Scratching the Surface
Sir:
Re the "Human Scratch-Pad" and dermographia [extreme sensitivity of the skin--Jan. 19]: as a long sufferer of this complaint, I thought you might be interested in knowing that it had one positive aspect for me. When I was younger, nothing quite so impressed a girl on a day at the beach as emblazoning her name on my forearm in bright, raised letters. It served to cement a number of relationships. Alas, the girls get older and wiser (and more difficult to impress), and dermographic penmanship no longer does the trick.
GARRY MILLER Toledo
Sir:
You say it's possible to write on a hypersensitive skin with a fingernail. Like 'most mothers, I became resigned early to being less than nothing to my children. Thanks to your article, I'm now a heroine. We've been holding demonstrations until every exposed part of my anatomy is covered with the mark of Zorro, hearts, and initials from most of the neighborhood children. Any mother can raise biscuits, but how many can raise welts on demand? Perhaps you could find a use for this talent? If I were still in school I'd make a terrific walking crib sheet.
JACQUELINE BLAIR HEARTH Staten Island, N.Y.
Saints in the Army
Sir:
As a Methodist, I am shocked by the committee known as the P.O.A.U. [Jan. 19]. Patron saints of the armed forces are (and were) members of the early Christian church --not solely Catholic saints but saints of all Christians, Protestants as well as Roman Catholics.
D. A. GRIFFIN Jersey City
Sir:
Cheers to the P.O.A.U. and their efforts to stamp out patron saints in the U.S. Army. With the Army courts-martial and delinquency rate being reduced and prisons being closed after a general improvement of G.I. standards, it is apparent that soldiers are close to becoming respectable citizens. Perhaps we could foster a return to those classic pastimes of the soldier: booze, babes and brawls?
LEO I. WALKER
Woburn, Mass.
Sir:
If the P.O.A.U. is upset about the saint influence in the armed forces, I can imagine how hysterical its members get while visiting such cities as San Francisco, St. Louis, St. Augustine and St. Paul.
HENRY E. MILLER JR. Youngstown, Ohio
Sir:
While we are having our troubles with the Commies, the Pope's army is sneaking through the backdoor under the garb of their church's christening our Army units for their own saints.
G. MACKINNON
Forked River, N.J.
The Price of Power
Sir:
It was a heartwarming experience to view the photographs of the Castro executions. Latin American politicos for the most part are graft-ridden, selfish individuals, and it is a good omen to see youth and virility in the figure of a man like Castro. He is justified in being irritated with the condemnation of his "war criminal" trials. Wishy-washy humanitarians in this country (who lisp, ''My, isn't he awful? He must stop that.") must make Castro laugh.
JOHN D. VON SZEPESSY San Bernardino, Calif.
Sir:
Your Jan. 26 article on Fidel Castro fails to point out that he has been able to give Cuba its first honest government in its history ; you failed to foresee in previous stories how the ragged troops under the leadership of an "egotistic, impulsive, immature and disorganized" Castro could thoroughly beat the hell out of Batista.
CHARLES A. SANTOS BUCH
New York City
Sir:
When French Socialist Pierre Joseph Proudhon [1809-1865] inflamed the mobs of Paris with his "the great are only great because we are on our knees--let us rise!", he turned idealism into a bloodbath. So, too, misdirected Fidel Castro, not the head of a mob, but the tail that it wagged, becomes the latest 20th century champion of "People's Democracy."
NED WASHAK
Brookline, Mass.
Sir:
"I am not interested in power!" Yet this rebel chieftain lives by and thrives on just that. This is history repeating itself. Let us not look for the best in this man but be prepared for the worst. Castro promises much, but so did Batista.
(CPL) FRANK W. RAWLEY U.S.M.C.
Paris
Sir:
As a Cuban Jesuit and school friend of Dr. Castro and one who is deeply sensitive to the present effort of the Cuban people to achieve democratic maturity; I see the injustice of your sophisticated slanting of half-truths and how little it contributes to the mutual understanding that our people need so badly.
RAMON GONZALEZ DE MENDOZA, S.J.
Innsbruck, Austria
Sir:
Some people use Dr. in front of Castro's name. Is it honorary, is it earned?
FRANK THOMAS
New York City
P: By Latin American custom, any graduate of a law school may use the title doctor.--ED.
Leely En Hooly, Etc.
Sir:
Who's kidding whom? In your Jan. 26 Art section you quote a Detroit art dealer: ''The main bulk of buying is not Sheep Grazing in the Meadow any more, nor is the young woman of today buying art just to match the draperies." As a member of a cooperative formed by 75 local artists, I had a prospective "young woman" purchaser urge me to paint a picture that would complement the color of a lamp shade in her living room. She described the size it should be, showed me where it would hang, but was totally disinterested in subject matter.
ABEL F. LEMES Oakland, Calif.
Sir:
Regarding your reproduction of Goldberg's Summer House: I looked for the summer house, winter house, then just any house, but failing to find one played the game of hidden pictures instead. I was rewarded to find a masked thug, Dick Tracy, okra, and a hound dog baying at the moon while bleeding from one paw.
JEAN M. SOPER Bridgeton. N.J.
Sir:
Tell M. Goldberg to get into his summer house and lock the door.
H. E. BRASCH Santa Monica, Calif.
Sir:
The acquisition policy of the Albright Art Gallery unfortunately influences many artists to become conformists and academicians of the oil-smear, calligraphic-abstractionism and mudpie-color schools. ARTHUR KAUFMANN New York City
Sir:
What would happen if abstract expressionism took over the field of literature? As an abstract critic, allow me to say, "Reinhardt's No. 15 leely en hooly pic o langly loo la lay."
DAVID KENYON Winnebago, Wis.
Franco's Valley
Sir:
Congratulations on the superb color photographs of the impressive monument and mausoleum in Spain's Valley of the Fallen
[Jan. 26]. All the great, religiously inspired edifices in the world have consumed countless man-hours and sums of money. The end results have usually been worth it all. The Spanish government is to be commended.
RICHARD E. PEARSON Washington, D.C.
Sir:
Franco's temple is a monument to hypocrisy, no less; call it egotism.
LESLIE G. PEARL Grand Rapids
Sir:
Would this memorial be here today had the Communists taken over Spain during the Civil War of 1936-39? No.
JOHN PAUL PAINE Lausanne, Switzerland
Sir:
Pharaoh is outclassed. All honor to Franco.
JOHN HARDY Singapore
Space Pushers Sir:
We wish to congratulate you for the excellent Jan. 19 article on space exploration. Here, at last, is a down-to-earth presentation that is entirely readable. Your closing paragraph is the clincher. We are set to go!
DENNIS LEDBETTER BRENT E. LOGAN JOCK MCLEAISH Seattle, Wash.
Sir:
I thoroughly enjoyed the article. I always admire and appreciate the ability of your Science Editor to get the fundamentals of complex scientific concepts across to us laymen, but the end of the article was jarringly unpleasant.
JOHN B. RAPP Bananera, Guatemala
Color Chart Sir:
Thanks for your Jan. 26 story about the courageous Negro athlete, Elgin Baylor. Charleston just expected the Negro players to meekly shrug off the local segregation pattern. Baylor revealed Charleston's shameful ways to the entire nation. Good for him.
DEANE MORRISON Saint Albans, W. Va.
Sir:
In your Jan. 26 review of the movie Anna Lucasta, you say Sammy Davis Jr. "... takes over the screen like a blackface Bugs Bunny." Anna Lucasta, as you point out, has undergone several "color changes." In its present form it does enough to perpetuate the negative stereotype of "the Negro." Your comment only intensifies this already unhealthy concept.
JOSEPH C. KENNEDY New York City
Rolling the Peanut
Sir:
It was stated in TIME, June 9 that Alaska's Attorney General J. Gerald Williams offered to roll a peanut with his nose 120 miles if Alaska should win statehood. Does he still plan on doing this or has he done it?
NORBERT J. GAIER Chippewa Falls, Wis.
P:He did it--holding his nose to a peanut on top of a suitcase while riding in the back seat of tlie family car all the way from Big Delta to Tok Junction.--ED.
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