The Heart of the Matter
Sir:
I was delighted with the write-up of Ancel Keys and his work. He has been a very important pioneer in what we call cardiovascular epidemiological research, really the spark that has helped to set innumerable people working on this important subject.
PAUL DUDLEY WHITE, M.D.
Boston
Sir:
How could TIME, in reporting the recent American Heart Association statement, and in the cover story on Physiologist Ancel Keys, have neglected to note for readers the Dec. 20 release from the Nutrition Foundation? Keys's theories, as TIME notes, are not proved and not agreed to by many researchers. Your readers deserve to know the basis on which the cholesterol theory is considered vastly overrated.
The release stressed that nutrition research to date had not, in the opinion of many leading medical and nutrition scientists, proved a specific relationship between blood cholesterol, dietary fats, and arteriosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes.
This report is based on 20 years of research by leading scientists in the United States and Canada, and a special continuing study--financed by a fund of more than $1,000,000 voluntarily contributed by the food industry--which resulted from grants made to 33 scientists in 26 universities, medical schools and colleges.
WILLIAM S. EPPLE
National Dairy Council
Chicago
P: TIME, Dec. 26 reported the National Dairy Council's position that "the idea that replacing some 'saturated' fats with 'unsaturated' fats will help prevent heart disease is clearly unproved," as well as the American Heart Association's position that "the reduction or control of fat consumption under medical supervision, with reasonable substitution of polyunsaturated for saturated fats, is recommended as a possible means of preventing arteriosclerosis and decreasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes."--ED.
The Pacific Command
Sir:
"You did it! You did it! You did it!" in the words of Professor Higgins' colleague, Pickering.
You've explained the most complex, complicated and spread-out organization in the world, CINCPAC, in clear prose and enlightening maps. The details are all there, but the picture is big.
PICKETT LUMPKIN
Commander, U.S.N.
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
Granted the U.S. requires tremendous air and naval power, but "they also serve who have their two feet planted on terra firma." Could not Artist Artzybasheff have included at least one dogface soldier on his Jan. 6 cover ?
JOHN D. COREY
Captain, U.S. Army
Augusta, Ga.
Sir:
In looking over the "Pacific Command" map, I noticed that you have named the island of Attu, in the Aleutian Island chain, as Athu. Has the island's name been changed?
SEBASTIAN DESTRO
New York City
P: No.--ED.
Oldest Ship Afloat
Sir:
I am sure you will welcome a correction to the footnote on the U.S. frigate Constellation. This proud ship is the United States' oldest ship afloat. She was authorized by President Washington and launched during the early years of our existence as an independent nation. This was on 7 September 1797, six weeks ahead of Constitution.
Like a person, a warship ages and must from time to time have major overhaul. Constellation like Constitution has had several. Some people have claimed that in one of these during the 18503, Constellation was scrapped and a new ship built. Extensive research made when Franklin D. Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy nearly half a century ago demonstrated that this historic ship is as near the original as any ship of her age can be expected to be. I quote from his communication of July 1913:
"The records of repair dated 1853 through 1855 state that the Constellation has the original keel, frames from six foot upward from the keel, ballast, and stem. It does state that the old vessel was taken down to bare structure and rebuilt as a sloop of 24 guns. It was pointed out to me that in 1852 the ship was placed in drydock to check her underside and that it was found that a false keel should have been made as her old keel was badly warped or bogged. I found that in July and August of 1853 the false keel was attached to her old keel and that it was the intention of the commandant at Gosport to save and preserve as much of the old ship as was possible."
E. M. ELLER
Rear Admiral, U.S.N. (ret.)
Director of Naval History
Washington, D.C.
Amendments
Sir:
TIME'S report that I opposed the appointment of Governor Orville Freeman of Minnesota as Secretary of Agriculture is not true. When I learned that Governor Freeman might be considered for Agriculture Secretary and was willing to accept, I encouraged his appointment, and expressed my personal endorsement and recommendation of him to President-elect Kennedy. Orville Freeman has a magnificent record of public service and a full understanding of the problems of American farmers. The nation and the world are fortunate that he will serve as Secretary of Agriculture. I am fortunate to count him as a friend and ally.
HUBERT H. HUMPHREY
Senator
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
I have never said nor have I felt like saying that the Democratic National Committee "haven't given me the time of day," with respect to my hopes to be considered for particular assignments in the Kennedy Administration. The men with whom I have been in touch have been most courteous in spite of the urgent and onerous responsibilities burdening them.
CHARLES O. PORTER
Washington, D,C.
P: TIME extends to Senator Humphrey and ex-Congressman Porter the Congressional privilege of amending the record.--ED.
The New President
Sir:
Now that ole Kennedy-loving TIME has "discovered" that Jack plays golf, I want to read about it. Every time President Kennedy puts his lace-curtain hands on a putter, rain or shine, night or day, TIME had better print it.
JOYCE R. WILSON
Calais, Vt.
One, Two, Kachoo
Sir:
TIME makes a valid point in criticizing the current tendency of popular records to cannibalize one another. Singing verb conjugations of the You're All Wet (thesis), No I'm Not All Wet (antithesis), He Was All Wet and Now He's Got a Cold, Kachoo (synthesis) type is unforgivable. They are symptomatic of the control over radio programing that children and adolescents have today. Records that allude to one another and answer one another are designed to give the children who listen to them, buy them and dance to them a feeling of continuity and a recognition that this new record is designed for their ingroup. Anybody who doesn't appreciate these subtle allusions and answers is a square from nowhere.
All radio programing isn't bad. One day, between an old standard and a new show tune, I heard the U.S. answer Cuba in the United Nations. But I wonder what the children did then? I don't think Ambassador Wadsworth is in their ingroup.
ALEX PANSHIN
Okemos, Mich.
Living Color
Sir:
TIME'S TV editor has (understandably) been letting his eyes stray from the set. Not a "possible threat for next season" but a positive menace in this one is NBC's Bonanza, "a color western, with all that blood in living (or dying) red."
WM. G. OWENS
Durham, N.C.
Bearding the Lion
Sir:
As an American educator who was employed by the Ministry of Education of the Imperial Ethiopian Government for nine years, I have followed the events of the past few weeks in that unhappy country with more than a casual interest.
The picture in the world press for the last quarter of a century of the sad little king pleading the cause of his beloved people before the League of Nations at Geneva is at long last fading from view and, in fact, its complete erasure from the world press in stories about Ethiopia today is long since overdue.
The two pictures in your Jan. 2 issue, "Emperor's Homecoming" and "Rebel Leader Hanging in Addis Ababa," are closer to the real Ethiopia of 1961 and its ruler and are more appropriate. The first shows a subject groveling at the feet of the Lion of Judah, and the second, "the bullet-riddled corpse of a rebel chieftain hanged in a public square."
Students at the University College will be lucky if they escape with no more severe punishment than an abject letter of apology to His Imperial Highness (one can get into serious trouble by failing to use this title when referring to the King of Kings), for as late as 1955, when I left the country completely disenchanted with its ruler, the Ministry of Education maintained "prison rooms" for students "with advanced ideas of equality and democracy" in its compound adjoining University College and public floggings of such students were a frequent practice. The hanging of corpses will not keep the people of Ethiopia for long in ignorance and poverty at the feet of a despot.
T.T.F. FLETCHER
Professor of English
Cheyney State College
Cheyney, Pa.
Sound & Fury
Sir:
Physicist Knudsen's study of noise omits one important aspect--frequency and its recurrence. We live in a 60-cycle world, as any hi-fi enthusiast will inform you, and I am unscientifically certain that our ears are gradually being trained to respond favorably, like Pavlov's dog, to the Bb that is constantly around us.
All electric motors, light bulbs, neons, fans --in fact, anything electric generates a 60-cycle Bb. If one is to make a study of noise and its obvious psychological effects, what of our gradual intolerance of anything musical not oriented to our accustomed Bb?
RICHARD MAURE JR.
Warminster, Pa.
Sir:
We note with unusual interest your article "Noise Haters," which states that "the U.S. airlines balk at installing adequate jet noise suppressors on their jet aircraft."
This statement is contrary to the facts known to this council. The aviation industry has long been aware of the obligation to help protect the public from the annoyance created by its operations. The earlier jet aircraft to enter airline service were adapted from a military design that did not include noise suppressors. The U.S. airlines specified that noise suppressors be standard equipment. The manufacturers have spent $50 million to develop the suppressors now in use. These suppressors cost the airlines an additional $240,000 per aircraft.
JACK R. CRAM
President
National Aircraft Noise Abatement Council
Washington
Sir:
As the father of ten (four sets of twins), I was compelled two months ago to put my feelings in verse:t
For unpleasant things we would ra'her not see
We have eyelids to shut out the sight of;
But for noises that jangle and kink up the nerves,
We've no ear-lids to shut out the sound of.
LAFAYETTE STUCK
Fennville, Mich.
First Performers
Sir:
A sad mistake appears in your Jan. 13 issue. First New York performance of Barber's Die Natali was credited to New York Philharmonic whereas first New York performance was given by Boston Symphony Orchestra.
THOMAS D. PERRY JR.
Manager
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston
The New Churches
Sir:
We express our appreciation to TIME for the consideration given St. Peter's Lutheran Church of Minneapolis. Our enthusiasm for this new building, however, knows no bounds, not even those of gratitude.
We regret that in your very fine description of the merits of the central altar and circular seating arrangement, in which the congregation as God's family is grouped about the table of the Lord, you did not mention that St. Peter's is one of the new churches with this arrangement.
(THE REV.) HAROLD SCHWEIGERT
St. Peter's Lutheran Church
Minneapolis
Sir:
We commend you for the excellent feature on new churches. We are a quarterly publication devoted to church architecture, building and equipment, and appreciate a feature in a magazine like TIME on such a subject.
WILLIAM C. CLARK
Editor
Your Church
Jenkintown, Pa.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.