Compliments to the Chef

Sir: I just this minute brought TIME in from the mailbox, and had to thank you for it even before I read your cover story on Julia Child [Nov. 25] Her French Chef, on WTTW, is a regular in our house. Even the children--five of them, 14 down to four--prefer it to the tripe generally offered. I don't really know if they're learning anything, but they enjoy her breathless manner of speaking, are fascinated by the way she tosses around whole fish and cuts of meat, and are rather glad they don't have to do dishes after she cooks: "All those pots!"

MRS. LEONARD FLAXMAN

Roselle, Ill.

Sir: After watching Julia Child for six months, I bought my wife Mastering the An of French Cooking. It was a wise move. Last night I came home to TIME (with Julia) and filets de poisson gratifies a la Parisienne. Hurrah for Julia Child, TIME, and my wife.

ROBERT F. HEVER

Merritt Island, Fla.

Sir: It is a pity that other television programs of the new season cannot measure up to Mrs. Child's delightful charm and instruction. Mrs. Child's innate knack for comedy is the best deadpan act since the silent movies. Vive la Child, to say nothing of bon appetit.

DANIEL F. C. BUNTIN

Philadelphia

Sir: The joy of cooking seems to have escaped me completely somehow. Nevertheless, I watch Julia Child's program every week, and then the following day, I run out and buy wire whisks, watercress, souffle pans and carbon-steel knives. I have also acquired a modest but impressive assortment of wines and exotic spices. Of course, I have never used any of these things. And I certainly would never have the courage to try one of her recipes. I throw the watercress out each time I clean the refrigerator.

MRS. DONALD O. NELSON

Stamford, Conn.

Sir: After seeing your picture of Mrs. John Murchison preparing bouillabaisse sans an apron, I nominate her for Woman of the Year.

(MRS.) IONE LILIENTHAL

Pottsville, Pa.

Sir: Towns and people that you mentioned in Julia Child's article are "popcorn eaters" compared with San Franciscans, who were completely omitted. At least we don't have to write East for any food or gourmet cooking utensil. We have the best right here, be it shallots, baby veal, limestone lettuce or basin an blanc bowls, all at non-inflated prices.

THOMAS E. CARA

San Francisco

Sir: Around our house she is spoken of as a member of the family. In addition to admiration and respect for her culinary abilities, we just plain love her. I was cooking family meals for 20 years "before Julia"; "since Julia" meals are as superior as a jet to a covered wagon.

(MRS.) FRANCES R. LOONEY

New Haven, Conn.

Sir: You can do any pictorial-art interpretation of Johnson, Goldwater, Kennedy and Nixon that you want, but you and Boris Chaliapin owe Julia Child an apology. Julia Child is sacred.

JIM PILES

Manchester, Mass.

Sir: Having just devoured "What's Cooking," I must give thanks for the wonderful tribute to my favorite TV personality from my favorite magazine.

However, you failed to solve one little mystery concerning Mrs. Child. What is the large, round badge she wears over her heart--an old De Gaulle button?

(MRS.) MARGARET CALVEN

Hendersonville, Tenn.

-- Not quite--it's the emblem of the Paris cooking school she helps run, L'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes.

L.B.J. in Reverse

Sir: The Republican upsurge of 1966 [Nov. 18] may well mark a turning point in favor of the long-suffering, unorganized and all-but-forgotten voter: the American taxpayer. He is finally realizing that Great Society programs rest on his back.

The Democrats have abrogated their right to speak for the taxpayer. The Republican Party can increase its strength and can gain victory in 1968 if it bases its appeal on a program of reducing public debt and taxes.

J. ALBERT ROLSTON

Newark, Ohio

Sir: The recent Republican sweep was not, as you have analyzed, a miracle brought about by sincere, brilliant and persistent Republican leaders. It was a rebellion of the people against a policy of too much aggression outside our borders and too much socialism within them.

WILLIAM D. NETHERWOOD

Ocean City, NJ.

Sir: The election results signify a reverse of L.BJ.--J.B.L., Johnson Backlash.

EDGAR MARBURG

Pittsburgh

Sir: As an absent resident of California, I was overwhelmed by the news of Ronald Reagan's victory. The contest pitted vigor and a constructive campaign against a stagnant administration and a campaign based on the destruction of character. My faith has been restored in the "ignorant" voting public--though eight years of education was necessary.

BRAD WOOLSEY

Copenhagen

Sir: I was shocked to find Governor John H. Chafee's picture missing from the cover. By winning his last two elections by a more than 60% plurality in a solidly Democratic state, he has placed himself squarely in the national arena.

M. KNUSCHKE

Greenville, R.I.

Sir: The best Republican vote-getter for 1966 was Robert Kennedy.

PHIL CARROLL

Chicago

The Wastrels

Sir: When I came to this country a few years ago, 1 was really shocked at the materials wasted by Americans. Until I read your Essay, "The Defense of Waste" [Nov. 18], I never realized that it is not all waste after all.

NICK D. KAVOUKAS

Washington, D.C.

Sir: Throughout all history, whenever a society became hedonistic and on the road to decay, people have fallen for such take-no-thought-of-the-morrow nonsense. Only a part of wasted material is recoverable. The air we breathe is being polluted by fumes from automobiles and factories. Our rivers, lakes and ocean fronts are being destroyed by pouring into them human and factory wastes. One of the worst polluters is the paper industry. How can we return to the soil the chemically treated wood waste now going into our rivers and on to the sea?

The problem of jobs for the unskilled rightly worries us, but there must be a better way to handle the question than to advocate unlimited waste. If this be puritanism, I am proud to be a puritan.

F. D. DYSINGER

Round Pond, Me.

Sir: After reading "In Defense of Waste" I have come to the conclusion that someone is either suffering from a double exposure of ignorance or trying to encourage an already destructive don't-give-a-damn society to become more destructive.

MYRON SHOEMAKER

Laceyville, Pa.

Sir: In the space industry, only a fraction of the scientific professionals are productive. Hundreds of brainy M.I.T., Caltech and other technological grads are recruited each year only to be mothballed in the employer-contractors' private skill banks, as elements in "capabilities" to be asserted in possible or problematical future competitions for new public business. Meanwhile, the eager, brilliant young men gradually sink into time-serving desuetude, their skills and motivation deteriorating, their lavish salaries charged to taxpayer-supported projects of questionable usefulness in which they play no real part.

This is tragic waste indeed!

ALFRED CONNOR BOWMAN

Hermosa Beach, Calif.

Sir: You condone waste of still-usable automobiles and refrigerators because Americans can afford the "better" things, and you state that the only real waste is the waste of human resources. Did it not occur to the writer that the majority of Americans spend their lives in jobs they don't like mainly to earn more money to buy--and to waste--such items? Are these people not wasting their lives in the "real" sense of the word?

DOUGLAS D. MCBROOM

Pittsburgh

Sir: Instead of narrow-mindedly designing planned obsolescence and physical deterioration into manufactured goods to maintain the growth of our economy, why can't we invest a fraction more of our great personal and corporate income in the futures of the underprivileged in this country and in some of the underdeveloped nations?

Better education would enable more people to earn higher incomes, which in turn would allow them to consume more of our manufactured goods. The long-run effects of such a policy would surely be a greater benefit to our shortsighted industrialists in terms of increased sales and good will than would the production of more junk.

DEAN G. CALAMARAS

Castleton, N.Y.

Portrait of Everyman

Sir: Congratulations to the artist who did the cover portrait of Bishop Pike [Nov. 11]. It is a veritable picture of the modern Everyman, torn by the anguish of contradictions of his own making. Pike as your artist indicates represents not an individual but an age.

C. B. ASHANIN, Ph.D.

Department of Philosophy and Religion

Claflin University

Orangeburg, S.C.

Sir: Bishop Pike is like a child who cannot see the truth behind a symbol while all of his classmates can. Perhaps, then, his reason for demythologizing Christian doctrine is to bring the Christian faith down to his level of comprehension.

RANCEFORD OKADA

Arizona State University

Tempe

Sir: Heresy! Heresy! This is the battle cry of the disgruntled bishops. Their time would be better spent if they cried out against some of the ghastly problems confronting our society. May Bishop Pike continue to blitz the bastions of medieval doctrine, and lead the way to a Christianity that means something in this unhappy world.

CLAUDE R. GLOVER

Texas A. & M. University

College Station

With Intelligent Reservations

Sir: The stand that the Roman Catholic Church has continued to uphold on the subject of birth control [Nov. 18] is narrow-minded, archaic, and oftentimes psychologically and economically cruel.

We feel that the church should condone the use of birth control, with some intelligent reservations. For instance, birth control should not be used outside of marriage or to completely prevent parenthood. The use of birth control to produce a family that you are psychologically and economically able to have, can only be termed wise and not "sinful." With modern science the world has progressed in many ways. Why shouldn't it also progress in this humanitarian matter of helping build a durable family unit?

GEORGE E. ENGDAHL JR. ('70)

ROBERT M. CONWAY ('70)

College of the Holy Cross

Worcester, Mass.

Sir: It seems completely incongruous to me that the pontifical commission on birth control could recommend to Pope Paul VI that Roman Catholics be allowed to use "any method of contraception." Artificial birth control has been held in violation of God's law by both Pius XI and Pius XII. Since these Pontiffs have clearly warned us on this point, those "Catholics" who would seize this opportunity to form a "doubtful" conscience on this matter might well examine their consciences closely and see if what they are really doing is trying to justify their own transgressions.

PAUL J. MACEY

Beverly, N.J.

All On Paper?

Sir: Oh, for the carefree life of a paisley-undershorts-clad Wisconsin student [Nov. 18] whose pastime is to grab a bottle of Scotch, a girl, and a slow boxcar to Prairie du Chien! But you overlook the normal student who grabs his slide rule and box of No-Doz and takes a brisk walk to the library. The only manila paper the majority of us are concerned with is that from Uncle Sam.

FRANCIS G. WOLF

GEORGE R. SILVERWOOD

University of Wisconsin Madison

Playing It Straight

Sir: TIME'S article on the idiosyncrasies of opera singers [Nov. 18] is an exaggeration, and may mislead the public into thinking that all opera singers are freaks.

I lived over 20 years with my late husband while he sang at the Metropolitan for ten years, at London's Covent Garden for three years and throughout the world, and he never resorted to such antics as you report.

Just so the world knows, some operatic couples live normal lives.

MRS. ANTHONY MARLOWE

Detroit

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