A Letter from the Publisher

WE find ourselves confronted by the random and unpredictable big news of the week, but the kind of news we seek out varies in the summertime, just as readers' interests change. Schools close, or go on summer schedule; theater becomes straw hat, or old hat; TV repeats itself. But one TIME section increases in interest and importance in the summer: sport.

This is the domain of Charles Parmiter, 29, a clergyman's son who was born in Massachusetts, brought up in Hawaii, and, after an Army stint in the Far East and four years as a reporter in Honolulu, joined the Los Angeles bureau of TIME. He has reported everything from H-bomb tests to medicine and music. But there is one side of him that likes to race fast cars, to leave a little money behind at the horse races, and to play golf well enough to appreciate those who play it better. As TIME'S Sport editor since April 1961, he finds that golf and horse racing "are the two sports I like best, and the hardest to write about." He is also convinced from painful experience that "covering a golf tournament is harder than playing in it."

Three weeks ago, Parmiter wrote our cover story on Jack Nicklaus, the 22-year-old wonder who won the U.S. Open. This week Parmiter chronicles the dramatic comeback of the old master, Arnold Palmer, whose amazing performance in the British Open will be the stuff of sport legends to come. Parmiter, a man of decided opinions, believes 1) that the competition in golf has never been as tough as it is right now. and 2) that Arnold Palmer "is the greatest golfer the world has ever seen.''

To 181 members of the Peace Corps in the Philippines, to 28 in West Pakistan, 45 in Chile and 450 elsewhere, each week go free copies of TIME. They also get copies of LIFE'S international edition. We originally intended these short-term subscriptions as a reminder of home as they settle in, but we are learning from their enthusiastic letters that our magazines are serving a further purpose. "Mabalos Po," writes Peace Corps Volunteer Edward T. Kelley II, "thank you very much, in my new language, the Bikol dialect." He is now circulating the magazines among the townspeople of Malilipot in the Philippines, in a new reading center he is establishing there. The same notion seems to have occurred to volunteers in many other places, and we think it's a fine idea.

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