Phooey ! Scallions!
Sirs:
On TIME, for its Woman-of-the-Year selection: Phooey!
J. E. RUBINOW
Cambridge, Mass.
Sirs:
Phooey, Scallions, and Fishcakes on your most lousy choice of a "person-of-the-year." The Digest poll and Mrs. Simpson leave the same taste in my mouth. To your editors (note the votes cast) a big and mighty Bronx cheer.
T. R. MOORE
Upper Darby, Pa.
Sirs:
I PROTEST YOUR PORTRAIT OF THE WOMAN OF THE YEAR ON YOUR MAGAZINE COYER JANUARY FOURTH. AS A SUBSCRIBER OF FOUR YEARS' STANDING AND BEING A SOUTHERNER I DO NOT CONSIDER THIS WOMAN TYPICAL.
GAIL BORDEN KELLY
Toronto, Ont.
Congratulations Sirs:
The selection of the Woman of the Year is TIME-worthy and congratulations are in order for your foresight in the selection of Mrs. Simpson.
GEORGE STUART
Haddonfield, N. J.
Divine
Sirs: You have indeed made a fine, and most appropriate selection for Woman of the Year, and what a sublime face, what a God-given charm, with a divine right to use it on king or commoner alike, has Wally. It approaches that of either the Madonna, or Mona Lisa herself. Who shall reproach the abdicated, uncrowned King of all hearts of all nations? For such a face, and such a love, would not any real man abdicate a thousand thrones, and reject a thousand crowns? With her love as his own, might not such a man take her in his arms and bear her away to some palatial, ornately festooned raft, lying on the ever undulating, billowing bosom of the mighty waters--and float, float: and love, and love, in idyllic charm among fragrant balmy zephyrs of the unnumbered coralline islands of the South Seas, in a blissful heavenly Heaven, forever, and forever.
DAVID S. ANDERSON
(Et prope annis septuaginta natus sum.)* Birmingham, Ala.
Lousy Insult
Sirs:
The front cover page of your issue of Jan. 4 is a lousy insult to every faithful wife and mother in the U. S.
Having been a constant reader of TIME for several years, it is with genuine regret I lose all respect for and reader interest in your magazine.
WILLIAM R. BRENNAN
Wichita, Kans.
For Shame !
Sirs: Your half-apologetic tone in your article on Mrs. Simpson as Woman of the Year is the only redeeming feature of your choice.
Your readers have come to look upon the Man of the Year as one who has achieved something --something lasting--something real and true-- something even for the good of humanity. . . .
. . . All a disgusted subscriber can say is, ''For Shame, TIME." May 1937 have a personality so outstanding that TIME will not again have to stoop so low.
MILDRED D. NEWMAN
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Slap
Sirs:
So you picked yourself a Woman of the Year, huh. What a slap in the face that is to past and future recipients of the "honor."
WILLIAM C. CRONIN
Burlington, Yt.
Chagrin
Sirs:
Please add my name to the list of those NOT approving your selection for Man of the Year. I was chagrined to find Mrs. Simpson occupying this position of honor.
Could you please explain to those of your readers who were deeply disappointed with your selection the standards or measurements which you used? I had thought that certain ethical qualifications were implied as well as certain positive accomplishments. . . .
GEROLD C. WICHMANN
Denver, Colo.
No woman on earth ever made more or bigger headlines than Wallis Warfield Simpson. Known to practically no one when 1936 began, to practically everyone when it ended, she fulfilled TIME'S prime criterion for the news-character most indelibly identified with the past year. Not with the quality but with the calibre of Mrs. Simpson's achievements is TIME concerned.--ED.
Brisbane's Phone Sirs:
In your Jan. 4 issue, pp. 26 and 28, reference is made to the late great Arthur Brisbane's use of ''his numerous Dictaphones."
Mr. Brisbane voice-wrote with the Ediphone, product of our client, Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Wrest Orange, N. J. This year, the Edison Laboratories are celebrating the "Diamond Jubilee of Voice Writing."
JAMES B. ZABIN
Hanff-Metzger, Inc. New York City
Illinois' Goetz
Sirs:
In the issue of TIME for Nov. 23 appears a review of American Agent by Melvin H. Purvis. In the final paragraph of the review, on p. 94, it is reported, correctly I assume, that Mr. Purvis makes the following reference to George Ziegler:
"George Ziegler, landscape engineer, University of Illinois football star, Army flyer, crack golfer and gentle, well-mannered assassin."
As Registrar of the University of Illinois, it is one of my duties to keep the records of students. Let me say that I have had a careful search made of the official records of the University of Illinois and I find that George Ziegler never attended this institution.
G. P. TUTTLE Registrar
University of Illinois
Urbana, Ill. "Shotgun" George Ziegler was the alias of a student who appears on Registrar Tuttle's records as Fred Samuel Goetz, graduated by Illinois in 1922 but without credit in landscaping or athletics.--ED.
Man in Green
Sirs:
"Poet Andre Breton, who frequently dresses entirely in green, smokes a green pipe, drinks a green liqueur . . " (TIME, Dec. 14) is not unique in his obsession for green.
No surrealist is Berney, owner of Berney's Restaurant, Jacksonville, Fla., but a wide-awake, up-and-coming restaurateur, who carries out a green motif from A to Z, scattering Irish shamrocks about his establishment with finesse seldom equaled by a Jew. Dressed completely in green day and night, he will give to any woman dressed entirely in green the choice of his menu, gratis.
Food and drink excepted, the only non-green object to retain its true color is the red-and-yellow Shell miniature gasoline pump through which cigaret-lighter fluid is dispensed. The fluid, alas! has succumbed to the mania of the "Man in Green" (so named by Believe-It-Or-Not Ripley).
The only man in Florida to drive an automobile with a green license, he has even painted the "White Horse" Scotch whiskey statue green.
J. B. CHARLES JR.
Jacksonville, Fla.
Lobeline
Sirs: Can you elucidate on your write-up re Lobeline [TIME, Dec. 21]? My druggist says none of the well-known drug houses handles it--and that TIME may have erred in that the drug is strong and may be harmful.
I claim the cigaret is one of the most vicious habits of modern times. If Lobeline does the trick, then we have with us a human benefaction.
G. FROLEN
Ridgefield Park, N. J.
Lobeline is manufactured by Mallinc-krodt Chemical Works of St. Louis, usually sold only on a physician's prescription.-- ED.
Credit
Sirs: Grateful though we all are here at the New Universal for your flattering review of Three Smart Girls (TIME, Dec. 21), I was somewhat surprised to find my name listed as Associate Producer of the picture.
While it is true that I was responsible for signing Deanna Durbin--and insisted she be used in the picture--I had nothing whatsoever to do with the producing of same.
Three Smart Girls was produced by Joseph Pasternak, able young Hungarian for whom, as for Director Henry Koster, this was an introductory offer on the U. S. screen.
TIME'S word is law to so many movie-goers that I would be most grateful if you could set your readers right. . . .
RUFUS LEMAIRE
Universal Pictures Corp. Universal City, Calif.
Three Singing Mice
Sirs: Phooey! for that little "one-mouse show" put on here in Chicago [TIME, Dec. 28]. Latter part of 1903 my brother, J. W. Greenwell, now of San Antonio, Tex., exhibited through Tennessee, Kentucky and elsewhere, not one but (count 'em, ladies and gents) three young singing mice, all supposedly of the same litter.
Newspapers generally gave much publicity, serious and facetious. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch cartoon depicted "rodent rampant" in bird cage from out which came musical notes and words of the then popular song Bedelia.
Professors of Vanderbilt University, newshawks and governors of two States auditioned and attested the bird-like vocal accomplishments of these mice. Had planned to exhibit them at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition the following spring, but one accidental death, one escape and release of sole remaining one, which had ceased to sing, dissolved the trio. Away went our hopes of becoming Maestros of Musical Mice or Impresario of Rigoletto a la Rodentia, and proving how knowing was "Bobby"--"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley." W. R. GREENWELL Chicago, Ill.
Mish-a-boh-quas
Sirs:
If we should believe Indian lore, the singing mouse mentioned in your last issue under Animals is a bad omen.
See Ernest Thompson Seton's Rolf in the Woods, p. 316: Seton gives a good description of the singing of the mouse, nas Quonab, the Indian, say, "That is Mish-a-boh-quas, the singing mouse. He always comes to tell of war. In a little while there will be fighting."
In this case, it was the War of 1812.
LESTER L. SWIFT
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Non-Droopy Jones
Sirs:
I thank you for your much-appreciated notice with reference to my election as president of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America [TIME, Dec. 21]. Something of a newspaper man myself, I like the way you handled me. I especially liked the reference to my interest in Christian unity, and I shall begin the New Year with a high resolve to serve as an Ambassador of Good Will among all peoples.
I rather liked the picture you used, too, although I am not quite so "droopy" as the picture makes me appear. . . .
EDGAR DEWITT JONES
Minister
Central Woodward Christian Church Detroit, Mich.
Good
Sirs:
I want to thank you for your friendly review of my Death Valley Prospectors [TIME, Dec. 14], which has convinced many of my friends that I am a sure-enough writer--being in the same column with Bernard Shaw. My grocer noticed it, the filling-station man had seen it, and I was invited to speak at a women's club.
But the best letter came from Joseph Grinnell, head of the department of vertebrate zoology in the University. He said: "Congratulations on the splendidly favorable review in TIME. That's a rare distinction--better than an LL.D. in the professor game!" Joe has been over in Death Valley and knew Shorty Harris, but it took TIME to make him think I am good. DANE COOLIDGE
Berkeley, Calif.
No Buts Sirs:
The general tone of those who contribute to Letters is "TIME has always been my favorite magazine, but. . . ." This is a letter with no buts.
Your story of Dec. 28, p. 42, headed "Cotton Crop" was the first I had ever read in TIME about which I knew anything. That was good, accurate, authoritative reporting, no doubt much more TIMEly than the stories about which you get so many complaints.
W. B. MONROE JR.
New Orleans, La.
Redundant, Yes ?
Sirs: Re issue of Dec. 28, head of col. 3, p. 9-"Present incumbent"--redundant, yes? . . .
KATHERINE S. BELL
Ardmore, Pa.
Yes.--ED.
Dow's Prediction
Sirs: The article in the Business section of the Dec. 28 issue of TIME, headed "Brine Business," happens to be of more than passing interest to the writer. This is especially true as regards the last paragraph of this article where you say: "Long before the World War, Dr. Dow's company had produced results which showed that certain German chemical monopolies were by no means permanent." As early as 1911 it was my great pleasure to meet Dr. Dow at his office in Midland, pertaining to the purchase by him of certain mechanical equipment in which I was interested at that time. Because of press of business at the time, he suggested delaying our conference until evening, when he had planned to go to Detroit; the arrangement was very agreeable to me under the circumstances.
I found Dr. Dow to be one of those big fellows with an open, kindly face, illumined with the most brilliant eyes--eyes which, as later evidenced, disclosed such far seeing ability as to be almost uncanny in his predictions. That evening on the train we sat down to a most simple fare, and our business was dispatched with a quickness which surprised me, and then the young man who later became so eminent astounded me with his prediction--his almost exact words were "Mr. Kenney, I am contemplating improvements and changes in our manufacturing facilities which when complete will enable us to produce certain basic chemicals at a price which will make it necessary for the Germans to put similar materials down at New York as ballast, if they hope to compete with me. . . . Some day the world is going to be engaged in a tremendous war, this country may and may not be in it, but regardless of that, certain chemicals now produced almost exclusively in Germany, which will be essential for this country, will either be shut off from our market or only obtainable at prohibitive prices, and I regard it my patriotic duty to do all in my power to place this country free of such restrictions." Your article just touched on this, and there was much behind the quotation first above made.
I do not know whether anyone else ever had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Dow along the same lines, but in view of his success and accomplishment in what he did before his untimely passing, I have always considered that I was accorded a very great privilege. . . .
W. J. KENNEY
Zeolite Engineering Co. Chicago, Ill.
*"And I am almost 70."
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