Dear Time-Reader

This week our Information Center here in the lobby of the TIME & LIFE Building is filled with needlework, oil paintings, gadgets, fruit, flowers, and some vegetables--entries in TIME Inc.'s annual Country Fair for employes who fancy their horticultural and artistic capacities. Generally, of course, the Information Center is filled with its own news exhibits--and visitors.

They--about 5,000 of them a month --drop in to keep appointments with us, enter subscriptions to our magazines, find out what to see and where to go in New York City. They also come in to browse, snooze, primp, knit, read a good book, rendezvous with friends, or just to get out of the rain. Often enough there isn't a vacant seat left.

We designed this comfortable and, we hope, attractive room especially as a place where we could meet our readers and talk with them and try to make their stay in the city more enjoyable. Inasmuch as TIME Inc. is an international publishing organization, our readers turn up here from all over the world.

Some, especially businessmen, teachers, students, and returning servicemen, head for a quiet reading room on the mezzanine where bound and indexed volumes of all our magazines are available. Others write letters, read their home-town newspapers (of which we maintain a representative supply), examine the art and photographic displays, watch the latest issues of MARCH OF TIME cinema via movieola. This land-office business also involves giving information--from what Broadway show is really worth seeing to how to raise Muscovy ducks.

To equip herself to answer all "reasonable" requests, a serene and amiable young lady named Irene Burbank spent a year investigating New York City. As a result, when she recommends a restaurant she knows its price range, its specialties, and how good the food is. If you want to know about a play, a movie, a hotel, a broadcast, or a historical site, she has undoubtedly been there, too. If she has time, she will even try to answer questions like these that have cropped up lately:

"What Congressional district is Rockefeller Center in?" (Answer: the 17th.)

"When does daylight saving time end in Philadelphia?" (Answer: Sunday, Sept. 29.)

"Where can I get a boomerang?" (Answer: Abercrombie & Fitch.)

From a just-returned Navy officer: "Where can I get a check cashed?" (He was referred to the Officers' Service Committee at the Hotel Commodore.)

"What is shoofly pie and apple pandowdy?'' (Answer: varieties of Pennsylvania Dutch pastry.)

"Who is the best hairdresser in New York?" (Answer: that's a matter of violent opinion, but here are some good ones. . . .)

"I just lost a button off my coat. Have you a needle and thread?"

Prepared for almost everything, Miss Burbank dutifully sewed on the button. She wants it known, however, that her powers are not unlimited, that she cannot conjure up hotel rooms, orchestra seats at the theater, etc. Lately, her card index file of New York City, which includes the subhead "Girls with Problems," has come to the attention of one of the world's older and one of its newer institutions. Good old Thomas Cook & Son, travel agents extraordinary, have examined it as a prelude to setting up a similar guide to London, and the United Nations has already adopted it for its guide to New York City.

Next time you're in New York, come in and see us.

Cordially,

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.