Exploring the Moon

Sir / It is disturbing to read "Apollo 17: Farewell Mission to the Moon" [Dec. 11]. The destiny of man involves the search for truth. What can be the fate of a nation that has the means to further the search for knowledge and understanding through the exploration of space, yet does not dp so because of its own seeming loss of spirit?

Could such a nation be doomed to an existence as depicted in Huxley's Brave New World, in which man has become so concerned with his personal needs that the search for knowledge leads only to the further satisfaction of the flesh?

HUGH M. CARMICHAEL II

Jacksonville

Sir / I must confess that I was one of those "prisoners of limited vision" you referred to in your special section on Space. Now that I understand that science has determined the age of the moon to be 4.5 billion years, and it only cost us $30 billion to uncover that truly mind-blowing statistic, I and my family will be sure to keep track. Next year, when the moon is 4.5 billion and one years old, we will hold a birthday party. You are invited. So are all the children with birth defects, leukemia, mental retardation, etc., who could have been helped with that $30 billion. We will have a large cake made of green cheese with 4.5 billion and one candles and an American flag in the center.

EDWARD T. BASAMAN

Elizabeth, N.J.

Sir / From the opening introspective Worden poem to the closing Mitchell observation--that the space program was worth the cost and effort if only for the awakened desire in the individual to spread the gospel of humanism--the article discloses the gentler instincts of man so often obscured by his more obvious desire for adventure and success. Like so many apostles, these splendid astronauts attest to a paradox: the more knowledgeable man becomes, the more he realizes his limitations, his ignorance and his insignificance.

JOSEPH COHEN

Forest Hills, N.Y.

Sir / Your article "The Greening of the Astronauts" revealed something that astrologers, even amateurs, could have predicted long ago: that is, that the lives of the astronauts who landed on the moon would be dramatically changed by the intense influence of the moon on both their bodies and minds. Note that the moon rules such things as psychic ability, dealings with the public, emotional disorders and, of course, relationships with women. Next, note that changes in each of these areas have occurred in one or more of the astronauts, and immediately upon return from the moon.

BRUCE C. STEVENS

Durham, N.C.

Mars and Sex

Sir / Your article on the problems of the Mars flight [Dec. 11] was very informative, but as an eight-year veteran of nuclear submarines I must take exception to the statement that "pornography suffices as an escape mechanism" for submarine crews' sexual drives. The fact is that except for a few girlie magazines, sex is excluded from all films, books, etc.

TIME would have its readers believe that submarine crews are off on a 60-day porno odyssey when in fact they are sacrificing a large part of their lives to keep America a safe and free country.

HERBERT C. STANNARD III

New York City

Sir / I take exception to the statement in "1986: A Space Odyssey to Mars," suggesting that pornography suffices as an escape mechanism for nuclear submarine crews on 60-day missions. As a veteran of six years in the nuclear submarine service (and many a 60-day mission), I can state categorically that in no way does it suffice.

JAMES E. PETTIS

Hampton Falls, N.H.

Sir / Instead of six sex-starved men, let's send up three mated pairs (women astronauts are long overdue), people with a real pioneering spirit, and populate Mars.

One hopes that Martian-born humans will benefit from our lessons on earth and take better care of their planet!

ERIC PIANKA

Austin, Texas

Who Cares?

Sir / Your story "The Pleasures of Dying" [Dec. 4] was unbelievably absurd. A morbid comment on human curiosity. What of possible importance can all that scientific research produce? Once you've made the jump, you're gone. Granted, it certainly is a relief to know that Stage 2 is an upper: but by that time, who cares?

I'd rather see all that mental energy channeled into cancer research.

CLAUDIA SUNDBERG

Toledo

Sir / After reading your article entitled "The Pleasures of Dying," I am moved to comment on my own experience. When I was 17 I was thrown from a vehicle that was moving at more than 60 m.p.h. Time seemed to hold still. Everything seemed to be happening in superslow motion. Although there must have been certain sounds, like tires screeching, I heard nothing, except my own mind telling me how sad my mother would be that I had died.

MARTIN SUMERS

Baltimore

Sir / Whether we admit it or not, death is probably man's greatest fear. When we actually face death, we give in to it so we won't have to fear it any longer.

MRS. ROBERT G. HUNT

Overland Park, Kans.

Home of the Dolphins

Sir / Your otherwise excellent cover story on Coach Don Shula and the Miami Dolphins [Dec. 11] was marred by an egregious misrepresentation of our fair city of Miami. While your conjectures about the way things are on Collins Avenue, Jackie Gleason Drive, Arthur Godfrey Road and at Zorita's may well be true of the city of Miami Beach, they are in no way representative of the city of Miami, home of the Dolphins.

JEAN ST. JOHN

Miami

Olmsted's Influences

Sir / Thank God the rest of the world is finally being exposed to the humane influences of the foresighted Frederick Law Olmsted [Dec. 11]. Here at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay (more accurately called "Ecology U."), students have been introduced to Olmsted's attitudes and influences for several years.

Now the rest of society may be as privileged as we, in seeing the earth and its people as complementary to each other.

GAELA JACKSON

Green Bay, Wis.

Sir / The article concerning Frederick Law Olmsted was historically interesting, but can we reasonably expect an article on the history of Central Park to elicit genuine concern for a deteriorating environment? I think not.

DOUGLAS T. MARTIN

Newport, Ore.

Gurus for Export

Sir / I read with interest your coverage of the junior guru [Nov. 27]. It seems that anybody who manages to rattle off a couple of verses from the Gita and "inspired sat-sangs" can pass off as a great guru in the Western world. Having had a glimpse of the junior guru, I must say he looks like an overfed, average Indian schoolboy. If the Westerners are ready to "import" such "perfect masters" for dollars and pounds sterling, this country will at least be rid of their influences and it can get some help for its fiscal problems.

N. RAMANI

New Delhi

Sir / If the credibility of Americans has gone down, their credulity has gone up. How else can one account for the mushrooming of cults (religious, irreligious, animistic, demonic)?

It is, however, a matter of some satisfaction to us in India that a number of our swamis, maharishis and yogis are turning a pretty penny selling their own specialties --Vedanta, Hare Krishna, yoga, TM--to Americans who are overeager to embrace anything novel in faith and fad. They are at least doing a creditable job as levelers of wealth.

J.R. SAMY

Bombay

Jane Testifies

Sir / Whose voice gave Tarzan's call [Dec. 11]? I ought to know: I was there.

Johnny Weissmuller can--and did --do his own Tarzan call. End of discussion?

MAUREEN O'SULLIVAN ("JANE")

New York City

Bass-Voiced Women

Sir / You report that "only women who can sing in the tenor or bass ranges will be accepted" for the Cornell glee club [Dec. 4]. Surely, surely this esteemed college should know that this practice will impair a woman's voice if rehearsals are often and long. I am retired now, but I speak as someone who has directed glee clubs and choruses, and was a voice teacher for more than 30 years.

Times have changed, but not the singing vocal mechanism.

ALPHA C. MAYFIELD

Macon, Mo.

Sir / Females singing in low ranges aren't as scarce as you may think. At Sidney (Ohio) High School, our mixed chorus has had a shortage of male singers, so for the past two years women who have low voices have been admitted to the tenor section. It isn't an ideal situation, of course, since the female voice usually does not have the same tonal quality as the male voice, but we have found that it is good enough for us to receive superior ratings at the state chorus contest.

LESLIE CAMPBELL

Sidney. Ohio

Aristotle's Bad Boy

Sir / T.E. Kalem's review of Samuel Beckett, "In the Mind's I" [Dec. 11], reads like an essay written by a precocious sophomore who has learned too much, too soon.

No doubt Beckett is Aristotle's bad boy. But then again Beckett never wanted to have anything to do with that great, white beard.

Kalem's critical techniques, by extension, suggest that he might discount the entire body of American Indian poetry because it ignores Longfellow.

CHARLES SELUZICKI

Baltimore

Sir / Samuel Beckett has taught the world many things: not so much how to move or to cry, to laugh or applaud, but, more important, how to listen. Many of us in the theater owe this "master" a great deal, for his philosophies and amazing courage have revolutionized playwriting.

When language is used to penetrate instead of separate, it flies off the stage and into the mind.

LOUIS SIEGEL

Baltimore

Sir / Lovers of the drama are indebted to your invaluable T.E. Kalem for finally concluding that the plays of Samuel Beckett are a "rum show." Would that he could convince producers, other members of his profession, little-theater boards of directors and, especially, the snobs of college drama departments that making the absurd absurd is absurd.

CARL A. KERR

Glenville. W. Va.

Needed: Honest Preachers

Sir / I want to thank you for your article "That T-Bone Religion" [Dec. 11]. I only wish there were more men like Reverend Ike. We might then get away from an altruistic morality that keeps the world in despair and poverty.

The problem is, where do you find that many honest preachers?

TRACY JONES JR.

Homer. Alaska

Sir / Since my high school days I have been nauseated by the erratic rantings of professional evangelists. As a Methodist minister I served churches small and large for 41 years and saw this game from the inside. Professional evangelists, with hardly an exception, are addicted to "the power of positive greed."

Invariably they are literalists and fundamentalists playing on their hearers' emotions while vitiating their intelligence and opening their wallets. These men (and women) are not saying much that is relevant to our age, but they are certainly proficient in mob psychology and frequently organized with efficiency.

The end objective: money.

(THE REV.) JOHN N. WHITE

Woodstown. N.J.

Ring-Around-a-Rosy (Contd.)

Sir / I must take issue with the statement of Barbara Childs in her letter to the editor [Dec. 11]. declaring that President Kennedy's Hyannis Port sketch could not be genuine because anchored boats never head in different directions.

Boats on moorings, sailboats included, do not always lie head to wind, especially if there is a strong tidal current running with a light wind blowing. It is more the rule than the exception in my home port of York Harbor, Me., for the sailboats moored in the tide to lie head to tide and those in the eddy to lie head to eddy regardless of wind direction. And all boats reverse with the ebb and flow of the tides, appearing to play ring-around-a-rosy. This is especially noticeable in a small harbor where the tide tends to hug one shore and then eddies back along the opposite shore.

Never say never!

SARAH N. KEIMOWITZ

Coon Valley. Wis.

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