A Letter From The Publisher, Dec. 22, 1952

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Capp first expected that the cover story would run in July 1950. "But," he says, "July came & went. You had MacArthur, Stalin, General Bradley on the cover—no Capp. Then I told all my friends it would be in August. After that my two teen-age daughters went back to school in September and told all their friends. By October, I felt that everybody was snickering at me, so I just pouted. I didn't call O'Neil; there was my pride to consider.

"Meanwhile, I was getting some idea of the research you were doing. Guys I hadn't seen in 30 years would call me from places like Phoenix, Ariz, and say: 'Look, Al, can you talk? Is anyone around? A guy from TIME called me. He wants to get some old stories about you. He wants to know what you did in high school. Should I tell him?' But your research didn't confine itself to my friends. It dug out a few guys I never want to see again."

Capp is already thinking about his next issue of LIME. Says he: "What I could do next might be something like picking 'The Slob of the Year.' You know, somebody who looks like the characters who give endorsements in the patent medicine ads—the guys who look like nothing. Or maybe there could be a character called Disgusting Yokum—somebody so disgusting I can't let the public see his face. LIME, of course, would be compelled to run his face on the cover, because this was news. Everybody demanded it, so LIME has to do it for the public."

As he talks about it, a strange gleam lights Capp's eye.

Cordially yours,