Feelings of Loss

Sir: My feeling of a very real loss in the death of Henry Luce has been eased, in part, by your cover tribute [March 10]. His great spirit, which you have so beautifully conveyed, gives a reassuring faith for all of us engaged in communications.

EVERETT EASTER JR.

Manhattan

Sir: Had Henry Luce been the publisher of any other magazines, TIME would have carried his picture on its cover several times over the years. And the cover stories that should have been written about him would have been inspirational to men and women of all ages and classes.

DONALD J. LEEHEY

Bellevue, Wash.

Sir: I have read every issue of TIME almost from its beginning. I always wished I could meet Mr. Luce, though I never expected to. But I read about him and about his activities, and I considered him one of the influential men of our age.

WILLIAM F. CLOSSON

Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Sir: No one, I am sure, appreciates more than does TIME the fact that life is what great individuals make it. The greatest are those, like Mr. Luce, who create something bigger than themselves as personalities--something that possesses, in effect, immortality. Usually it is an idea. In the case of Mr. Luce, it has been the infinite appreciation of, devotion to and development of the English language as the most powerful, most subtle, most beautiful, most versatile language in the world.

DAVID PASCAL WRAY

Haines City, Fla.

Sir: It is often lamented that America has no ideology to offer the world. I submit that in his contribution to a 1964 symposium on food and civilization, Mr. Luce formulated not an ideology but a set of ideals attainable by the rest of the world, not under the yoke of the U.S. but by its side. Wrote Mr. Luce:

"Is there any political style which is best for all men? I believe there is. Constitutional government is best because it best fits the nature of man--the nature of man being an unstable mixture of freedom and fallibility, of selfishness and generosity. Constitutional government seeks to give maximum play to the freedom of the" individual while at the same time establishing the necessary restraints and evoking a sense of social cooperation."

JOSEPH P. MUNZENRIDER

Seattle

Guaranteed Second Strike

Sir: "Deterrence by Anti-Missiles" [Feb. 24] left unsaid what must have been a central consideration in the Soviets' decision to deploy an operational ABM system. Soviet planners cannot have escaped the realization that our growing fleet of nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines represents a challenge to their security entirely unmatched by their offensive or defensive arsenal. These submarines "on station" give the U.S. a guaranteed second-strike capability, a force in being that could reasonably be expected to survive the first blow and retaliate. I believe that the Soviets feel compelled to fashion some sort of "reply" to the FBM submarine fleet; American planning should assume that the U.S.S.R. will press on with an ABM program.

ANDREW C. A. JAMPOLER

Lieutenant, U.S.N.

Valley Lee, Md.

Cracks in the Code

Sir: The reservoir of good will built up by the Harlem Globetrotters, Ralph Bunche, Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong and millions of other solid American citizens of Negro ancestry is being drained by people like Adam Clayton Powell [March 10]. His only defense appears to be that other Congressmen are also guilty, which is no defense at all.

O. C. ZOEBISCH

Ardmore, Pa.

Sir: Loss of seniority, a fine, and censure would have been punishment enough. Powell is entitled to his seat; the House knows it. If he was flagrantly dishonest, the House was flagrantly hypocritical.

DAVID M. SZONYI

Lakewood, N.J.

Call to Congress

Sir: Some legislators have called for a congressional probe of the Air Force Academy honor code [March 3]. It would be more appropriate to initiate a resolution supporting the code. This would have a salutary effect on cadet morale, putting them on notice that nothing less than unequivocal honesty and personal integrity can be accepted. And some of the resolution might rub off on the authors.

L. T. VICKERS

Colonel, U.S.A. (ret.)

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Hassenpfeffer

Sir: Marisol's clever sculpture portrays Hugh Hefner [March 3] just as I see him: an absurd, shallow, gutless, blockheaded monster, definitely having too much of everything while imagining he is the prototype of the All-American male. But have courage, the promise is ever true: "This too shall pass." See! His foot is protruding: he is on his way out.

LAURA T. MCCAULEY

Haddon Heights, N.J.

Sir: You dare display on the cover of a once respectable magazine this case of arrested development, this leech who capitalizes on the female form?

How can you compare art works of Ingres and Boucher to "playmates"? That is like comparing Mickey Spillane to Boccaccio. And of the starlets you mention, not one has a tenth of the beauty or acting ability of a Garbo or a Moreau.

I have always looked forward to reading your magazine to learn the scientific, artistic, factual and even gossipy news of our country and abroad. If I wanted tripe or sexual baloney, I would read this idiot's Playboy.

Just in case the thought runs through your fertile brain that I am a frustrated old maid: I am 27 years young, measurements 35-24-35, a redhead, and a mezzo-soprano at the Deutsche Oper. I am considered not to be a prude but to have especially discriminating taste.

KATHLEEN BASLER

Berlin

Sir: I am distressed at your printing pictures of nudes. Your circulation places these scenes before many who neither desire nor ought to see them. You misuse your wide circulation when you step out of character in this way.

(THE REV.) ROBERT L. RICKUS

Immanuel Lutheran Church

Salisbury, Mo.

Sir: Hugh Hefner's philosophy of the good life has its deficiencies, as Cox, Hamilton and others indicate. I am grateful, however, that his philosophy has helped us re-evaluate our "puritanical kick."

(THE REV.) E. GORDON ROSS

First Baptist Church

Osgood, Ind.

Sir: While Playboy may be the realm of the bunny, TIME is sometimes the realm of the cat.

The intellectual content of Playboy is at least on a par with the pretentiously overstated content of a TIME Essay. The prurient appeal of an overripe foldout is no worse than the peekaboo enticement of gossip about "People." The humor of a Playboy cartoon is often more sophisticated than the cleverness of TIMEse.

You imply that a Playboy reader must be of slight intelligence, a TIME reader, not only intelligent but so sex-informed that he is no longer curious--although your ingenuous habit of juxtaposing a couple's marriage date and the birth date of their first child seems to indicate that you have at least a passing interest in sex.

I enjoy TIME and Playboy equally--I hope with awareness of the bias in each.

SALLY DEWALD

Pittsburgh

Cop's Plea

Sir: Relevant to "The Dying Death Penalty" [Feb. 17] is a resolution adopted Sept. 1 by the American Correctional Association: "The 96th Annual Congress of Correction records its opposition to capital punishment; supports the Attorney General's recommendation that the death penalty be eliminated from the Federal Criminal Code; and commends the efforts of the abolition committees in the several states." Had this resolution been by ministers or social workers, hardly anyone would be surprised. But when the Attorney General and an association representing many of our correctional personnel advocate abolition, this is noteworthy.

JOSEPH W. ROGERS

Assistant Professor

Kansas State University

Manhattan, Kans.

Closer to Berkeley than Broadway

Sir: Perhaps Playwright Barbara Garson should be forgiven for the tasteless liberties she has taken in MacBird [March 3]: she has reminded us that we are lucky to be living in a country where such liberties are generously permitted.

DORRY DEHUFF

Farmington, Conn.

Sir: Poor Barbara Garson! Now that the critics have roasted MacBird into a gilt-edged annuity, she will have to reconcile herself to fame and a fat purse. That's a hell of an albatross to hang on a fully committed protester. If that's what she is.

Does she or doesn't she know what MacBird is? Only her conscience knows for sure. Does it recognize the distinction between veracity and audacity? Between opportunity and opportunism? Between guts and gall? Between taste and twaddle? These critical distinctions can be blurred in print and in protest. But on a stage they stand out naked.

What's a nice girl like her doing in a place like the theater, anyway? Why isn't she out in the fresh air on an apple-cheeked picket line? As a playwright, Miss Garson is still much closer to Berkeley than Broadway. In trying to whip up a wicked political stew, she has turned out a mere Hasty Pudding.

RICHARD F. STOCKTON

Manhattan

How Could You?

Sir: Your story on the Second Annual Ivy League-Seven Sisters Trivia Contest [March 10] contains a serious misrepresentation. I find it considerably amusing that students of a school with such an impeccable reputation as Yale's could state that Harpo Marx sold ice cream in A Day at the Races. It was Chico who sold "tootsi-frootsi" ice cream as a cover for selling tips on the horses. His victim was Dr. Hackenbush, played by Groucho. Please print a correction of this serious error. Trivia bugs such as myself are considerably furious about the entire matter.

ARTHUR SHIFRIN

Queens College

Flushing, N.Y.

Best of Breed

Sir: Snoopy a mutt ["Big Boys at Play," March 3]? For shame! He is a beagle, as any Peanuts lover, except possibly an elephant, could tell you. He is also a philosopher, bird lover, fashion plate (how mod can you get, a W.W. I helmutt and goggles) and probably an officer (A.F., natch) and a gentleman.

DAVEY LEE YOFFEE

Rantoul, Ill.

Heartily-Dactyly

Sir: Do you think I have nothing better to do than play double-dactyl rhyme games [March 3]? I hope you know what you're doing when you put teasers like Hollander and Hecht's jiggery-pokeries in your magazine. I'm sending you mine; then I'll forget it.

Higgledy-piggledy,

Emily Dickinson

Never thought spinsterhood

Much of a curse.

Frequently faulted as

Contra-ubiquitous,

Said as she died, "Well I

Could have done verse."

JOAN P. GRIMM

Cincinnati

Sir:

Hippity-hoppity

Bobbidy Kennedy

Bounces up mountains and

Barrels down streams.

Toodle-oo, Huberty;

Nothing beats puberty.

Incontrovertibly

Destiny screams.

IRA LEVIN

Wilton, Conn.

Sir:

Higgledy-piggledy,

Alice in Wonderland

Called at the White House and

Had this to say:

Doesn't it strike you that

Might-or might-not-manship

May or may not lead to

Bombs in our day?

NANCY G. FULTON

Cleveland

Sir:

Higgledy-piggledy

Big Jimmy Garrison

Ferrets out foreigns, in

Warrens, for sport.

Conspiratorial

Cubans are spotted; but

Hinting, not hunting,

is Garrison's forte.

CAROLYN MIKSOVSKY

Manhattan

Sir:

Higgledy-piggledy

Susan B. Anthony

Shouted that women

Were more than just cooks.

Characteristically,

Half the electorate

Now picks a mayor

Because of his looks.

DAVE CHARLES KNESEL

Richmond

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