The Queen Bee

Sir: Our policy in Asia for years has been to lose the country but keep its leader. Your [Aug. 9] cover story may convince the foggy minds in Foggy Bottom that the only sensible course is to lose Mme. Ngo Dinh Nhu and try to keep South Viet Nam.

JACK WAMSLEY Lieutenant Commander. U.S.N. Brooklyn

Sir: That was a very objective and perceptive report on the Nhu-est proof that we are living in a woman's world. Realizing that we must fully understand our hostile friends in order to survive, TIME has once again distinguished itself through its expert delving into the character and motivations of this Viet-eran intriguer and power behind the power.

ROBERT MONIZ

Fall River, Mass.

Sir: After reading your article on Mme. Ngo Dinh Nhu, I find it hard to believe her statement that the sacraments are her "moral vitamins." Perhaps I am misjudging the lady, but anyone who has the apparent lack of respect for another person's religious convictions that she has, could use a bit of spiritual doctoring.

As a Catholic, I find her disregard for the sincerity of another's actions (the self-immolation of Quang Due) and her patronization of the late Holy Father John XXIII very hard to take.

It seems to me that a little Christian charity is in order here, war or no war.

S. P. MANNING Oceanside. N.Y.

Sir: It is true that Buddhism knows no sense of guilt [July 26] as in the Christian doctrine of original sin, but the doctrine of karma, with its stress on individual responsibility not only for deeds but also for thoughts, in a word, for attitudes and their results, whether for good or evil, would hardly allow one to make such a statement as the above. In short, Buddhism would have us transform the world by first transforming ourselves. This is accomplished, according to Buddhist dogmatics by practicing six perfections: charity, morality, zeal in spiritual progress, patience, concentration leading to control of mind, and insight.

ARTHUR E. LINK New York City The Treaty Debate Sir: The signing of this "nonaggression" pact with the U.S.S.R. reminds me of one signed in the '20s--the Kellogg-Briand Pact. It did not deter the Japanese from building a fleet--and we sold them the scrap iron for it!

ESTHER CARLSTROM Mankato, Minn.

Sir: The only reason Khrushchev is agreeable is that he finds himself in an untenable position regarding Red China. There he is, with a big, ugly neighbor on one side and a flock of satellite countries he can never be quite sure of on the other. So everybody's thinking what a humanitarian he is, when all the while he's only feathering his own nest.

NORMAN L. MILLER Ojus, Fla.

Sir: And now to ensure against a surprise attack, let us consider an exchange of important hostages.

Let us send Russia the Kennedy clan and have Russia send us the Khrushchevs.

SAMUEL S. SHERWIN Los Angeles

Sir: In 1556, Ivan IV (the Terrible) sent a certain Ambassador Ossip Nepea to the court of Elizabeth I for trade and diplomatic negotiations.

This first-known Russian mission to English-speaking people was in its first year when Elizabeth's chief negotiator issued the following directive to all officials dealing with the "Rus":

"We do not find the Ambassador now at last so conformable to reason as we had thought. He is very mistrustful and thinks every man will beguile him. Therefore, you have need to take heed how you have to do with him, or with any such, and to make your bargains plain, and to set them down in writing. For they be subtle people, and do not always speak the truth, and think other men to be like themselves."

I rejoice in this first step out of the nuclear lunacy, but I also hope my fellow Boston Irish history buff is familiar with this 16th century directive.

JAMES F. BRAY Inglewood, Calif.

Sir: It is hard to believe that in a country that is such a fervent salesman of world peace, the value of a test ban treaty should suddenly be questioned. Is it possible that anyone with the sincere hope that a nuclear war will never come can believe that we can deter the Russians from further nuclear experimentation by not signing the treaty?

MARY D. JUNE Detroit

Sir: I do subscribe to the quoted opinion [Aug. 2] that "the big hurdle [toward achieving a workable anti-missile system] is not nuclear testing but highly intricate radar problems," but I am not "now at work on an anti-missile missile" as stated. I am responsible for the two-mile linear accelerator at Stanford University, which is devoted to pure research in high-energy physics.

W. K. H. PANOFSKY Director

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Stanford, Calif.

Sir: You state that Semyon Tsarapkin, one of the Soviet delegates, is called "Scratchy" because of his harangues at Geneva. The original reason for his nickname is, of course, that the Russian word for "to scratch" is tsarapat. His speaking manner no doubt made the nickname seem appropriate.

LOREN GRAHAM

Bloomington, Ind.

The Goodspeed

Sir: I wonder if many of your readers are aware of the long genealogy lying in back of the Checker [Aug. 2], This all began when one R. A. Palmer, connected with the old Cartercar automobile, left that concern in 1914 to build his own automobile, known as the Partin-Palmer. This car survived under that name until 1917, when it became the Commonwealth. The first Checker Cabs came out in 1922 along with other Commonwealth passenger models, and although the Checker survived, the Commonwealth went under despite an abortive attempt to go into the luxury line. So far as I know, only a single prototype of the $5,000 phaeton, named the Goodspeed, was built, and from 1922 until a few years ago, when Checker began its passenger-car production, the name existed as a taxicab only.

KEITH MARVIN

The Record Newspapers Troy, N.Y.

Of Ducks & Men

Sir: I was greatly moved by your Aug. 2 article concerning Lopez, Hanush and Mac Arthur Park. You summed it up beautifully when you stated ". . what was called for was not mechanical law enforcement but compassion and common sense." I have a peculiar feeling we're dangerously losing sight of this from what I can gather in current events.

(MRS.) RITA A. FILIAGGI Folsom, Pa.

Sir: I am not a fan of TIME'S, but, by some fluke, you rose above yourself and for a moment dwelt in the loftiest reaches of literature. This touching, stirring report of obscure people suddenly and bewilderingly caught up in a mechanized system of law, no more fit to judge their motives or inclinations than can an adding machine turn out poetry, pierced the heart of an irrational society and showed it unfit to even bleed.

MARTIN HOLMES San Diego

Sir: If your writer had attended the trial, he would have seen the name plate on the bench reading: "Howard H. Schmidt, Judge," not "Bernard Schmidt." The clerk in His Honor's court uses a rubber stamp which reads "Howard H. Schmidt," obviating TIME'S type of error. But your account was otherwise well done--indicating that you have no use for a rubber stamp in editing the news.

GEORGE M. KRAFT Official Reporter Los Angeles

What the Bishop Said Sir: The quotation with which you end the July 26 article on "South Bank Religion" is inaccurate, and Bishop Stock-wood is receiving protests.

What he actually said was this: have not the slightest use for a church that sets out to be eclectic, that just wants to draw to itself the wholly Anglo-Catholic or the wholly Evangelical. I have every use for the church that sets out to draw within its fellowship all those who live within its boundaries. And thank God the great majority are like that."

THE REV. M.C.O. MAYNE Southwark, England Bishop's Chaplain

Rocky & Barry Sir: I cannot understand why Governor Rockefeller has to be so criticized for having bettered his personal life. Why, above all things, should this change his political status? If he was a good man before his marriage, he should be a better one now, for having the courage of his convictions--in spite of the coming elections. This can only prove strength of character. I know a lot more people who wish that they had the courage to do exactly as he did in a like situation.

(MRS.) HARRIET M. DORRANCE Tripoli, Libya

Sir: When we meet Americans here in Europe and say that we are from Phoenix, Ariz., they all (young and old) ask about Barry Goldwater. We tell them he is fine, honest, honorable and trustworthy as he appears to be and as he speaks.

CLARA T. HABERL Vienna The Aaron Farbman Maneuver

Sir: I read of the Otto Gerisch maneuver [Aug 9] with great interest because I described this maneuver 19 years ago in the Journal of the Michigan State Medical Society, February 1944.

I discovered this maneuver in medical school (1924-28) since I myself had an extremely ticklish abdomen. I used the maneuver with considerable success after entering practice in 1930. Actually, the principle involved is that an individual cannot tickle himself.

AARON A. FARBMAN, M.D.

Detroit

> The maneuver had indeed been known for many years before Dr. Gerisch named it.--ED.

Elephants Are Very Big

Sir: Why do elephants have trunks? Because they don't have any pockets.

COLIN CAHILL Sydney, Australia

Sir: How can you tell if there's an elephant in the bathtub with you? You can't get the shower curtain closed.

DENNIS DUDLEY Cincinnati

Sir: Why do elephants have short tails? So they don't trip themselves when they pole-vault.

JOHN S. SORENSON FTG3 U.S.S. Boxer LPH4 c/o Fleet Post Office New York City

Sir: How can you tell if an elephant is standing on your back in a hurricane? You can hear his ears flapping in the high wind.

DAN IHDE Portales, N. Mex.

Sir: Why did the elephant lie across the middle of the road? To trip the ants.

JUDY SCHWARTZSTEIN New York City

Sir: Why do elephants clip their tiny toenails? So that their ballet slippers will fit.

RON HAMILTON Jasper National Park, Alberta

Sir-Why do elephants wear sunglasses? Because with all this publicity they don't want to be recognized.

PATTY ROTH West Hartford, Conn.

Two a Day

Sir: Some time ago, there was an item in your Medicine section entitled "Two Apples a Day."

The gist of the story was that someone somewhere had found reason to believe that a substance in apples and in the quantity contained in two apples, would either help cure or prevent some physical condition (evidently some condition that I either have or wish to prevent) if taken in that quantity daily.

So, for over a year now, I've religiously eaten at least two apples a day, at least when I can get them, which is usually but not always.

This is my problem: I'm getting sort of tired of apples, and I don't like worrying when I can't get them. Please tell me why I've been eating all those apples.

G. F. CASWELL St. Petersburg, Fla.

--> Because that Medicine story (Nov. 7, 1960) reported that two apples contain about the right daily dose of pectin to lower blood cholesterol, according to the findings of Minneapolis Physiologist Ancel Keys.--ED.

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