Ho Hum

Sir: When we recite the roll of the boring [July 13], how can we leave out that evangelist of bisexualism, Gore Vidal? And who could think of either Vidal or boredom without thinking of the King of Leer, William F. Buckley Jr.? Who could be more tiresome than Billy Graham? The list is obviously far from complete.

DAHL A. DILLARD

Coffeyville, Kans.

Sir: Senators McGovern and Fulbright, all the Kennedys, and most Democrats.

MRS. MAX D. BEARD

Rillito, Ariz.

Sir: Dr. Benjamin Spock.

MAUREEN W. HEALY

Otis Air Force Base, Mass.

Sir: The bore who tells the world whom it should be bored by.

CYNTHIA B. ARMSTRONG

Manhattan

Sir: George Wallace.

WAYMAN C. DUNLAP Little Rock, Ark.

Sir: The Smothers Brothers.

ROY N. REECE Santa Rosa, Calif.

Sir: John Wayne.

MARIO CAMPUZANO

Madrid

Sir: The news media that create the bores by gushing overexposure at the slightest whim, word or fancy shown by celebrities who are, after all. only people.

MAXINE B. MCCLAIN

Painesville, Ohio

Creative Critic

Sir: The article concerning the House vote on the Cooper-Church Amendment [July 20] unfortunately overlooks the impressive credentials of our colleague. Congressman Donald Riegle Jr., of Michigan.

Don Riegle has been an outspoken critic of the war in Viet Nam. He and Congressman Paul N. McCloskey Jr. were the first members of Congress to propose the repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Their position has since been adopted by the Administration, and repeal of the resolution has since been favorably acted upon by the Senate.

Congressman Riegle's leadership has been an important force in the congressional effort to conclude hostilities in Viet Nam. The response to his leadership on the Cooper-Church Amendment, 153 votes, was the high point in the effort of the House to limit U.S. involvement.

GILBERT GUDE (R., MD.)

HOWARD ROBINSON (R., N.Y.)

BRAD MORSE (R., MASS.)

CHARLES MOSHER (R., OHIO)

THOMAS F. RAILSBACK (R., ILL.)

SILVIO CONTE (R., MASS.)

House of Representatives

Washington, D.C.

Cry about Hues

Sir: "Gay Pride" [July 13] makes a brief and trivial point. You can bet, by damn, that if all homosexuals were black, or members of some other over-sponsored minority, doubtless some august institution like the late Warren Court would long ago have clamped a doubly protective constitutional shield around us. Individual dignity, it seems, comes in only a few colors these days, none of which is lavender.

WALTER B. RISNER

San Francisco

Grasping for Grapes

Sir: In "Winding Up the Cambodian Hard Sell" [July 13], you accuse the President of trotting out the old theories and answers, but the questions posed by the networks' top reporters were so repetitious, unimaginative and plain boring that the answers necessarily plowed over old ground. The questions could easily have been far more incisive.

If Nixon was guilty of inflated rhetoric, it was not in equating the Cambodian campaign with D-day and Stalingrad, which he did not in fact do, but in referring to Sevareid, Chancellor and Smith as "historians." The real historian is, of course, Nixon, whose understanding of events and ease in explaining them are grapes hung too high for your foxes to grasp.

DUDLEY M. ZOPP

Lexington, Ky.

Hysteria and Beyond

Sir: However abundant it may be on earth, life not only as we know it but as we can imagine it appears to exist nowhere else in the solar system.

If rarity augments the preciousness of a jewel, how astronomically inestimable is the value of the flora and fauna on this globe. Will we then continue to give evidence of the sanctity with which we regard life by driving other species into extinction? Having read in your magazine that blue whales are being decimated to make butter [July 13]. I feel like laughing to hysteria and beyond.

PAUL HANSON

Medical Librarian

University of California

Los Angeles

Sir: Maybe it is a good thing that the moon has no wildlife. Despite our progress in some areas, we persevere in our slaughter of this earth's creatures. Whether it be the killing of leopards or baby seals or alligators or whales for economic reasons or the killing of thousands and thousands of sea fowl by unnecessary dumping of oil wastes at sea, this planet's wildlife suffers unto extinction at our hands.

Look out, universe! Here we come.

F. CHANNING WAGG, 3RD

Acton, Mass.

Mash Note

Sir: You state that I would never have hired Bob Altman for his last picture if I had known Altman had previously made That Cold Day in the Park. The fact of the matter is that not only did I know that Altman had made That Cold Day in the Park, but I hired Altman for M*A*S*H [July 13] only after I had screened the picture. Also, I have never "badmouthed" Bob Altman either before or after the production.

RICHARD D. ZANUCK

President

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. Beverly Hills, Calif.

Dog Days

Sir: It amazes me that people so well versed on nuclear power, marine biology and air composition cannot see their own hypocrisy in owning a dog in New York City [July 20].

BARBARA L. SCHULTZ

Manhattan

Sir: All dog owners should be made to carry a dog baggy and a shovel and do their own pickup.

MRS. JACK B. WALLACH

Water Mill, N.Y.

Sir: I would be delighted to tell my poodle, "Do it for Hamill."

(MRS.) NANCY LEE ROBERTS

Pittsburgh

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