Equal Time

Sir: Your cover article on the commercial [July 12] was an exquisite amalgam of love, truth, beauty, corn and a little salt.

JIM KERNS

Sheridan, Wyo.

Sir: I am surprised that you suggested no escape plan for the average CEBUS victim. Mine is workable, simple, and guaranteed to trim the waistline while liberating the mind from ugh-plugs. For women, the average battery of three commercials per station break allows time for any of the following: washing and rinsing about one-third of the dinner dishes, emptying trash, sorting or putting away the wash, pressing any two wash-and-wear items, filling the coffeepot for the next morning, feeding any household pet. For men: finding the car keys, tucking in the children, taking trash out, balancing checkbook, having brief argument with wife or kissing wife up to seven times.

KATHARINE B. EVANS

Columbus, Ga.

Sir: We never buy the products, we buy the stock.

(MRS.) Lois DURGIN

Berkeley, Calif.

Sir: Your cover story brings to mind an incident I recently encountered on a bus. A girl no older than four or five, singing away very spiritedly: "... a taste you can really feel; new Ultra Brite gives your mouth sex appeal!"

HARRY PLEWA

Jamaica, N.Y.

Sir: Though some national commercials may be only at the threshold of pain, the local variety tests the steel of man's capacity to endure. A local "30-minute" news program consists of twelve minutes of news and weather and 18 minutes of commercial blight. The deluge of drivel is often highlighted by a car dealer's hypocritical, Bible-waving sign-off: "Gaw bless ya 'n' yore luvved 'uns."

W. BURKE GRANDJEAN

Baton Rouge, La.

Sir: Congratulations on your choice of satirist. Scarfe is a larf.

PETER SHILLINGFORD

Shillingtord Lambe Assoc. Ltd.

London

Sir: Two articles, "And Now a Word about Commercials" and "Healing by Tinkering" expose the appalling attitude of the citizenry of this, the richest country, toward their fellow citizens. Apparently the American public is willing to pay, via the marketplace, a hidden tax on its beer, cigarettes, detergents and automobiles to support $22,000-per-minute television commercials, but is unwilling to pay for the vitally needed equipment or manpower to save the lives of more than a slim handful of the 20,000 or more Americans who develop a treatable kidney disease each year.

I can visualize an inexpensive, news-report type of one-minute commercial that quietly states that the sponsor bought 44 kidney dialysis machines with the money he otherwise would have spent on the usual T.V. commercial. While showing scenes of the equipment in use, mention could be made of the 308 people whose lives were saved and were being supported. If competition developed between sponsors, maybe more than a mere handful of lives could be saved.

BURTON STAUGAARD, PH.D.

Assistant Professor

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Nashville, Tenn.

Once Over Lightly

Sir: You credit Albert Einstein with the origination in 1917 of the theory behind the laser [July 12]. The origin of the theory of the laser is credited to Columbia University Physicist Charles Townes, who conceived of the idea for the maser in 1951. The maser theory led directly to the laser theory in the late 1950s. If one is to search any farther back for a causative scientific theory, one must not be so shortsighted as to focus on 1917. The actual origin of the theory that made the laser possible must be credited to the Greek scientists Leucippus (fl. 5th century B.C.) and Democritus (460-370 B.C.), who originated the atomic theory and also coined the word atom (Greek for not + cutting, indivisible).

ROBERT T. WHITE

Hollis, N.Y.

Sir:

It's fine to know the laser

Rubs out the old tattoo.

I wish my dentist would erase

Decay this way: Don't you?

ELSIE KANTOR N.

Hollywood, Calif.

Pretty Rich

Sir: I would assert that in the same way one need not be black to have "soul," money is not prerequisite for being "very, very rich" [July 12].

Since ostentatious display is frowned upon, scrupulous underconsumption, mixed with an unreal vagueness about income sources and feigned ignorance of the costs of goods, is easily mistaken for "real wealth." Lest you scoff, note the commoners around you who drop names with a straight face, the bar fly who mutters, "I never should have dropped Bauxite," and the man who, professing to enjoy driving his Volkswagen, laughs lightly at a streaking Lear Jet, shaking his head quizzically and mumbling "Nouveau riche." Which is to say, it works, and has been working for quite some time. Convincing people is only a matter of practice and skill.

DOUGLAS B. FABENS

Bainbridge, Md.

Early Birdmen

Sir: The first transatlantic airplane crossing was not made, as you said it was, by two Britons in a Vickers Vimy bomber [July 12]. It was made by six Americans in a Navy NC4 flying boat under Lieut. Commander Albert Gushing Read, U.S.N. This "forgotten" first crossing was made in May, 1919 (Newfoundland-Azores-Lisbon), a month earlier than that by Alcock and Brown in their bomber (Newfoundland-Ireland). The Britons collected the -L-10,000 prize offered by the London Daily Mail for a nonstop flight--still offering prizes, I see--while the pioneering Americans languished in comparative obscurity. I had occasion to research this episode thoroughly, for it occurred during the tenure of Josephus Daniels as Secretary of the Navy (whose biographer I have the honor to be).

JOSEPH L. MORRISON

Professor, School of Journalism

University of North Carolina

Chapel Hill

Sir: You say that "the Observer, quickest to capitalize on 'Chichysteria,' announced a transatlantic sailboat solo race for this summer." In fact, there was no question of the Observer capitalizing on Chichester's round-the-world voyage. The Observer has been sponsoring the singlehanded transatlantic race at four-year intervals since 1960. The winner in 1960 was Francis Chichester.

DAVID ASTOR

Editor

The Observer

London

Paul's Credo

Sir: Creeds have been traditionally used by the church to express solidarity in times when its direct influence is waning. However, the creed you describe as "Paul's Traditionalist Credo" [July 12] represents an affirmation of metaphysics and an authoritarian slap to the liberal wing of the church. Can an action like this conceivably unite an already dividing Catholic intelligentsia?

FRANCIS J. SCHUSTER JR.

Pikesville, Md.

Sir: It is a revolution and not a reaffirmation that the church needs.

RICHARD S. CRAMER JR. Deal, N.J.

Sir: Oh Sweet Jesus, it looks as if Paul dropped a few more of his theological dinosaurs. There seems to be little hope that the Ice Age will recede within the next few eons. Therefore, I shall misinterpret his statement that the Roman Church is the "one only church" into that it is "only one church." He can infallibly lead all the Roman Catholics where he wants--I, for one, am an American Catholic.

JOHN P. MURPHY

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Nat and the Trap

Sir: I'm glad that the ten black writers who responded to William Styron's Nat Turner [July 12] weren't around when Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. If this novel had been repressed because of stock characters and a failure to understand the Negro character, I don't know what would have happened to the abolition movement.

SALLY SNYDER

Seattle, Wash.

Sir: I submit that the "important question" is not, as you would have it, "What is Styron's own attitude on racial questions?" Unless we are prepared to return to the Harriet Beecher Stowe school of social axe grinding, we had best leave off speculating on authorial politics and simply judge novels as good art or bad.

By identifying Styron's personal opinions as the most crucial aspect of the controversy, you partially fall into the same trap as those black critics who denounce Nat Turner from nonesthetic, and therefore shaky, platforms.

W. H. WARD

Knoxville, Tenn.

Let's Hear It for the Bean

Sir: I read with interest your article regarding the aggressive market-development work of the H. J. Heinz Co. [July 12]. I am sure it would be of interest to your readers to know that of the 11.5 lbs. per capita annual consumption of beans in Britain, a major part of these are grown in Michigan. Michigan farmers, who produce 99% of the navy beans grown in the U.S., used as baked beans in the U.K., sold 1,091,000 hundred-pound bags of beans to the U.K. in 1966, the last year for which the figures are available. Since the H. J. Heinz Co. has over 50% of the market in the U.K., it is therefore reasonable to assume that Heinz's purchases accounted for more than one-half of the Michigan sales, or nearly 600,000 hundred-pound bags. Obviously, we think the British people have excellent food taste.

M. D. BROWNLEE

Secretary-Manager

Michigan Bean Commission

Lansing

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