Many TIME readers write us about their experiences with the magazine. Some of the letters are complaints, some are praise, and others are simply chatty anecdotes. An example of the latter came recently from Lieut. Curtis R. Ehlert of the Air Force, who wrote: "I realize you are aware of your worldwide readership, but in case your records don't show it, you can place a pin in the map near Thule, Greenland, on the icecap." Lieut. Ehlert explained how this pinpoint got there: "My pilot and I are a crew for an F94 Starfire interceptor stationed at Thule. We were going through the final test of our survival training by living for two days in a snow and ice shelter that we had built, using the equipment that we carry in our survival kits, which are strapped to our parachutes.

"After finishing our shelter, we crawled into our hole in the ice and prepared our sleeping bags. For a comfortable and warm night while sleeping on a block of ice, it's advisable to place as much available insulation as possible between the bag and the ice. I remembered that I had brought along an issue of TIME, and the captain suggested that we use it, page by page, spread out beneath our sleeping bags. I didn't like this idea because I hadn't finished reading the entire copy. We compromised by using the pages that we had read and saving the others for additional reading material.

"This procedure proved to be most satisfactory. The two nights were spent most comfortably, thanks to TIME, and we were able to catch up on current affairs, even though we were living in a very small shelter, about 800 miles from the North Pole with a real cool minus 38 degrees temperature."

Readers are often moved by a kindly instinct to share TIME and the news it contains with other people. The mail recently brought two examples. The first letter came from Dr. J. Maurice Swain of Cleveland. He enclosed a check with the request that it pay for a subscription to "someone who you believe would most benefit by it."

Dr. Swain explained that he had sent a similar subscription last year to a priest in the French West Indies. This year he would like someone in Europe to receive one. Wrote he : "I firmly believe that this is one of the best ways to encourage friendship for the free world. It becomes more personal when individuals make the contact, even in this faraway manner. I know that in my own case a subscription to a magazine printed in Paris has broadened my own outlook."

The person chosen for this gift subscription is a German student in Essen who wrote recently that much as he enjoyed TIME'S news coverage of the rest of the world, he was no longer able to buy copies. His job in a coal mine, he explained, did not pay enough to cover both student fees and magazines.

Another letter was responsible for a subscription of TIME going to Java. Reader Peter E. Pickens of Montvale, N.J. wrote in to say that he wanted to send a subscription to a library or university in Indonesia. Could we suggest one, get the subscription started and send him the bill? Explained Pickens: "I was born 25 years ago in Kuling, China, where my father was a missionary. I remember reading in TIME a few years a^DEG about students who wanted to get TIME but couldn't afford it. There is no particular reason for picking Indonesia as the destination for this subscription. I just thought someone in that part of the world might like to get it."

As a result of Mr. Pickens' impulse, a subscription is now on its way to the library of Gadjah Mada University in Jogjakarta, the center of higher education in south central Java.

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