On Center Stage

Sir: Perhaps with Winthrop Rockefeller as Governor [Dec. 2] Arkansas will be the stage where the conflicts between the North and the South are resolved. When the curtain closes, radical reconstruction is replaced by gradual liberalization.

JEFFREY BERGER

Temple University

Philadelphia

Sir: Mr. Rockefeller's interest in and accomplishments for Arkansas are indeed appreciated by its people. He has been a much-needed influence on Arkansas politically, economically, and culturally, and many Arkansans anticipate that "Win Rock in Little Rock" will give Arkansas a long-awaited boost.

ROBERT GOZA

Lewisville, Ark.

Sir: Your cover story on Winthrop Rockefeller was, like the man himself, brilliant, strong and truthful. He is the greatest force in Arkansas today, and unquestionably Man of the Year.

JIM BASS

Little Rock, Ark.

That Other Woman

Sir: What a wonderful cover story on the delightful Julia Child [Nov. 25]. We are great fans, even though my strictly noncooking husband is one of those men you so aptly describe, who never goes to the kitchen "for anything but ice cubes." Her lavish use of butter, cream, wine, etc., confirms my theory that to create a really fine meal, the cook should ignore those recipes labeled "nonfattening" or "economical."

ROBERTA R. HENNING

Seattle

Sir: As a charmed viewer of The French Chef, I have long been intrigued by the substantial presence of the other half of the team, living in the off-screen home attached to the pleasant kitchen and dining room we see on TV. The picture of Paul Child and the information about him confirm that I knew him as the art teacher at Avon Old Farms School, Avon, Conn., during the early 1930s. But I remember him best as the black-belt jujitsu expert who schooled me in the lightning leverages of that sport, and sometimes allowed me the illusion that I was giving him a contest.

ROBERT M. LEE

Merritt Island, Fla.

Sir: Although I am a happily married family man I long ago gave my wife fair warning that there was Another Woman--Julia Child. We were both delighted to see our Other Woman gracing your cover. In fact, we plan to laminate your likeness of our patron saint of fine cuisine and hang it permanently in our kitchen, where Mrs. Child can afford us not only inspiration but, occasionally, solace for our fluffs. Bon appetit!

JEROME H. DAVIS, M.D.

Honolulu

Sir: Julia Child ought to stew TIME and Artist Boris Chaliapin. Her likeness resembles the First Apparition in Shakespeare's Macbeth. And everyone knows what a beastly recipe the Weird Sisters used to concoct that aberration!

JOHN P. MILLER

Grosse Pointe, Mich.

Sir: In contrast to the sanitary protection afforded food in the supermarket scene, you have shown two pictures in the home where the working spoon was used for tasting; seven women without hairnets in the active preparation of food; nine men lacking chefs' hats; unclean fish, lobsters and clams on a food-preparation surface; and evidence of drinking by one "chef" at work. All are sanitary-code-regulation violations.

V. D. FOLTZ

Professor of Bacteriology

Kansas State University

Manhattan

Sir: Let her curdle the hollandaise, lump the simple white sauce, hack away at that suckling pig . . . we'll take Julia and her savory shortcomings any day.

(L/CPL) WILLIAM L. DEVENS

U.S.M.C.

Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Reviewing the Evidence

Sir: The frequent distance between TIME'S wishful editorializing and reality has perhaps never been clearer than in the brief filed in behalf of the Warren Commission [Nov. 25]. The complaint that new evidence has not been produced to challenge the report is beside the point--as even your story makes clear.

The real issue is the improbability of conclusions based on evidence already in the report and the selectivity of the commission in what evidence to take as credible. The public, which experienced a profound shock over President Kennedy's assassination, deserves more satisfaction than TIME'S sincerest wishes about it all.

ROBERT G. JONES, PH.D.

Lehigh University

Bethlehem, Pa.

Sir: Upon reading your article concerning the recent furor over the Warren Report, I was surprised at your omission of the most obvious theory. The "author conspiracy theory" holds that the assassination and all the accompanying doubts were plotted by a league of authors who wished to write ridiculous reports and thereby reap large rewards.

RICHARD L. GOLDWIN

University of Bologna

Bologna, Italy

Questions of Life & Death

Sir: While the points made by your Essay "On Suicide" [Nov. 25] were understandable and at times even brilliant, you have riot come up with one statement in defense of life under any conditions as Hemingway did against it: "Life on my terms or I don't want it." It is ridiculous to claim, as does Dr. Yolles, that no physical torture is sufficient reason to prefer death. The cancer patient who wants euthanasia is committing no crime against the miracle of life. There are times when proper homage is paid to life by renouncing it rather than by clinging to it.

B. CHANDRASEKARAN

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

Sir: You say that "neither the Old Testament nor the New specifically forbids" suicide.

Exodus 20: 13 and Deuteronomy 5: 17 both give us the same commandment: "Thou shalt not kill." I find no qualifying statement that says this refers only to the killing of others.

In Romans 12: 1, Paul says: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

It seems that both Testaments are rather explicit in their views.

ALAN G. VALENTINE

Metairie, La.

Taking In the Wash

Sir: It is very flattering to read in your story on the Florence flood [Nov. 25] that I am credited with the superhuman task of washing 130,000 negatives "one by one." You should let your readers know that there were teams involving about 40 people who worked very hard for a week, which finally accomplished the task. As for the freezing of wet manuscripts: a nice theory never put into practice here, as no refrigerator cars or freezing plant were available.

EVE BORSOOK

Florence, Italy

Beauty Under the Skin

Sir: On Sept. 11, 1944, TIME wrote: "The Hellcat is a tough, round-bellied fighter plane that looks like two beer barrels end to end. The U.S. Navy calls it the greatest sea fighter in the world."

On Nov. 25, 1966, TIME wrote, "She would never win a beauty contest. With her snub nose, gangly lines and high waist, she looks a little like a dejected tadpole . . . (but) the A-6 Intruder bomber is the hottest thing in Viet Nam."

This is merely to point out that both the tadpole and the beer barrels are products of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp., which also makes a "spidery-legged bug" (TIME, Aug. 10, 1962), to land the first American astronauts on the moon.

And to say that we at Grumman think tadpoles, barrels and bugs are gorgeous.

R. G. BUTTON

Public Relations Manager

Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp.

Bethpage, N.Y.

Breakthrough at Stanford

Sir: Without detracting from the work of Brown, Novak and Napier at Stanford [Nov. 25], it must be recognized that the real breakthrough for religion to become "one of Stanford's most adventurous intellectual disciplines" was largely due to the personality and intellectual brilliance of the late Alexander Miller. Lex Miller, who had been a minister in New Zealand, came to Stanford in 1950 as visiting lecturer in the humanities department, stayed until his death in 1960. His impact was such that religion came to be seen as a field worth serious study, eventually even worth having a department of its own.

THE REV. ERIC W. JACKSON

Trinity Episcopal Church

Sutler Creek, Calif.

The Word

Sir: We read with dismay your comment that the word ombudsman "does not even appear in U.S. dictionaries" [Dec. 2]. Since we at Funk & Wagnalls publish dictionaries, we felt that we had let the public down--until we turned to page 942 of our Standard College Dictionary (first published in 1963). There, between ombro-(a combining form meaning "rain") and Omdurman (a city in the central Sudan), was ombudsman, followed by its pronunciation, definition and etymology. Perhaps what the world needs now is a Timebuds-man to handle grievances against TIME.

SIDNEY I. LANDAU

Editor in Chief

Funk & Wagnalls Dictionaries

New York City

Sir: Evidently you are not aware of the largest Thorndyke-Barnhart dictionary published, the World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary, first published in 1963 by Field Enterprises Educational Corporation of Chicago. It is the only dictionary published in the U.S. that is revised annually, and you will find ombudsman in it.

ROBERT B. ELLIOTT

District Manager

Field Enterprises Educational Corp.

Chicago

> TIME is wordless. Ombudsman can also be found in the addendum of Webster's Third, unabridged.

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