Battle Lines in the G.O.P.

To the Editors:

The picture of President Ford on the cover [Aug. 9] was quite a welcome respite from the excruciation inflicted by the sight of Carter's hideous features. How will we ever bear looking at that face for four years?

Phillip A. Gowan

Brownwood, Texas

It's comforting to know that Mr. Ford insists that the vice-presidential nominee have the qualifications to be President. We would have been in much better shape had Mr. Nixon employed this same standard.

Dr. Jerome H. Manheim

Long Beach, Calif.

A lot of us U.S. citizens are nauseated and fed up with "windbag promises" by the various candidates in this Bicentennial year. Let's hope the year 2076 will show an improvement.

Edgar J. Van Beek

Allenton, Wis.

Jerry Ford came to us in a time that he had no control over. He has done a good job, but just think what this man could do with the American people behind him. He already has most foreign nations' respect.

Daniel L. Garcia

San Francisco

The Republican Party, from national to county level, supported an unelected President. How on earth Governor Reagan did so well with all the odds against him is a tribute to the man.

Margaret A. Tedrow

San Jose, Calif.

It is rather amusing to hear President Ford telling what a calamity it would be to have Senator Mondale as Vice President of the United States. He criticized Mondale's record in the Senate as wild and irresponsible. In fact Mondale's record has been one of the best. In a longer period in the House, what in hell did Ford ever do? His record reads like a blank sheet of paper.

Charles H. Dorr

Milton, Wis.

After listening to the unity rhetoric of the Democrats, projecting a man-for-all-interests, and seeing the bland and/or conservative offerings of the double-dealing Republicans, all I can say is that it is time to welcome back the candidate of the people and once again "Get Clean for Gene."

Bill Hrick

London, Ont.

Tamale Trouble

I gagged at your reference to President Ford's attempt to eat an unwrapped tamale as gauche [Aug. 9]. Wrapped in dried corn shucks, Texas tamales are cooked in boiling liquid. The casing or wrapping has a paper-like texture which must be removed before eating the tamale. It would be more gauche to eat a wrapped tamale.

Martha Kahler

Cameron, Texas

From Layuff to Rat

In your glossary of southernisms [Aug. 2] we will have to learn in order to understand Candidate Carter, you omitted:

Rat: (adj.) Politically conservative; opposite of Layuff.

Donald H. Burnett

Portland, Ore.

Mahty fahn, Tahm, to know Jaw-juh's on yoah mahn.

Ann Goess Vyanna, Austria

Grow up and accept our lovely drawl. Hopefully you'll be hearing lots more of it soon.

Anne W. Rittenberry

Signal Mountain, Tenn.

What Knowles Did Not Say

In his essay "The Struggle to Stay Healthy" [Aug. 9], Dr. John Knowles mentions the unmet nutritional needs of poor people. What he does not mention are the unmet nutritional needs of the majority of our population. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently printed a report of nutritional surveys revealing that almost half the patients studied suffered from a lack of the protein and calories needed to keep them in reasonably good health.

Isn't it time that we insisted on nutritional education for our medical personnel and admitted that our highly refined diets leave much to be desired?

Tish Levee

Laguna Beach, Calif.

Saint Laurent's Pinch Off

Saint Laurent's new new look [Aug. 16] is an old old way to pinch off the prosperous pockets of the pudgy pink patrons of Park Avenue.

Karl Scharnweber

Amherst, N. Y.

What a desperate attempt to hide the beauty of the female body.

Jan Doyle Hollywood

Designers beware: women want clothes soft, smart and sexy. Cossacks and Victorians we're not.

(Mrs.) Linda Smith Highland, N. Y.

Imagine getting into a Volkswagen while wearing a Saint Laurent creation.

Ida S. Sterrett

Hamilton, Ohio

When I get dressed I don't want to look simply elegant, I want to look elegantly simple.

Anita A. Novak

Allentown, Pa.

Give me a shirt and jeans any day.

Mary Foy

Manhattan, Kans.

Jekyll and Hyde School?

Hyde School [Aug. 9] challenges our two teen-agers to heights of which most kids only dream. It sings the spirit of which America is made. TIME neither saw the dream nor caught the spirit.

Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Y. Kelly

Bethesda, Md.

Mr. Gauld's humiliation and paddling "philosophy" is just child abuse, with or without the parents' "tacit consent." The Hyde School and Mr. Gauld prescribe punishment and embarrassment for troubled children. What they need is love and encouragement.

Linda Flynn

Stamford, Conn.

Education? I doubt it. Martial training? Perhaps.

Reed Greene

Arlington, Texas

In three years at Hyde, my daughter has grown from a spoiled, rebellious teen-ager into an independent young woman of conscience and great promise. Humiliation is not "routine" at

Hyde; what is routine is to tell each student, "Your life is sacred, and what you do with it is very important."

Greg Carbone

Arlington, Va.

Guilt Shared

Re "Toddler with a Gun" [Aug. 9]: if we did not glorify gunplay on TV and if we refused to buy toy weapons for our children to confuse with the real thing, little Jeffery Krauch might still be alive today. No one was charged because too many shared the guilt.

(Mrs.) Alice Gyongy

Camp Hill, Pa.

There are many things potentially more dangerous in our American way of life than guns. My father at an early age killed his brother in a hunting accident, and I have been taught safety when handling guns. I have also been taught safety when driving a car, the most lethal weapon in America.

Marshall A. Lenne

LaGrande, Ore.

Elementary, My Dear TIME

In your article concerning the Chowchilla, Calif., kidnaping case, you state that after unearthing the tractor-trailer in which the children and bus driver were held captive, "investigators quickly traced it to the Palo Alto Transfer & Storage Co." How much tracing was necessary considering the fact that in bold letters across the front of the truck was written PALO ALTO TRANSFER AND STORAGE COMPANY?

Richard Eastman

Louisville

Hemingway Dilemma

I seem to be in the same dilemma as your critic of Dr. Gregory Hemingway's book [July 26]. I would also like to know what type of person the author is. My reason is in some ways more provocative. Dr. Hemingway is my father. I haven't seen him for eight years. This seems a parallel to the fact that he was out of physical touch with my grandfather for ten painful (according to the book) years. I feel no bitterness toward my father, but I think it sad that I learn more about him by reading articles and gossip columns than from my own communication with him. I was truly moved by his book. I have longed to be with and to get to know him. I am admittedly hurt by his nonresponse. Perhaps someday I'll write a book about my relationship with my father, but I am afraid it will be even more slender than A Personal Memoir's 119 pages.

Lorian Hemingway Jaynes

Seattle

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