Senatorial Privilege
Sir:
I noted with interest the information contained in your Feb. 23 article, "Hot Tips." In view of the overwhelming generosity that U.S. Senators display in proffering $1 gratuities for $1.50 haircuts and 25^-c- gratuities for a 25-c- shine, it would seem that they should be willing to pay an additional 50-c- for a haircut to a leased barbershop concession in the Senate building . . . and thereby eliminate the expense of maintaining a staff and supplies for the barbershop force on the Government payroll . . .
N. M. PRYZANT Chicago
Sir:
So the ever-faithful taxpayer pays for de-hairing and polishing his Senator . . .
W. W. RUMMELL Grafton, Ohio
Girl in the Groove
Sir:
In reference to your Rosemary Clooney cover [Feb. 23] story: Why?
RICHARD CLOWDEN Gulfport, Miss.
Sir:
The mouth-on-the-platter idea was disgusting--worse than a cigarette ad.
A. H. NELSON Chicago
Sir:
. . . You are a degrading influence when you are willing to print the caption, "Keep it simple, keep it sexy, keep it sad." How unworthy of what you are supposed to stand for! It's hard enough for the average person to lead a decent life anyway . . .
EUGENE R. KELLERSBERGER, M.D. New York City
Sir:
Many thanks for a fine story about a wonderful person . . . For three years I've been saying that Rosie is one of the greatest contributions to "popular" music . . .
JOE KESSLER St. Louis
Sir:
You described the "flavor" of Rosemary Clooney's voice during melancholy moods as being "cinnamon." My ears didn't think that they had tasted that one yet, so I consulted Webster. It says there that cinnamon is an "aromatic bark . . ."
GERALD MILLER Rochester, N.Y.
The Voice & the Beard
Sir:
The American premiere of a full-length opera by a man whom many consider the greatest composer of the 20th century would have been a good opportunity for a cover story on Igor Stravinsky and The Rake's Progress. Instead, we were offered a nauseating little brushoff, squeezed in after a cover story on a female popular singer who, not just incidentally, represents "success" in a way that a great composer of serious music . . . could not possibly do ...
COURTNEY B. LAWSON
Detroit
P:Stravinsky was on TIME'S cover--July 26, 1948.--ED.
Sir:
... I don't suppose The Rake's Progress will remain on the Met roster after this season. I can't imagine Blanche Thebom with a beard . . .
JAC KENNEDY
Tucson, Ariz.
Blanshard v. the Archbishop
Sir:
It was most encouraging to read of Paul Blanshard's attempt to have Archbishop O'Hara's American citizenship revoked [TIME, March 2]. I only hope we can count on Blanshard's continuing to make an ass of himself.
(THE REV.) F. P. CANAVAN Church of the Immaculate Conception Durham, N.C.
Austrian Election
Sir:
Your March 2 article, under the most truthful title "Democracy Wins," gives an excellent evaluation of the meaning and outcome of the Austrian election, but it contains an error as to why the elections were brought about. You state that "the election became necessary when the Socialists bolted [Chancellor] Figl's coalition because they felt that they could not accept rearmament at the expense of their social-welfare program." As TIME has often pointed out, there can be no rearmament in Austria, which has been occupied by American, British, French and Russian troops for more than seven years. The government crisis of last October originated in dissensions over the budget between the two major coalition parties of Austria's government: the People's Party and the Socialist Party. Figl's People's Party was primarily interested in a deflationary policy to maintain the value of the Austrian schilling. Vice Chancellor Schaerf's Socialist Party wanted a budget with the bigger expenditures for public works and new housing projects. . .
EUGEN BURESCH Austrian Information Department New York City
Mexico's New University
Sir:
The new University of Mexico campus as pictured in your Feb. 23 issue is very beautiful. But I pity the poor student who has a first-period class in the humanities or political science building! He'll need an extra five minutes every morning to get across the fronton, the football and soccer fields and the beautiful green campus before he even gets near his class . . .
DONNA KIRKEBY
Sioux Falls, S. Dak.
The Coventry Story
Sir:
At least as far back as 1916, the "highschool composition" you quoted from the English Record [TIME, Feb. 16] was being circulated as a prize collection of boners . . .
ELIZABETH HART Tryon, N.C.
Sir: That story about Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh is certainly a chestnut. I heard it at least 20 years ago . . .
BERNADOTTE E. SCHMITT Alexandria, Va.
Sir:
A million thanks for publishing "It Happened One Night." To my mind, Mark Twain and George Ade in collaboration could have written nothing wittier . . .
FRANCIS C. WHITEHOUSE Vancouver, B.C.
Sir:
This new interpretation of the Coventry Incident is, in my considered opinion, the finest bit of historical writing since 1066 and All That.
I must reluctantly, however, indicate one minor flaw--the historian surely meant to say, not Magna Charta, but Magna Chortle.
But such a lapse can be pardoned in a young scholar; even Sellar & Yeatman, in 1066, failed to give sufficient attention to the tactics of Alfred the Cake at Bannockburn.
ROBERT H. MOORE Washington, D.C.
Pope or President? (Cont'd)
Sir:
Your Feb. 23 issue contains C. E. Allen's letter berating TIME for claiming the highest office in the world for the President of the U.S. He feels that this honor should go to Pope Pius XII as the "Vicar of Christ on earth . . ." No Protestant will admit that the Pope is infallible, or that he is envoy of the Lord on earth. Such assumption is incorrect, because the Pope is a simple, human gentleman of great culture, elected to his office by other mere mortals--many less than it takes to elect a President of the U.S. It is well for his church that he is not subjected to the abuse of a U.S. President. If he were, he would rejoice that he could be replaced in tour years by the College of Cardinals. A setter man may be sitting waiting!
JOCK M. THOMSON Toronto, Ont.
Sir:
May I remind Mr. Allen that Pope Pius XII is considered infallible only in matters concerning faith and morals. Also, that the great majority of "400 million people" are in no position to dictate the economic and military policies of their ravaged countries, but must wait hopefully and pray that the new President's Administration will restore their dignity and fill their stomachs.
JAMES A. NICKS Hamilton, Ont.
Second Thoughts on the Second Sex
Sir:
Author Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex [TIME, Feb. 23] sounds like a woman desperately in need of a manly man. She bemoans woman's sad and pitiful plight, but forgets that it was a woman who lost Mark Antony the world, laid old Troy in ashes, clipped Samson's mighty locks, and has been clipping men ever since. She says "woman's uplift has barely begun." Speaking as a lone man who grew up in a family of aunts, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, mothers, and now a wife and daughter, I can tell De Beauvoir that woman's uplift has been going on for a long time. BILL STALNAKER Houston
Sir:
Why are you generally so smug about the "plight of women?" It truly exists. If men did not oppress women, there would need be no feminists.
E. D. ALEXANDER Oakland, Calif.
The Women
Sir:
We are average . . . American college girls who want to go through life with the belief that sex is a beautiful thing. Marilyn Monroe has done more to lower the standards of womanhood in the eyes of both men & women than any one person in history. JANET EGELSTON REBECCA CHURCH EDITH LYDAY Mars Hill, N.C.
Sir:
Re your Feb. 23 article on Marilyn Monroe: Why all the ruckus by the women's clubs about la Monroe? . . . Why not drop the little woman off at the theater featuring Stewart Granger--and everybody should be happy. J. KYLE Los Angeles
The Legion & Limelight
Sir: I have just finished "Limelight Out" in your Feb. 9 issue. I finished it with a mixture of anger, disgust and fear.
Just who are these gangsters; these strong-arm ''preservers of American ideals" who can intimidate American businessmen so with threats of boycott (if you can't drag 'em off to jail, ruin their means of livelihood) that they are able to dictate which movies a free people will or will not see? ... Los Angeles is my home. I hope to return there when this mess is over, and when I again plunk down my buck for a loge in Grauman's Chinese Theater, I want to know I am seeing a movie the manager, not the Legion's goon squad, las selected . . .
WILLIAM D. LANSFORD c/o Postmaster San Francisco
Sir: Has the Legion considered [picketing] art museums displaying the works of Picasso Rivera, etc.?
JOHN C. McNULTY St. Louis
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