Rocky

Sir:

It is indeed a joy to hear about a man such as Governor Rockefeller [June 15]. It has been a long time since we have heard a state politician advocating states' rights who doesn't mean: "Keep your bureau-pickin', big-Government hands off our corrupt and inefficient local mess."

TERRY M. FLANAGAN West Lafayette, Ind.

Sir:

If anybody can save this nation from Kennedyism, it is he.

THOMAS A. CARLSON

Fredonia, N.Y.

Sir: Your lead article on Nelson Rockefeller shamefully tries to whitewash the most important fact that will cause his defeat at the polls this fall--his divorce.

JOHN B. BOUCHER Johnson City, N.Y.

Sir:

Has Artist Koerner pictured Rockefeller with cigarette in hand? If so, either TIME'S text lies or Artist Koerner displays a lack of artistic acumen.

FARLEY NESBIT Syracuse, N.Y.

>Let Reader Nesbit don his own glasses and look again at Non-Smoker Rockefeller.--ED.

Teddy

Sir: You used all the insidious techniques of journalism in your biased and indeed malicious article about Ted Kennedy [June 15].

Did it occur to you that Ted may be amply qualified for the Senate in his own right? JAMES WILLIAM PRICE San Francisco Sir: If Jack and Bobby can put Ted in the Senate, then Laos won't be the only country with three princes.

R. P. ORNSTEEN Gladwyne, Pa.

Sir:

Come, now, there aren't that many post offices in Massachusetts.

PAUL M. MEADER Georgetown, Mass.

> Well, there are more than 500.--ED.

Sewing Back an Arm

Sir:

I wish to thank you for your article on Everett Knowles [June 8].

I have been following the Boston papers since the accident and hopefully watching his progress. This is the first time I really found out what happened to the child. Through your diagram and article I got a clear and concise picture of what has been done for him.

JANE E. WALKER

Marshfield Hills, Mass.

> Last week, just 21 days after his arm was cut off, Everett was released from the Massachusetts General Hospital with circulation fully restored to the arm (see cut). Doctors will decide next month about the job of connecting the severed nerves, and it would be at least 18 months before such an operation could take place.--ED.

Use Your Own Crayons

Sir: The vampire who is responsible for the publication of pages from the JFK Coloring Book [June 8] should get on his knees and pray God's forgiveness for the most pernicious, diabolic, venomous, ruthless, inhuman attack of all.

VERNA K. SMITH Kilgore Junior College District Kilgore, Texas

Sir: See the pretty stock exchange? color it pretty. Do not color the window; it is open. See the man on the window sill? He is a businessman; color him poor. Color him quick; he won't be there long.

J. GARY DUNN

Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Sir. Color me "tickled pink" after reading your excerpts from the JFK Coloring Book.

CHARLES E. SCHROETER Moses Lake, Wash.

The Beauties Sir: Hey--that color photo of Grace Kelly [June 8] is the most strikingly beautiful picture of a woman I've ever seen.

It should have been on the cover of TIME.

HANK MAYO Milwaukee

Sir:

Orchids to TIME and to Photographer Halsman for including Madame Houphouet-Boigny among a gallery of reigning beauties. For the nation's colored races, it offers an example of "how to succeed in life without being Caucasian."

(THE REV.) LEWIS P. BOHLER JR. Church of the Advent Los Angeles

Sir:

When I got to the last photo, I gasped with surprised pleasure at that straightforward American gaze of Jackie Kennedy. What a smashing presentation.

MARGARET GEGHEN ROTH Chicago

Old Doodar Twist

Sir:

No doubt your California correspondent's basic account of Oakland's Golden State Square Dance Roundup [June 8] was reasonably accurate. But the added material sounded as if it came out of a book about Early American square dancing.

These days, square dancers all over the country dance Western style. In this type of square dancing, all four couples in a square are in action at once, and you never see "the head lady turn the right-hand gent once around, once around," as in the old Doodar dance you quoted.

Probably few of the 1,000,000 serious square-dance buffs you refer to have ever danced to such tunes as Skip to My Lou, Turkey in the Straw, Buffalo Gals or Nellie Gray. Singing square-dance calls are now based on current pop tunes, and even include the twist.

ALBERT L. ABBOTT Michigan State Square Dance Convention Detroit

Cost of Medicare

Sir:

TIME was taken in by the proponents of the King-Anderson bill in its otherwise excellent report on the medicare rally [June i].

The cost of the program would not be only $13 per person, as you indicated; by the Administration's own figures, the increase in Social Security taxes for next year would be $55 per person, of which half would be paid by the employee and half by the employer. This is because, in addition to the 1/2% increase in taxes, the Administration would increase the base from $4,800 to $5,200, a fact which has received very little publicity from proponents of the bill.

WALLACE F. BENNETT United States Senate Washington, D.C.

> Reader Bennett's figures are correct. But the $13 figure is what the Administration figures the "average taxable wage earner" would pay specifically for medicare, eliminating the portion of the increased payment that would go to old age assistance.--ED.

S is for ?

Sir: In your June 15 People section, Harry S Truman is admonishing newsmen not to put a period after the S in his name because it is a middle name, not an initial. I enclose a copy of Mr. Truman's letterhead, complete with period after the S (see cut).

THOMAS G. MOSHIER Strongsville, Ohio

Joe, You Made the Asp Too Short

Sir: Re your report on Cleopatra's death scene [TIME, June 8]: the Egyptian asp is a cobra, attaining a length of about 5 ft. when grown.

Newly hatched asps would probably be at least 9 or 10 in. long. The 6-in. Egyptian asp--in training for two months--used by aoth Century-Fox in its forthcoming film Cleopatra evidently is a retarded baby, poor thing.

Does Joe Mankiewicz seriously expect people to believe that a creature like that would be capable of dispatching so formidable an object as Elizabeth Taylor?

HILDA SIMON New York City

Living Dolls

Sir:

The Barry Gold water doll: You wind it up and it walks backwards'

PAULA WOSK Evanston, 111.

Sir:

You forgot the John Birch doll: wind it up and it points a finger at you.

GENE HELFMAN Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Sir:

Then there's the Nixon doll: wind it up and it goes through a crisis.

(MRS.) PATRICIA JONES Charlottesville, Va.

Sir:

In my collection I have a Kennedy doll: wind it up and it calls you an s.o.b.

(MRS.) ANITA STATHAKES Boston

Sir:

You wind up the elephant doll and it pins everything on the donkey.

HARRY PAYNE

Worcester, Mass.

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