Letters: Mar. 7, 1983

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More than 6,000 people wrote neither to extol nor to excoriate, but simply in quest of more information about various subjects; 676 entered into debate with the editors about fine points of grammar and style. Others underlined pages with words new and puzzling to them, demanding explanations for the likes of nerd and nebbish, glitzy and ditsy.

As always, the Essay section, speaking as it does most directly to readers, evoked the most personal and reflective mail. One Essay in particular seemed to touch a universal chord: the subject was a passenger among the 74 who perished in the crash of an airliner into Washington's Potomac River in January. Known only as the man in the water, the victim repeatedly passed his own lifeline into the hands of other helpless survivors until he vanished beneath the icy waters. The story moved 387 people to write in honor of his heroism: one person risking and ultimately losing his own life to save others.