Look at Ourselves and Laugh

To the Editors:

Doonesbury [Feb. 9] is the best thing to come out of Yale since the lock.

Alan Gray

Neptune City, N.J.

Wrong Yale. The lock was named after Linus Yale Jr., who invented it in 1865.

Trudeau's satire enables us to look at ourselves and laugh. Any paper that cuts out Doonesbury cuts out a part of American life.

Mike Murphy

Houston

It is refreshing to read a funny political cartoon that hits between the ears instead of below the belt.

Alan Albright

San Antonio

Garry Trudeau's eating habits are not the signs of an eccentric cartoonist, but merely the eating habits of an un married college student. In my own apartment here at Cal State Fullerton you will find 13 empty bottles of Dr Pepper, six Swanson TV dinners, and in the freezer an open can of orange juice concentrate with a spoon in it.

Bill Davee

Fullerton, Calif.

Joanie Caucus is whose favorite Trudeau character? Ms. Caucus is a menopausal potato, clearly modeled on Sarah Moore.

Nolan Nix Denver

Zonker "flaky"? Only "a spaghetti-haired specimen of the drug culture"? Zonker Harris is the most appealing character of Doonesbury's world, the most fully developed character, and (one suspects) in personality the alter ego of

Garry Trudeau. Zonker lives!

Helen Moak

Philadelphia

If that's an example of Doonesbury humor, I'm glad I leave the comic strips to kids and liberals.

Donald F. Hinds

Grand Rapids

I learn more about government in Doonesbury than in school.

David Foster

Weston, Conn.

Is TIME changing to a comic book?

Paul Trimakas

Charlotte, N.C.

Trudeau's use of repeated backgrounds, a cinematographic technique, lets characters develop and philosophies emerge because the sets never upstage the actors and the message. I think any film director would be delighted "to strike an attitude or sink a platitude" in only four frames. Try it some time.

Anne Bonney

New York City

God as Guide, Not Pal

Anyone who thinks a new prayer book [Feb. 9] will help us Anglicans should attend his nearest Roman Catholic Church next Sunday to see what a mess they made of their English translation. There are plenty of churches around for the semiliterate. Suppose somebody had tried to make Shakespeare or John Donne more readable.

Peter B. Weber

Schenectady, N. Y.

For many Episcopalians, the language of their rituals is not a barrier to a meaningful relationship with God, but a beautiful, expressive key to that relationship. Brevity and blandness are not better; I want God as my guide, not my pal.

Leanne Wade Beorn

Blacksburg, Va.

Fitness Report

Thanks to TIME'S medical assessment of the presidential candidates [Feb. 9], we now know much, much more than we could ever care to know --and certainly more than we would ever dare to ask.

Kay C. Michener

Oak Park, Mich.

It made my day to find out that Senator Jackson is allergic to adhesive tape.

George Washington had wooden teeth, and they didn't affect his presidency.

Susan B. Labinger

Trumbull, Conn.

Your very candid medical diagnosis of the presidential candidates will be most helpful in my choice for the President. However, you neglected to mention whether any of the candidates suffer from venereal disease, chronic diarrhea, halitosis or the heartbreak of psoriasis.

Revalee Brody

Somerset, N.J.

TIME has overstepped the bounds of common decency.

Billie Baggs

Atlanta, Ga.

When will TIME fill us in with some really penetrating info about the candidates? Like: Just what brand of hair dye does Hubert use to achieve that gorgeous orange tint?

Bob Staake

Torrance, Calif.

Maldiction

Si j'ose le dire, TIME ne parle pas tres bien franc,ais. Il y a quelques se-maines Modern Living, au sujet du franglais, a parle d'un "cocktail au le weekend" -- en franc,ais on dirait simplement un "cocktail au weekend"--et a ecrit "`a la" quelque chose au lieu de "`a la.Helas, c,a va de pire en pire: au commencement de l'article `a propos de Doonesbury, TIME a fait un mauvais jeu de mots en ecrivant "mal mot" pour le contraire de "bon mot." Malheureuse-ment, le mot "mal" etait mal choisi. C'est un adverbe. Le contraire de "bon mot" doit etre "mauvais mot."

Keith R. Johnson

New York City

TIME s 'est trompe.

Coleman and the Concorde

The U.S. made the decision not to let the Concorde fly here [Feb. 16] several years ago, when we stopped building our own SST. Why should William Coleman Jr. have the authority to reverse that decision?

William Allin Starrer

Ithaca, N. Y.

On any given day, at any given hour, one or more of our air command bases across the country are flying their numerous high-altitude supersonic aircraft. If our own Air Force does not respect the ozone layer, why should the British or French?

Richard P. Yates

Buffalo

The FAA projects that six daily Concorde flights will result in a fleet expansion of up to 40 planes. Our office has calculated that the operation of 40 Concordes over the next 40 years will cause an increase of 46,000 to 70,000 skin cancer cases in the U.S. alone, and that 1% of these victims may die.

Philip Weinberg

Assistant Attorney General

State of New York

New York City

Since the Americans killed off their own SST development for environmental reasons, it would be a paradox if they now accept another SST for political reasons!

Jimmy Marshall Geneva

They came. They saw. They Concorde.

Bill Savage

Mason, Mich.

Who's a Racist?

After reading your interview with George Habash, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine I Feb. 9], I don't see how such a mixed up man can be so popular. How can he label Israel a racist state when he won't even recognize its right to exist? If that isn't racist I don't know what is.

Scott Stallings

Mobile, Ala.

The Honest FEA

Your article, "Gas: Enough for Now" [Jan. 12], doesn't quite tell it like it is.

The Federal Energy Administration collects and publishes shortage information based on a survey of practically all gas utilities and distributors. The numbers we publish are the numbers we collect. If they make the situation look critical, we say so; if they make the situation look better, we say so.

Early this winter, the nation experienced unseasonably warm, dry weather which reduced demand for natural gas and substitute fuels. This improved the situation over what we published earlier, and we promptly informed the public.

No script involved here; just an honest attempt to tell the American people the situation like it is.

John A. Hill

Deputy Administrator, FEA

Washington, D.C.

Unexclusive Exclusion

Discrimination at Farmington Country Club is not restricted to blacks [Feb. 9]. Having served as their tennis pro in 1973, I discovered Farmington's exclusion policy also applied to anyone who was Jewish, which I am.

When the "gentlemen" of Farmington learned this "alarming" fact, they quickly terminated our relationship.

Scott Gordon

Charleston, W. Va.

Second Season

Re the Second TV Season [Feb. 9]: after watching each of the shows reviewed, I decided that I had been better entertained by Schickel's column. Perhaps this is why so many prefer literacy to idiocy.

Julie Daniels

Campbell, Calif.

Word from the Shah

I was surprised to read an allegation attributed to former Secretary of the Treasury John B. Connally which stated that in 1972 His Imperial Majesty, the Shahanshah Aryamehr and former President Richard Nixon considered the formation of a joint company to buy up the reserves of American oil companies in the Middle East [Feb. 16]. I am authorized to state categorically that this allegation is a complete fabrication.

Ardeshir Zahedi, Ambassador

Embassy of Iran

Washington, D.C.

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