The Paranoid Prisoner

To the Editors:

Re: your story on Howard Hughes [Dec. 13]. It is ironic that a man capable of building and directing a billion-dollar conglomerate was the architect of such a pathetic paranoid prison for himself. However, his Christian aides resemble piranhas more than Christians.

Those of us who drink and smoke couldn't be any worse off than that wretched soul surrounded by Kleenex boxes and paper toweling.

Donna W. Blue Birmingham, Mich.

What a horror story! And the most frightening realization is that our society would drive a man to such desperate lengths to attain the right of every human being, the right to privacy.

(Mrs.) Charlene Franklin Santa Ana, Calif.

How sad that one's final reaction to the richest man in America is "poor, lonely, pitiful Howard Hughes."

E. Ries Myers Baltimore

If Howard Hughes had been on the welfare rolls anywhere in the U.S. he would be alive today.

Alexander J. Friedman, M.D. Great Neck, N. Y.

Sometimes I wonder how a plain college girl like me could ever possibly help a billionaire, but after reading the article on Hughes, I feel that I could have done something for the poor old man.

Carla Gaskamp El Campo, Texas

Howard Hughes has been many things to many men--and women. But TIME's cover portrait of the dying junkie billionaire seems to be stretching artistic license rather thin by giving us not reality, the wreck, but an almost mirror image of Leonardo da Vinci's last self-portrait.

David Douglas Duncan Mouans-Sartoux, France

Blissful Dozing

As with most analyses of hypothetical combat situations, your article concerning NATO's vulnerability to a Russian attack [Dec. 13] dealt too much with machines and not enough with men.

I recently returned from Germany, where I was a member of our renowned U.S. Army. I can honestly state that if Russia had decided to go with their blitz, we would have been extremely lucky to get out of the motor pool.

When we went out for training we were often unable to coordinate even within the company. The larger the training exercise, the more confusion was evident. I have spent many blissful hours dozing in the back of an APC while the officers were off somewhere vainly attempting to figure out where we were, where we were going and just what we were doing. For myself and my fellow soldiers, it was something to laugh at and shake our heads about. But certainly, it is no laughing matter.

Kenneth D. Moore Irving, Texas

Network Hustlers

Thank God for a writer like Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote the script for Network [Dec. 13].

Do the network hustlers who believe viewer ratings and product sales are the total of TV acceptance ever wonder who the millions are who don't watch and don't buy?

Jon Homer Gainesville, Fla.

As I gaze into my crystal ball, I see Harry Reasoner singing the news with Barbara Walters tap dancing in the background. His rendition of "Earthquake Kills Thousands" is No. 1 on the hit charts.

Ginette T. Hochman Morrisville, Pa.

Bowdlerized Bible

It seems that nothing is safe from demythologization, secularization and, ultimately, sanitation. Is there nothing to remind us that we need mystery in our lives, something to transcend the trivial, the ordinary, the mundane?

The Bible [Dec. 6] is not a textbook. Whatever else it may be, it does con tain some of the most beautiful poetry in the language. Keep your bowdlerized Bibles to yourself. What comes next? Computerized confessionals?

Laurie Brill Clark Glenwood Springs, Colo.

The Bible needs to be reread, not rewritten.

B. W. Hughes Camilla, Ga.

As if it mattered. Is anybody actually reading it?

A.T. Brown Corvallis, Ore.

Stallone at School

In your article on Sylvester Stallone, "Italian Stallion" [Nov. 15], your writer states that Stallone "landed a job as a bouncer in the girls' dorm of The American School of Switzerland." Sylvester Stallone was never employed in any capacity by The American School in Switzerland, also known as TASIS, which is probably the oldest and most highly regarded American school in Europe.

Lynn Fleming Aeschliman

U.S. Representative, The American School in Switzerland, New York City

Sylvester Stallone, who attended the American College of Switzerland from September 1965 to June 1967, is remembered here as a charming student who liked to upstage his peers. In 1975 he wrote that he hoped to "immortalize my two years at A.C.S. by a script about some of the more colorful and roguish students. If ever filmed it may embarrass some, infuriate others, but all will look back with bittersweet memories."

Thomas Majors

American College of Switzerland Leysin, Switzerland

Saving Our Lives

TIME's recent recognition of Dr. Alexander Wiener's pioneering work on the Rh blood factor [Nov. 22] prompts me to express my personal gratitude to this outstanding medical scientist.

Twenty-nine years ago, Dr. Wiener delivered and transfused my brother and me, making us the first twins to benefit from the transfusion procedure and thereby saving our young lives. How do you say thanks for that?

Robert J. Wendorf Austin, Texas

No Whistle

Much to my embarrassment, hurt and downright anger, I was appalled at your saying that I remember Gerald Ford whistling at me [Oct. 18]. I never made the remark, and never would say anything like it about our President. I've known the President and Betty Ford for many years. My last wish would be to embarrass the President and his family with such a foolish remark.

Mrs. Harold K. Weed Grand Rapids, Mich.

Genes ueber Alles

The article "Genes ueiber Alles " [Dec. 13] touches on, but does not really explain, the furor aroused by Edward Wilson's book, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. The author gathered a monumental array of facts relating to social development and synthesized from these the beginnings for a rational explanation of social behavior.

His critics, primarily the Sociobiology Study Group of Science for the People, have indulged in a form of academic vigilantism characterized by misrepresentation, systematic distortion and personal attack. Wilson's views, if correct and rigorously applied, are the antithesis of socialism, Communism and the welfare state; they indicate clearly, if correct, that our human faults and injustices are the product of biological evolution and that a mere change of environment is not going to correct anything. We must recognize our genetic heritage and work to overcome the weaknesses of this biological inheritance.

Roy R. Snelling, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles

Man being the rationalizing creature he is, sociobiology was bound to happen. In a scientifically overdeveloped, spiritually underdeveloped society, why not a pseudo discipline to ease the pain of conscience and individual accountability? It still sounds like a variation on the old predestination theme to me.

Pat Barlow Duxbury, Mass.

Edward O. Wilson may have overstepped reality in extrapolating his theories to human societies, but Sociobiology stands as a magnificent catalogue of scientific phenomena. All behavioral biology is in his debt.

Gary B. Ellis

Northwestern University

Evanston, Ill.

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