotion to humanity" [TIME, Sept. 26], I gave up on the human mind and decided henceforth to take all my problems, spiritual and otherwise, to the new electronic thinking machine. I must say, it didn't do too badly on the first test to which I put it; when asked to compute the odds on the infallibility of a pontiff who could thus reward the unspeakable Mr. Hearst, it ground out the answer in jig time: 5,463,941,278,336 to 1 against.
CRAIK MORRIS
Middletown, Del.
New Philadelphia Story
Sir:
FOR OVER TWO YEARS, WE OF THE NEW REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP IN PHILADELPHIA HAVE BEEN HOPING THAT TIME WOULD DISCOVER AND TELL THE WORLD THE NEW "PHILADELPHIA STORY." WE HAVE BEEN HOPING THAT THE CLEAR, CLARION VOICE OF TIME WOULD RISE ABOVE THE DIN OF THE CHATTER AND "LET-THE-MUD-FLY" CONCEPTION OF PUBLIC SERVICE HELD BY OUR LOCAL ADMIXTURE OF RIGHT-WING, LEFT-WING . . . THANK YOU FOR YOUR OBJECTIVE APPRAISAL OF THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES IN THE 1949 CAMPAIGN AS MEN OF ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE POLITICAL PURITY.
WILLIAM F. MEADE
Chairman
Republican Central Campaign Committee Philadelphia, Pa.
Models, Meals & Medicines
Sir:
Scared and skinny in a $10 coat, I showed up for my first modeling job for Vogue nine years ago, and shared a dressing room with Lisa Fonssagrives [TIME, Sept. 19].
Photographer Horst and the jeweled ladies of the staff discussed me in that dispassionately critical manner reserved for models and their mute counterparts in store windows, and of course my self-esteem derived no benefit from Lisa's appalling chic.
I probably would have dribbled mascara onto my new blouse if Lisa hadn't made a simple statement, a marvelous motto for new models. She said: "You wouldn't be here if they didn't want you."
MARGARET LANE Battle Creek, Mich.
Sir:
Lisa is lovely . . .
E. H. PUTNEY
Boulder, Colo.
Sir:
Those cold Swedish beauties give me the creeps . . .
BARBARA NEWELL Westboro, Mass.
Sir:
WHERE EXACTLY IS THAT DESERTED LONG ISLAND BEACH?
PETE HIRSCH Kansas City, Mo.
P:PRIVATE BEACH, NO TRESPASSING.
--ED.
Sir:
In your story on models and advertising, you say that "by the end of World War I . . . they found that endorsements by real people . . . were astoundingly successful sales plugs."
In Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers (1889), the Duchess of Plaza-Toro recites: / write letters blatant
On medicines patent
And use any other you mustn't
And vow my complexion
Derives its perfection
From somebody's soap--which it doesn't . . .
W. E. DEMPSTER New York City
Sir:
. . . With few exceptions, most New York models . . . seem to be in need of a substantial meal and a change of expression.
My wife Honey (see cut) is a model; she eats what she likes and has the following measurements on a 5' 7", 125-lb. frame: bust 35, waist 23, hips 35. And she doesn't need the padded accessories that TIME says almost all models require.
LARRY HOMER
Boston, Mass.
Kiss-Me Not
Sir:
TIME, Sept. 19, carried a reference to our city . . . We have read the entire article and for the life of us we cannot see the connection with Kissimmee . . .
Most certainly we do not have any unhappy citizens over such a name . . . Some people might pronounce the name Kiss Me but ... the correct pronunciation is KI-Sim-Me . . .
R. D. SHINKLE Kissimmee Chamber of Commerce Kissimmee, Fla.
Sir:
. . . The opening sentence in the story really struck home ... I know just how tired the inhabitants of Kissimmee are of the stale jokes strangers make about their town's name. I know just how the citizens of Bird in Hand, Pa. brace themselves when an out-of-state car slows down and the smirking driver leans out and asks the way to the town of Two-in-the-Bush. I also . . . sympathize with all bearers of unusual Christian or surnames . . .
JUNE ROSE Crosswicks, NJ.
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