Ups & Downs

Sir:

The way things are going these days, it's the optimist who thinks bread will cost $2 a loaf within five years. The pessimist says it will cost 2 rubles.

CABAL AMADOR San Francisco

Sir:

Your Nov. 11 "Ups & Downs" chart reveals that the President suffered his downs because he battled for a budget as a price of peace, because he championed a civil rights bill, because the Commies gave their people a Sputnik instead of prosperity and better living standards, and because he defended the Supreme Court's decision and our Constitution by sending troops to Little Rock. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

ARTHUR E. WYNN Forest Hills, N.Y.

Reds Riding High

Sir:

The Russians have messed up their life on earth, their treatment of their fellowmen has shut them out of heaven--so there is no place for them to go but outer space.

V. P. STUTERMAN Mendham, NJ.

Sir:

As it becomes obvious with the passage of time that the Godless Russians are making great strides in the scientific and industrial fields, what is going to happen to this towering edifice of superstition we call religion?

G. T. TORRANCE Long Beach, Calif.

Sir:

We may not have a doghouse in orbit, but we've got one in Washington.

JANE COLLYER New York City

Sir:

I am convinced that some people are more concerned over the welfare of a dog in Sputnik II than they were over human beings during Hungary I.

DARVIA E. SCHROEDER Ames, Iowa

Sir:

It's about time we tumbled to the fact that men in grey flannel suits can't produce creative science.

JOHN H. COLLINS Berkeley, Calif.

Sir:

Will our superior satellite signal Bo Peep or bee bop?

R. R. WHEELER

Dallas

Sir:

What with the advent of the interplanetary age, we will have to revamp some of the old songs. Instead of My Merry Oldsmobile, we'll sing:

Come away with me tonight, In my brand-new satellite.

BEVERLY D. SHIMMIN New York City

Shrimp Whistles

Sir:

Just a line to express my appreciation of the beautifully written review of my book, Tale of a Whistling Shrimp [Nov. 4]. Alas, my home-town paper, commentating on the book, says, "It's hard to laugh at the Reds." Goodness--are we going Sputnik-silly? Most certainly we should laugh at this evil dictatorship. Laughter is one of democracy's strongest weapons.

VLADIMIR GRINIOFF Washington, D.C.

Death of a Murderer

Sir:

Since when is crime a laughing matter among supposedly civilized people? I was aghast at the cynical attitude you took at Albert Anastasia's murder--and murder it was.

HARRY EHRLICH Wilmington, Del .

Sir:

Your writer should have remembered that this infamous murderer was once a little child.

ALICE F. BRAUNLICH Davenport, Iowa

Sir: -

Your article on the death of Albert Anastasia was very amusing, but even more humorous is the grim commentary of this man's life on law enforcement and justice in our courts.

LOUISE L. SPRING Long Beach, Calif.

Sir:

It ain't no laughin' matter. Your reporter hasn't paid the price of a haircut lately. No one in his right mind could have had a grudge against sweet, mellow Mr. Anastasia. Umberto must have been mistaken for the head of the local barbers' union.

C. J. McCOMAS Pittsburgh

Sir:

"Laughing Matter" strikes me as a piece of journalistic writing such as even your skilled hands rarely come up with.

ROBERT W. MONSCHEIN Madison, Wis.

Man of the Year

Sir:

Khrushchev, rightly or wrongly, is undoubtedly the man. He has ousted Malenkov, Kaganovich, Molotov, Shepilov and now Zhukov. Not even Stalin had so much power.

CYRIL GARDINER Colombo, Ceylon

Sir:

Who better than Jules Verne? Nearly 100 years ago he sent the Nautilus under arctic ice; he rocketed men and dogs into outer space; he tunneled deep and he ballooned high.

JOHN K. BODEL Lakeville, Conn.

Sir:

Dr. Wernher von Braun--a man of great imagination and farsighted wisdom. He is our only hope in the missiles race.

PATTY JEWETT BUGAY

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Sir:

Surely Elizabeth, our Queen, deserves it.

M. PEREIRA Arusha, Tanganyika

Sir:

Dog of the Year?

Providence

LEWIS C. CADY

Healthy & Heartening

Sir:

Congratulations on your Oct. 20 article on Ludwig Erhard. He is one of the few brilliant economists left in government today, and his foresight has paved the way for the rise of West Germany to her place beside the rest of the free world.

GERALD E. OLSEN Camarillo, Calif.

Sir:

It is particularly heartening to see that free enterprise is getting a healthy boost from such places as West Germany, through their able Ludwig Erhard and through the International Industrial Development Conference.

JUAN F. FORSTER

La Paz, Bolivia

Sir:

Conceded that Germany is industrious, you omit as causes of West Germany's prosperity that during the war years it fattened itself by looting Europe and that at present it pays negligible, if any, taxes for armaments.

D. F. VAN CORT

Pleasantville, N.Y.

Sculptor's Masterpiece

Sir:

I must congratulate TIME, Oct. 14, on "A Masterpiece Come Home." It is refreshing to read such articles about the finer things of life; and the triptych of the famed Cracow Altar by Wit Stwosz, or Veit Stoss if you prefer, is certainly one of the finest. The beautiful illustration that accompanied the article clearly proves this. However the article refers to the sculptor as a German while Stoss was definitely a Pole.

BERNARD A. PRZYBOCKI Orchard Lake, Mich.

¶ Veit Stoss (1445-1533) was born in Niirnberg, did much of his work in Poland, which likes to claim him as a national artist.--ED.

Mixed Grille

Sir:

As you noted, the public has been thrown into its annual dither by the 1958 automotive barges. This reaction seems particularly inappropriate in view of our current technical and political lag behind the chromeless Russians. It is high time to reappraise ourselves in the light of the world around us, with a little less emphasis on bubble windshields and fins.

JOHN C. LEFEVER Brooklyn

Sir:

Somehow I knew that the designer of the Edsel would wear embroidered cowboy shirts, but I thought they would be purple.

GRACE B. HEPBURN Diamond Point, N.Y.

Sir:

Thanks for bringing us a word portrait of the man who gave the world its most esthetically beautiful car. I am speaking, of course, of George Walker and the Ford Thunderbird.

EMILE LAVALLEE Boston

Sir:

Your article on Walker and his self-propelled jukeboxes fascinated me. The word style seems to have become synonymous with garishness. I predict that the car of 1960 will be 450 inches long, 200 inches wide, 26 inches high, with a totally chromed body embellished with gold and sequins.

WILLIAM N. BOURNE JR.

Cambridge, Mass.

Specie Speaks

Sir:

Re the new edition of Dr. Spock's famous book: It seems that "Spock softly and carry a big stick" is still the Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care.

BETTY RAVIN South Orange, NJ.

Sir:

Dr. Spock's revised version of his book sounds more practicable. Has he, as my wife suggests, become a parent in the interim?

J. W. YOUNGER Kakahi, New Zealand

¶ No. But Dr. Spock has matured along with his pre-authorship sons, now aged 24 and 13.--ED.

Fattening

Sir:

It was with some consternation that we read an item in TIME entitled "Fat Fight," where you refer to "Food Processing, the industry's leading trade magazine . . ." As a matter of record, our publication Food Engineering has year by year occupied 'the enviable position of leader in its field by all yardsticks available.

GRAHAME E. RIDDELL Publisher Food Engineering New York City

¶ TIME read the wrong menu.--ED.

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