Quiz Whiz

Sir:

The Feb. 11 article on Charlie Van Doren was as interesting as a well-written novel. I don't know when I enjoyed a feature story as much.

A. J. DAVIS

Philadelphia

Sir:

If Van Doren makes the right choice about his future in relation to his many TV offers, he might be able to convince some of us TV viewers that the acquisition of knowledge is a more rewarding and meaningful experience than spending 90% of our leisure time on our fat fannies being entertained by a large order of nothingness.

MRS. NANCY M. BROWN

Cape Elizabeth, Me.

A King's Visit

Sir:

If New York City's Robert Wagner had taken the time to read your very informative Jan. 28 cover story on King Saud, he would have certainly thought twice before putting his foot in the Federal Government's mouth. We will never know how much of the good of Eisenhower's conference with Saud was thereby negated.

JAMES A. BESS Deal, NJ.

Sir:

No English words, as far as I know, are fit to congratulate your Saudi Arabia story.

DILOK THIRATHON

Dusit, Bangkok, Thailand

Sir:

Following the King Saud-Mayor Wagner incident, it has become obvious that the center of religious bigotry and narrow-mindedness in the U.S. has moved from the Bible belt to New York City. Why don't you people get wise to what's going on?

GEORGE VAUX BACON Hollywood

Defending Dulles

Sir:

Why all this generalized, idiotic sniping at Mr. Dulles? Can anyone point to something he has said or done that could even approach in stupidity some of the statements and deeds of Dean Acheson?

HUGH Huss

Hammond, Ind.

Sir:

Mr. Dulles is an international disaster.

JAMES H. ALLEN Los Angeles

Sir:

What this country needs is men in Washington who will put up a better plan than Dulles or shut up until they have something constructive to say. Too bad we didn't get some statesmen when Senators Russell, Fulbright, Humphrey and Morse were elected.

MRS. GORDON B. TAYLOR Garden Grove, Calif.

"We Have Not Moved"

Sir:

Your Jan. 21 story on the second bombing of my home (along with another parsonage and four churches here) indicated that I and my family had fled in panic after the explosion. Nothing was farther from the truth.

When the bomb went off, my wife sat up in bed and said, in a surprised voice, "My word! Another bomb !" Our two older children, aged 4 and 2 1/2, were rather excited, but not unduly disturbed. We thank God that he did not allow the larger bomb to explode; the police said it would have leveled the house. We can take the bombs and the nasty phone calls and letters; we can take the insults and the stares. But please, we don't want people to think we've started to get panicky and to run away. We have not moved, and we do not intend to.

(THE REV.) ROBERT S. GRAETZ JR. Trinity Lutheran Church Montgomery, Ala.

The Yen for Zen

Sir:

About the question with which your Feb. 4 Zen article ended:* I would bat my eyelids three times fast, three slow, and three times fast--the international distress signal (SOS). Then, when the friend had pulled me up, I would let him feel the back of my hand.

FLEMING H. JAMES Waco, Texas

Sir:

Obviously the friend's question could only be answered by the man "letting him have it" with whatever it was that filled his hands.

LYNN FORDE Colorado Springs, Colo.

Sir:

After long hours of morning meditation, we found that the only logical answer to the precipice question would be: Drop dead.

MARIE AND CLAUDE BOUCHER Sherbrooke, Canada

P: All three answers are correct. But all three are also wrong.--ED.

The Young Master

Sir:

A hearty bravo for your Feb. 4 Leonard Bernstein article. As usual, your story did an excellent job of capturing the spirit of the man and his music. I especially liked Koerner's cover portrait, which I think conveys that quality in Bernstein's conducting which is relaxed and yet, at the same time, powerful and forceful.

ESTELLE S. MARCUS Philadelphia

Sir:

I could have sworn Koerner's cover showed Abraham Lincoln sleepwalking. My apologies to the handsome Mr. Bernstein.

JANE FOTOS Huntington, W.Va.

Sir:

The story was great. Your boy can write. And your other boy can paint like a fool!

COLES PHILLIPS Laguna Beach, Calif.

Sir:

Interviewed about Lennie, I said I admired greatly his guts and nerve, which some of the Philharmonic musicians called hutzpa. This, for instance, he displayed when conducting (probably for the first time in his life) Puccini's La Boheme at La Scala and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the orchestra and chorus of Santa Cecilia in Rome. I did not make any remarks about Bernstein's hip movements while conducting Beethoven's Ninth.

ARTUR RODZINSKI Rome

Sir:

In case you haven't already heard the classic Jewish definition of hutzpa: a defendant, who after murdering his parents, pleads for mercy from the court on grounds that he is an orphan.

SAM WHITMAN Long Beach, Calif.

Sir:

Here is the real meaning: when my brother-in-law wore my hat, coat, shoes and ties, I thought he was just nervy, but when he sat down to dinner and smiled at me with my own teeth--then I knew he had hutzpa.

JAMES J. BEHR Cincinnati

Hermitage Collection

Sir:

I was interested to note in the caption for the Caravaggio Lute Player, reproduced among the Hermitage treasures, that TIME [Feb. 4] labels the subject a "Roman girl."

If you will look at other Caravaggios, notably The Musicians recently acquired by Manhattan's Metropolitan [see cut], you will see the same model reproduced in epicene triplicate, and undeniably recognizable as one of the Roman street boys that Caravaggio delighted to paint in languid poses.

EDWARD FENTON New York City

P: Says Renaissance Art Expert Bernard Berenson of Lute Player: "It is a young Roman girl."--ED.

On Guard

Sir:

About your Feb. 11 story on "draft dodgers" in the National Guard. "Engine Charlie" has gone too far. Let him check up on the officers and enlisted men who had duty in World War II and who were called up for active duty in the summer of 1950. When my particular unit was called up, we had a master sergeant who had seen action in France in 1917-18. I suppose he was dodging the draft too. How about asking Wilson about the draft dodgers who are not coming back from Korea?

TOM B. WELLS Laramie, Wyo.

Sir:

As one of the many who joined the National Guard back in 1948, may I say it was a way to beat the draft without completely disrupting our plans for the future--and the Guard used this idea as propaganda. The fact that the Korean war caught us does not alter the original reasons why we joined the Guard. So Charlie Wilson is right--but why get all worked up? Nobody likes conscription in peacetime.

GARVIN MENNEN San Francisco

Sir:

It is most encouraging and refreshing to have such an official like Wilson. As the President suggested, Secretary Wilson could have been more tactful, but his blunt statements have certainly succeeded in calling the nation's attention to the problems at hand, whether or not we agree with him. More power to him.

JANINA D'ABATE Johnston, R.I.

Red Hats & Red Faces

SIR:

ARCHBISHOP GRIFFIN OF WESTMINSTER, SAYS TIME, FEB. 11, IS A "VIRTUAL MUST AT THE NEXT CONSISTORY." HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THAT HE DIED IN 1956, AND THAT HE WAS RAISED TO THE RANKS OF THE SACRED COLLEGE IN 1946?

MONSIGNOR PATRICK J. FLYNN THE CATHOLIC COURIER JOURNAL ROCHESTER

P: The faces in TIME'S religion section are cardinal red.--ED.

Going to College

Sir:

Congratulations on your story [on the college admissions problem--Feb. 4]. It is a graphic account of a situation which up to now has received far too little public attention.

CLIFFORD P. CASE U.S. Senator Washington, D.C.

Sir:

I plan to mail it home to parents who might have missed it.

SISTER MARY HELEN Mt. de Chantal Visitation Academy Wheeling, W.Va.

Sir:

Speaking for a small college, I wish that you had placed more emphasis on the fact that "big-name colleges" have no monopoly on sound liberal arts education.

FRANK E. BUDDY JR. President

Westminster College Salt Lake City

Sir:

I am sure it will be very helpful in making clear to parents the enrollment problem that all schools and colleges are facing.

FRANK L. BOYDEN Head Master Deerfield Academy Deerfield, Mass.

Sir:

While Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth worry what to do with all their applications for admission, there are plenty of good private colleges in the Midwest. To Easterners I suggest, "Look West, young man, look West." L. VERNON CAINE President

Illinois College

Jacksonville, Ill.

Academic Yearlings

Sir:

After reading of J. Fred Muggs's extraordinary success on TV, I cannot urge too strongly that U.S. colleges retrench their Roger Aschamish* systems and lower academic standards, since there is obviously little advantage in stuffing one's head with knowledge when a 300-word vocabulary brings in upwards of $1,275 a week.

M. STARK Santa Monica, Calif.

Sir:

In Ape and Essence (1948) Author Aldous Huxley describes a world in which the apes have taken over. Could our little friend Mr. Muggs be an avant-courier of this era?

MRS. PHILIP E. BUSH Toledo

* "A man hangs over a precipice by his teeth, which are clenched in the branch of a tree. His hands are full and his feet cannot reach the face of the precipice. A friend leans over and asks him, 'What is Zen?' What answer should the man make?"

* Roger Ascham, 16th century English educationalist who condemned flogging in schools, was author of The Scholcmaster ("a plaine and perfite way of teaching children to understand, write and speake in Latin long").

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