Letters: Sep. 15, 1967

(4 of 5)

Sir: I was happy to see that you had taken notice of the wanton slaughter of 2,000 purple martins [Sept. 1]. There was little said in any of the Missouri newspapers about the shootings other than the slightest notice of it. The Governor's name was never mentioned, and the impression was given that he was innocent as a babe of any responsibility for the act. I guess that Governor Hearnes figures if the people were stupid enough to elect him, they are stupid enough to believe that thousands of birds can be shotgunned on the mansion's lawn without his orders, or even his knowledge. I don't know how stupid a man can get, but when he can't tell a purple martin from a starling that's got to be getting close to the record.

PATRICK DERMODY

Mexico, Mo.

A Croc

Sir: Logic sometimes outruns truth. It was a plausible assumption, in your article on Rene Lacoste [Sept. 1], that the French champion gained the sobriquet, le Crocodile, because he "played so fiercely." Actually, he was called that because of his saturnine poker face, and it would appear that his more vivacious daughter has inherited something of that same crocodilian countenance, if one might judge from some of her expressions while addressing a golf ball. There was never a more machinelike player than Lacoste in his heyday. He won so consistently because his ground-strokes could not be faulted; and he was a past master of that now neglected piece of tennis finesse, the lob. His teammates, Cochet, with his half-volley, and Borotra, with his catlike ballet at the net, were the crowd-pleasers, not Lacoste, whose stroke-production always seemed to be rolling off one of those assembly lines he has since dominated in the business world.

CHARLES A. BRADY

Kenmore, N.Y.

Smoked Ham

Sir: What bitter tea it is to read that "two-way radio" [Aug. 25] has been "lifted" from its "ham" stage, .to its role as "key instrument in a mushrooming minute-man-like communications network!" TIME must know that since the 1920s the ham operator has provided emergency communications worldwide; has served in disaster areas, has often been the only link to scientific expeditions; has been active in space communications; has provided trained electronics personnel in wartime; has invested millions of dollars in communications equipment capable of operation independently of commercial power sources. Perhaps better to say that two-way radio has been lifted to the ham level of competence, dedication and service.

A.W. SMITH

Doylestown, Pa.

Giddap, Teddy!

Sir: The almost exterminated grizzly bear in the U.S. is a loner [Aug. 25] and rarely attacks humans unless startled, cornered, wounded or aggravated.

Many signs are posted in Glacier National Park warning of the presence and danger of grizzly bears. Likewise, at Yellowstone National Park the visitor is warned by innumerable signs not to feed, pet or tamper with bears (mostly black bears). However, one tourist went so far as to try to place a child, piggyback, on a black bear for photographic purposes!

GEORGE A. ERISTOFF

Circle Pines, Minn.

Just The Family