Inbox

Picking Your Produce

Your cover story on organic vs. local food made me realize how fortunate I am to live in the Garden State [March 12]. Here, farmers sell produce from roadside stands, often within view of their fields, and offer everything from asparagus to zucchini. I'm not concerned if the fruits and vegetables I buy from local farms are organically or conventionally grown; the produce is freshly picked, bursting with flavor and low in cost. As for my search for the perfect apple, I need not look farther than five miles from my home to find a farmer who grows and sells crisp, tart Winesaps.

Donna M. Meier, Mays Landing, N.J.

I will never eat an apple with a waxy gloss that is shinier than my coffee table. I grow organic veggies in the summer and supplement those by buying organic vegetables from local farmers' markets. In northern Illinois, there's very little local fruit available that has not been sprayed with pesticides. So all winter I buy organic fruit; sometimes in the summer the pesticide-free apples on my neighbor's tree are the only local ones available. Lori Indovina-Valus, McHenry, Ill.

Organic produce may also contain chemicals and pesticides--although organic ones. Nevertheless, I agree that Community Supported Agriculture programs and sustainable farms are the way to go. Weston Krohn Battle Lake, Minn.

Your report was nicely written. But do you really think that 80% to 90% of people care about where their produce comes from? I'll bet that the vast majority of your readers don't even consume a significant amount of fresh fruits and veggies. Think frozen dinners, pizza and McDonald's.

John Horst, Westfield, N.Y.

Farmer Brown may be my neighbor, but when she uses chemicals, she perpetuates global tragedies like Bhopal and local tragedies like contaminated wells. When she uses glyphosate, she fouls our air, our water and our land, and she helps fund bioengineering monsters that crush small farmers like her. It's great to eat local and organic food. But let's also evaluate food-production costs so we can encourage sustainability. Mama Earth needs all the help we can give her. Sherry Luna, Patagonia, Ariz.

Conservatives' Cheshire Grin?

I was offended by William Kristol's Viewpoint "Why Republicans Are Smiling" [March 12]. He rejoiced in Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's deft political outmaneuvering of the Democrats over a terrible war that Kristol himself helped sell. His callousness about the suffering of thousands of Americans and millions of Iraqis is outrageous. Maybe he should stop smiling, for decency's sake.

Avi Brand, Alexandria, Va.

The 2006 election was about gridlock in Congress, a war that can't be won or lost, mixed signals on the economy, no consensus on immigration, soaring deficits and scandals to boot. If partisans want to cheer for more of the same, so be it. Meanwhile, the general public will support the party that can lead this country back to being a beacon of freedom, justice and prosperity.

James C. Sylvan, Baltimore

CLASSIC LETTER APRIL 10, 1972

Sir: Concerning the National Enquirer story: sorry--the leopard has only changed half its spots if their story on Howard Hughes (which included me) is any example. I was never interviewed by these gentlemen, and much of their little story is a complete lie. There were never any nude scenes shot during or after a day's shooting. I have never posed in the nude above or below the waist. Like Lucifer, publications of this ilk tell a little truth and slip the lies in like chopped liver in a sandwich. The gullible don't know they've been had till they get sick.

Jane Russell, Los Angeles

ANGRY ON THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT

I have never seen such a one-sided liberal issue of Time [March 12]. I had to suffer through not only a 10 Questions with Ted Kennedy but also a puff piece on someone even to the left of Hillary Clinton: Dennis Kucinich. Good God. Don't even get me started on Joe Klein's In the Arena column. Then I have to plod thru the liberal whinings of a "journalist" about which kind of apple makes him feel better or more "connected" to his food. Who gives a rat's ass where an apple comes from? I guess the answer is liberals--they dwell on the topic in a cover story.

William G. Linder, Westchester, Ill.

I subscribed to time some years ago because I thought it was a balanced newsmagazine. Now you regularly feature the neocon chickenhawk William Kristol in addition to the ultraconservative Charles Krauthammer, both mouthpieces for the Republican National Committee. So much for balanced coverage.

Merl Deinhart Mountlake Terrace, Wash.

Now that the Republicans have ceded control of Congress, they can do what they do best: claim to have the answers to everything without actually doing anything. After six years in power, Republicans have given us a massive deficit, a broken military, a loss of civil liberties and two disastrous wars. Of course they are smiling--they are con men who have nothing to sell. David M. Caballero, Tucson, Ariz.

Juiced for WebTV

The coming joost revolution, led by Skype veterans Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, may move TV to the Internet, but that is no reason to call Microsoft's popular WebTV service, which does the opposite, a dud [March 12]. Of Joost, Jeremy Caplan said, "Simplicity is the magic," but nothing is simpler than WebTV. Sure, Microsoft dropped the ball by discontinuing WebTV. But we old-timers--I am almost 83--love it. Lloyd Saletan, New York City

Making a Timely Exit

In "The Fine Art of Dying Well" [March 12], Charles Krauthammer observed that timing is everything, even when it comes to death. This reminded me of three deaths that occurred on Nov. 22, 1963. Many Americans recall it as the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, but two prominent British men of letters died on that day as well. One of them was C.S. Lewis, the Christian apologist and writer of children's stories; the other was Aldous Huxley, the novelist and essayist, member of the famous Huxley family and author of the dystopian Brave New World. Bad timing indeed.

Thomas G. Isham, Marshall, Mich.

Krauthammer made a common error. God doesn't act to kill anyone through disease, natural disaster or any other cause. If he does, we're praying to the wrong One!

Philip S. Reinheimer, Penn Valley, Calif.

Thinking Outside the Box

In his report on the Jesus tomb controversy [March 12], David Van Biema wrote that James Tabor's book The Jesus Dynasty "enmeshes a plausible story of early church strife in speculative material suggesting that Jesus had a human father." What is speculative about Jesus' having a human father? I find it much more speculative to suggest that a divine being impregnated a virgin girl. Perhaps the time will finally arrive when Christians accept the Bible for what it is: a series of allegories that aren't meant to be taken literally.

Fred Green, Miami

The argument over producer James Cameron's The Lost Tomb of Jesus is irrelevant. Christ may or may not have ascended bodily to his father in heaven, but whoever he was and whatever his family life may have been like, his presence in the world changed history and countless lives from the 1st century to the present.

Margaret Millea, Carlsbad, Calif.

History's Rewards

So, Harvard has decided to drop history from its requirements [March 5]. When fellow students in college asked me what I was going to do with a degree in history, I wondered whether I should lie and tell them I was studying accounting or some other practical major. Seeking nobility in truth, I said, "I don't know." Majoring in history did not get me prestige or power, but it taught me to think, analyze and debate war, politics, religion, philosophy and economics. History is not bunk but encompasses and explains humanity. Harvard denigrates itself with its casual dismissal of the subject.

Helen Logan, Fullerton, Calif.

QUICK ON THE DRAWL

The funniest moment in politics recently was when Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tried to outdrawl each other in the speeches they gave in Selma, Ala. Did Hillary learn to "speak Southern" at Wellesley? Did Barack pick up his drawl in south Honolulu? Their affectation was pandering at its best!

Barbara J. Anderson, Portland, Ore.