LETTERS

THE GALS TAKE OVER

"It's about time women were recognized as a major force in the music world instead of just backup singers or dancers." SHANNON SLAVICK Levittown, Pa.

After the media saturation and slick marketing of the largely untalented Spice Girls, I was pleasantly surprised by your article on the touring female music festival Lilith Fair [MUSIC, July 21]. These performers previously went almost unnoticed because they chose to make music that meant something to them, rather than attempt to become the next Big Thing.

It is the integrity of these artists, rather than the ability to lip-synch and gyrate in skimpy clothing, that is going to bring them success. KARAH LEVELY-RINALDI Glenwood Springs, Colo.

I find it difficult to believe that TIME would waste a cover and several pages on questionably talented hop-rock and bop entities. BLAND D. AUXER Lewistown, Pa.

Reading about the new generation of female musicians has made me less optimistic about pop culture. The fact that singer-songwriters like Sarah McLachlan and Jewel have managed to break through the homogenized slop that record companies are distributing does not mean that music or women have been liberated. As is the case with all true artists, it is their writing, singing and passion that do the most to distinguish them, not their gender. CRAIG R. BAYER North Bergen, N.J.

I am the same age as Sarah, 29, and was starting to feel old and out of touch with the rough-edged music scene. Now I can listen to the radio again! ELIZABETH VAN RIJ London, Ont.

Why did your writer bring Jewel's "sexy yellow swimsuit" into an article about women revolutionizing the music industry? The mention stops short of making a point and is irrelevant to the music these women make with their guitars, pianos and voices. EMILY G. GRAHAM Oklahoma City, Okla.

Popular recognition of chick rock has been a long time coming. Liz Phair was using naughty words long before Meredith Brooks set out to use the word bitch as a means of empowerment, and Ani DiFranco was shaking things up while Jewel was still reading by candlelight on the granola farm. You made a mistake in choosing to shine the spotlight on the popular yet sophomoric Jewel. The Lilith Fair music festival exists because it was McLachlan's idea, not because of Jewel. ANNE DAVIDSEN Timonium, Md.

Three cheers for McLachlan and her vision of Lilith Fair! I spent many an hour sitting beside Sarah in high school English class while she dreamily sketched elaborate designs in her textbook, drawings that later evolved into album covers. I listened while our instructor scolded her for not reading Macbeth and told her that to succeed in life she needed to focus on academics, not art and music. And I cheered when she released her first album in the face of all doubt that anyone would want to hear what she had to say. She has proved that you can follow your dreams and be true to yourself in the process. Yes, McLachlan has finally found a room of her own. BETSY KITCHEN Halifax, N.S.

SENATE SIDESHOW

Like maladjusted Boy Scouts, the Republicans in Congress continue to claim pious motives while frittering away the public's trust and time with self-entertaining political mischief. Instead of a legitimate investigation into campaign-finance abuses [NATION, July 21], Senator Fred Thompson presents a partisan sideshow. Rather than the noble elephant, the Republicans' symbol should be the dog and pony, to reflect the type of act G.O.P members are giving us. MICHAEL GREENE Wichita, Kans.

Democratic senator John Glenn in his opening statement attacking the Republicans shows he remembers that the best defense is a good offense. During the Nixon years, we saw the Republicans hunker down when they were being investigated. Now the Democrats are in the spotlight, they are taking the offensive. But these hearings are not just politics as usual, and they should not be made partisan, as Glenn has tried to do. We must let Congress freely investigate questionable practices. I recall as a child watching TV and seeing Glenn in space. I have respected him most of my adult life, but what I have seen over the past few weeks makes me think he left something behind in space: his integrity. E. GRADY THURSTON Suisun City, Calif.

MEXICO'S NEW ERA

What is all the fuss about democracy and Mexico City's newly elected mayor, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas [WORLD, July 21]? Although he is a member of the center-left Democratic Revolution Party (P.R.D.), people should look at his record while he was governor of the state of Michoacan and belonged to the long-ruling authoritarian Institutional Revolutionary Party (P.R.I.). The younger generation in Mexico had better examine this old "dinosaur" carefully. He is a castoff, passed over and recycled. JAY COBB Eaton, Ohio

The toughest part is yet to come. Governing is more difficult than protesting. How the next few years play out in Mexico will be of immense importance to the U.S., since this neighbor is one of our largest trading partners. We can best help by supporting Mexico's own efforts toward economic, social and political reform and by rejecting the attempts of some of our politicians and media to cast this largely admirable and complex country in one-dimensional terms. JOHN J. ST. JOHN Fairfax, Va.

The NAFTA treaty is not going to fix Mexico's economic problems. Free trade is behind the worst aspects of Mexico's current crisis. I hope for the sake of all the regular folks in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. that the Cardenas victory will at least begin a period of questioning the idolatry of the international free market. EMILE M. SCHEPERS Chicago

If all the corrupt people in Mexico were put in a room, who would be left to close the door on them? I do not blame the entrenched P.R.I. or any other political party for Mexico's economic and political struggle. I blame myself and all the other Mexican people who gave up constitutional rights when we began to believe that corruption and favoritism were stronger than our individual voices and the power of the ballot. ERIKA L. MENDOZA San Jose, Calif.

As a resident of Mexico City, I'm concerned about whether my fellow "capitalenos" made the right choice. I wish I had been able to ask Cardenas some questions during his campaign. If Cardenas means what he says, why didn't he strive to right so many wrongs 30 years ago, when he first had the chance? Just imagine how much better off all us Mexicans would be now! OSCAR ISLAS Mexico City

Mexicans have been conditioned to believe the government and the politicos who run it are all crooked because God, or the gods, wills it. I hope the July elections cause Mexicans to move toward a new democratic era. MANUEL VILLAMOR REYES Chetumal, Mexico

A PREMIUM ON PITH

In "Make It Snappy," Charles Krauthammer praises the sound bite [ESSAY, July 21], but the problem is that most such short phrases lack substance and foundation. And the difficulty with 5-, 10- or 20-minute speeches is that most of them consist of a series of sound bites, equally lacking in substance and foundation. The sound bite has the potential to attract attention and elicit support. However, it is inadequate to the task of intellectual persuasion, the missing ingredient of modern public discourse. FRANK S. KOPPELMAN Evanston, Ill.

Krauthammer's salute to brevity was good but too long. PAUL JANENSCH Rowayton, Conn.

LEARNING FROM MARS

Yogi? Casper? Flat Top? Scooby Doo? The naming of these rocks and formations [SPACE, July 21] seems shrewd as a public relations ploy, but flies in the face of naming heavenly bodies after illustrious figures of myth, science and literature. Will the first earthly Mars walker who greets these familiar objects on site at Ares Vallis be likely to record for posterity the query "Dr. Boo-Boo, I presume"? Is this a failure of our educational system? Did the ingenious individuals who are involved in this project not avail themselves of the liberal-arts curriculums at their distinguished universities? Or has the dumbing-down process finally reduced communication on such topics to the level of a cartoon mentality? COLIN JOHNSON Sandy, Utah

Your illustration of the Mars Sojourner vehicle, "Bargain-Basement Rover" [SPACE, July 14], included a description I got a kick out of. You noted that the vehicle's radio modem "sends signals only at a sluggish 9,600 bits per sec." I was working at the Space Technology Labs in 1957, when we sent our first satellite to the moon. With a 5W transmitter, we were able to receive data at only 1 bit per sec. by the time we got to the moon. The incoming data were so slow that we were decoding them on the fly by eye. :=) To be in on these latest space sojourns would be thrilling indeed. DON NICKELL Santa Fe, N.M.

GLORIOUS TIME FOR APPLE

Your chart on the CEOs of Apple Computer Inc. included me and my years at the company, from April 1983 to June 1993 [BIZ WATCH, July 21]. However, there seem to be some details missing. I have this strange memory that after 1985, but before the introduction of the handheld Newton in 1993, Apple had some glorious years with desktop publishing, multimedia Macs, PowerBooks, educational Macs, the marketing campaign of the decade and the No. 1-selling personal computer worldwide. Guess it was just a figment of my imagination. JOHN SCULLEY New York City

I take exception to your branding the Newton as useless. I have owned a Newton since 1993 and have found it to be a very useful tool. I believe in Apple and its products; many satisfied Apple customers do. There have been mistakes over the years, to be sure, but the chief contributors to Apple's loss of mindshare over the past few years are the media. ROBERT STONES Santa Monica, Calif.

OUR MASTER STORYTELLER

I have never been so saddened by the death of someone I never met as by the passing of Charles Kuralt [APPRECIATION, July 14]. He was like a favorite uncle whose "visits" were greeted with great anticipation. Where had he been? Whom had he met? What stories he would tell with that twinkle in his eye! Through him we saw who we are, basically good people, all with a story to tell, now mourning the loss of our storyteller. KARLA ZIEMANN Southbury, Conn.

I once had the great pleasure of meeting Kuralt. I recall his warmth and openness, his genuine delight in meeting new people. I was reminded of Odysseus. Here he was, Homer's wanderer, "who saw the townlands and learned the minds of many distant men"; who in Dante exhorts his companions, "Ye were not formed to live like brutes, but to pursue virtue and knowledge." DAVID H. PORTER, President Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

NO CONTACT WITH CONTACT

Your film critic Richard Schickel obviously saw a different version of Contact than we did [CINEMA, July 21]. Director Robert Zemeckis has successfully created a movie that fearlessly tackles a subject Hollywood has been reluctant to address: the obtainable connection between science and religious faith. By having such a cynical view, Schickel misses the point. The late Carl Sagan, from whose novel Contact was adapted, would be proud to call this movie his own. PEGGY AND MATTHEW GROW Elgin, Texas

A PITCHER WITH MAGNETISM

Yankee rookie Hideki Irabu is not alone in his use of magnets, which he tapes to various pressure points on his body to improve his circulation [SPORT, July 21]. I have found that magnets relieve physical discomfort, and was so impressed I became part of the business. The Japanese firm I am with, Nikken Inc., has been selling such products in the U.S. since 1989. Thank you, Irabu, for enlightening a few more Americans. PAULA QUINT El Cajon, Calif.