The Shoulder Trade
Sir:
Thoroughly enjoyed the "Do-It-Yourself" cover [Aug. 2] story. I had my wife read it to me.
PHILIP MINOFF Oceanside, N.Y.
Sir:
Wonderful. Artzybasheff's cover . . . a spitting image of me as a handyman, including pipe . . .
RUDOLF A. STEINDLER Hackensack, N.J.
Sir:
. . . I noticed one gap in your reporting. How do members of the professional trades--plumbers, carpenters, painters, etc.--feel toward the loss in business when prospective customers compete with them? . . . Could it be that our society is moving toward a more self-sufficient home-centeredness such as existed during our pioneer era?
JOSEPH V. THOMAS Clarksville, Tenn.
Sir:
. . . Mr. J. W. Lowry of Republic Steel ("I don't believe I'd know a plumber, electrician or carpenter if I saw one. I haven't hired one for years") sure pats himself on the back and slaps labor. So nobody hires carpenters, plumbers and electricians, and then no one buys Republic Steel. A perfect setup. We all starve.
FRANK STEUERNAGEL (Carpenter, Local 1050) Philadelphia
Sir:
How about the unsung heroine or the helper to the do-it-yourself hobbyist? One needs to be a jack-of-all-trades, attending to . . . the dishes, watering, bathing the kids and dog; weeding, washing the car, answering the phone and door. Then there's the errand running: upstairs for the hammer, down the basement to hunt for the missing pipe wrench. "Hold this board at just this angle at just this moment." "Please get me some more putty." There is sanding. Especially the corners and awkward spots which won't respond to power equipment held in other hands.
The real elixir is to be allowed to complete the painting or sanding (this time with the power-sander) . . . on Monday morning, when time ran out or the neighbors came too soon on Sunday . . . Really, I do think do-it-yourself is wonderful fun. But I want my place in the sun, too.
BARBARA B. JOHNSON Portland, Ore.
Sir:
. . . I couldn't resist mailing you a picture of my do-it-yourself husband's project [see cut]. A nine-room ranchstyle house he has designed and built in the last seven years, using only weekend and holiday hours. Built of old used lumber, from railroad boxcars, which had to be cleaned and stripped of nails. Included in the construction are two fireplaces and one chimney for inside barbecue which required around 3,000 bricks . . . The house has 57 windows . . . one 15-ft.-by-20-ft. basement for furnace and shower, and one 12-ft.-by-12-ft. storm cellar which he dug by hand . . .
I'm exhausted, from all that work.
MRS. D. OMER SEAMON Rosedale, Ind.
Tile Trap
Sir:
A most remarkable statement was made concerning "The Shoulder Trade" . . . "Amateur decorators . . . laid 50% (500 million sq. ft.) of all the asphalt tile, enough to cover the entire state of Oregon". . .
HOWARD F. WALLACH Chicago
Sir:
Elastic tile?
CHAS. KEITHAHN
Olympia, Wash.
Sir:
. . . Apparently somebody forgot to square 5,280 in figuring how many square feet there are in a square mile. Fall into that trap, and you convert 500 million feet^2 to an area the size of Oregon . . .
GENE LINDBERG Denver
P: TIME'S Business researcher regrets that she did the mathematics herself.--ED.
1812 and All That
Sir:
Re your July 19 article, "Anchors Aweigh," and its picture of the U.S.S. Constitution, "Old Ironsides": I am proud to learn that Old Ironsides is being restored; proud because . . . James Cleghorn . . . who drew the plans for the ship was my great-greatgrandfather, and Colonel George Cleghorn, who sacrificed his fortune to help build her . . . was my great-great-granduncle. A plaque giving information about Colonel Cleghorn is located in the bow of Old Ironsides . . . I am 83 years of age . . . and proud.
Louis C. SMITH Covington, La.
P: Let Reader Smith meet Reader Belgrave (see below)--ED.
Sir:
I saw with great interest the . . . picture ... of the battle between the U.S.S. Constitution and H.M.S. Guerriere, and [TIME'S story of] the subsequent fate of the former vessel. The captain of the British ship, who later became Admiral Dacres, was my great-great-grandfather. After the British ship had been captured, he, together with the remainder of the officers and men, was taken to Boston, where he spent some time on parole before returning to England. According to his letters . . . now in the possession of my family, he enjoyed very much his enforced stay in the United States, and almost regretted leaving Boston . . .
JAMES H. D. BELGRAVE
Awali, Bahrein, Persian Gulf
From the Classroom
Sir:
I considered it a great honor to be associated with the grade-school and high-school teachers at the Columbia [University] celebration [TIME, Aug. 2]. Public recognition of all teachers, particularly at these levels, was long overdue and most appropriate. I join you and Columbia in honoring them.
I must, for the record, correct your description of me. I have been lame all my life and have not had polio; and I get about quite easily, without pain . . .
THEODORE M. GREENE Yale University New Haven, Conn.
According to Graves
Sir:
Congratulations to TIME [July 26] from Joshua Podro and myself on a splendidly clean scythe sweep or hatchet job [on The Nazarene Gospel Restored]. Your reviewer has kept well within the statutory limits of fair comment . . . But, on the theory that TIME brings all things, we miss your timely congratulations on our tactical successes. Amateur Scholar Joshua Podro has somehow contrived to satisfy real Jewish scholars of the highest professional standing that he has an enviably deep knowledge of the purely Aramaic setting of the Gospel story. Nor has "Crank" Robert Graves yet been caught out in any historical blunder which invalidates his findings on the Graeco-Roman side of the problem; though he dared tempt British New Testament experts with valuable money prizes if they could spot one. Together they have even persuaded leading U.S. Protestant Theologian Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr to take the book seriously with: "The authors have labored so diligently and within the limits of their presuppositions so honestly, that the volume will be of great service to both Christians and Jews if they have time to read so large a volume and the money [$10] to pay for it."
And Columbia's classics professor, Moses Hadas . . . reports: "The argument is ingenious to the point of brilliance, sufficiently buttressed by wide learning to be plausible, if the texts concerned were not revered as sacred, and capable of providing edification for countless persons who thirst for the spiritual satisfaction of religion, but are disquieted by some of its traditional premises."
Come on now, TIME, force a polite smile and bow, however stiffly.
ROBERT GRAVES Deya, Majorca, Spain
Sir:
Re your review of The Nazarene Gospel Restored by Robert Graves and Joshua Podro: it is the clear duty of both branches of Christianity, Protestant and Catholic . . . to severely rebuke both authors and publisher of this sacrilegious work . . .
E. W. SCHEINERT Rivera, Calif.
How to Grow Old
Sir:
Re your Aug. 2 story, "How to Live to 100": Please be informed of the remark made to the press last April 6 by Mrs. Athalie Neuvelle of Angouleme, France, who, on her joist birthday, declared: "I've always preferred cognac to doctors."
WILLIAM KADUSON New York City
Ecumenical Rhubarb (Cont'd)
Sir:
Re your July 19 article, "Catholics Barred": If the Roman Catholic Church is going to lead men to the light of true religion and a higher concept of morality and justice, she cannot compromise . . . with the Judasism of confused Protestantism . . . More power to Cardinal Archbishop Stritch.
EDWARD R. HOPE Stephenville, Newfoundland
Sir:
. . . The Roman Catholic attitude toward their Protestant friends is that of a happy family secure in a warm house whose neighbors are wandering in the dark, looking for the light. We would gladly welcome them into our light and warmth, but feel we may be excused when we are asked to come out and grope in the darkness with them . . .
MRS. RAY E. HEAD JR. Houston
A Brush with TIME
Sir:
Re the Willie Mays cover [July 26]: You seem to be converting more and more to photographic covers this year, and I, for one, am very unhappy about it. I imagine Messrs. Chaliapin, Baker, Artzybasheff et al. aren't too pleased about it, either. You have never been a conventional magazine, in the strict sense of the word; so I hope you aren't going to "throw in the towel" and lose your individuality just . . . like 99% of the other publications on the newsstands today.
E. McLEOD Seattle
P: For the latest cover portraits by Messrs. Artzybasheff, Chaliapin and Baker, see TIME, Aug. 2, Aug. 16 and Aug. 23.--ED.
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