THE RETURN TO ELEGANCE

"The supermodels of today have realized that there is life beyond the fashion industry, and that it's O.K. to be intelligent as well as beautiful."

Carmelita C. Honeycomb Easton, Connecticut

"A new touch of class'' [FASHION, April 17]? Thanks! And thank goodness!

K. Livingston Nichols Richmond, Virginia

"Wearable," "more realistic apparel" is to be worn with stiletto heels, which will require experience to walk in safely? Why not return to binding women's feet? It angers me that the fashion industry is so backward regarding the health of women's feet. Do women of the '90s really want to be dressed up like little dolls that can't run? This is class?

Emmalee G. Cregar Tucson, Arizona

That may be an "elegant, wearable" suit Claudia Schiffer is wearing on your cover, but it's still the old, sexually titillating, tumbling blond locks and hand-poised-to-unbutton, sex-kitten look. Our society overemphasizes sex as a value.

Peter J. Dawson Magnolia, New Jersey

American women don't admire supermodels, those spoiled brats who are discovered at a young age and made millionaires overnight just because of their looks. This is an 18-year-old's game, and models who are older had better think about starting their own fast-food restaurants or making other plans.

Leila Rose Martinsville, Indiana AOL: Leila Rose

Those who say supermodels are ahead of movie stars on the fame hierarchy may be right. But even if that is so, models are only models. Although I admire their beauty and elegance, Idon't respect them as much as I do talented actresses.

Iekazu Okano New York City

The supermodels of today have realized that there is life beyond the fashion industry, and that it's O.K. to be intelligent as well as beautiful. Classic styles will always outlive the frivolous or trendy. However, when I pick up Time, I want to read about current events. Don't go "soft" on us!

Carmelita C. Honeycomb Easton, Connecticut

A return to the classics? I'd be delighted to take your word for it. But the modelsyou portray make a mockery of the new styles,with their absurdly outthrust hips and bosoms.

Lori Pederson Madison, Wisconsin

The world fawns over women in absurd getups. Are we really to believe the fashion industry has come to its senses? More important, do we care?

Mary Masters Sarreguemines, France

OVERHAULING THE TAX SYSTEM

You reported that the American public is amazingly frustrated and angry at the Internal Revenue Service [TAXES, April 17]. Anyone who is surprised at this is totally out of touch. Citizens hate the IRS because it has become a sort of governmental Mafia that terrorizes honest people along with those who are dishonest. The IRS has even managed to temper criticism of it in the media. It will be interesting to see how many of those who complain will be subject to some type of audit.

John A. Hagins Jr. Greenville, South Carolina

I fervently hope some of our more sophisticated public officials will think long and hard before acting on shortsighted measures for changing the tax law. Like anyone else, I relish the thought of paying less in taxes, but it's obvious that the proponents of these tax overhauls either haven't done their math or are simply pandering to voters.

Rick Gammons Vernon Hills, Illinois AOL: RickGam

HIDDEN MEMORIES RECALLED

When thousands of families are accused of sexual and satanic abuse because of "recovered memory" therapy undertaken years after such acts supposedly occurred [BEHAVIOR, April 17], the charges are suspect. They should be corroborated by evidence before entire families are divided and destroyed. Vulnerable people seeking answers to problems in their troubled lives find them in suggestions and explanations from therapists who use dubious methods. Patients are advised to cut themselves off from their families without mediation or group discussion. Guilty! No opportunities are given to family members or friends to explain how childhood memories may have been confused. How can our society allow such unscientific goings-on in the name of therapy?

Susan Holland Merrick, New York

Your article "Memory on Trial" referred to a follow-up study I conducted on 129 women who as children had been seen in an emergency room for sexual abuse in the early 1970s. The statistics cited were incorrect. On reinterview 17 years later, I found that 38% (49 women) appeared to have forgotten the sexual abuse.

Women who were younger at the time of the abuse and those who were molested by someone they knew (for example, a family member or family friend) were more likely to have forgotten the abuse. This research suggests that long periods with no memory of abuse should not be regarded as evidence that the abuse did not occur.

Linda Williams, Ph.D. Family Research Laboratory University of New Hampshire Durham, New Hampshire

Yes, the idea if repressed memory does go back 100 years to when Freud first bullied patients into believing they were sexually abused as infants and had repressed the memory. Freud wrote in 1996, "One only succeeds in awakening the psychic trace of a precocious sexual event under the most energetic pressures of the analytic procedure." He added, "Moreover, the memory must be extracted from them piece by piece." When patients protested that Freud has put things into their heads, he turned a deaf ear. In short, there is considerable doubt whether the psychological mechanism of repression exists at all.

Mark Pendergast, author Victims of Memory Hinesburg, Vermont

ANCHORS AWEIGH, MY GIRLS

The report on the return of the U.S.S. Eisenhower from its six-month cruise with the first group of women to serve aboard a combat ship [MILITARY, April 17] indicated that female sailors are no better or worse than their male counterparts. Even when presented with mounting evidence that a good sailor is a good sailor, regardless of gender, some diehards continue to stand in the way of progress. They would rather see female sailors working as nurses, secretaries, cooks and receptionists -- ashore, or course. These diehards do not understand that permmitting all sailors to excel at what their abilities allow is what equal opportunity is all about.

Hector F. Aponte Jacksonville, Florida AOL: HeloASW

It's about time the U.S. Navy went coed on its combat ships. Twenty years ago, I was one of the first five women to graduate from radio-relay school, and I found there was a lot of confusion. I had to ask for a toolbox that was issued automatically to everyone else. When the men in my shop realized I was fully prepared to get dirty and I could crawl under a truck, climb an antenna and wade in the mud without melting, I was no longer a liability but an asset. My assignments from 1974 to 1980 were a learning experience for the men and for me. We were professionals, and we learned to respect each other. We also joked. In additon, we knew we could always depend on each other in an emergency. This is exactly what is developing on the U.S.S. Eisenhower.

Mary E. Rudd Jacksonville, Florida

The Eisenhower coed crew experiment a "rousing success"? Sailors videotaping themselves having sex during a cruise? Then I guess a reported assault is cause for celebration, and widespread fraternization reason enough for commendations all around.

Mark Carpanini Lakeland, Florida AOL: Carpanini

FIGHTING NEEDLESS EXPENDITURES

I was pleased by the attention TIME gave my book, The Death of Common Sense [IDEAS, April 10], but think the article was a little incomplete. You report that the scorer's box in the Minnetonka, Minnesota, municipal hockey rink ultimately was not altered for wheelchair access because another way was found to address the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I am pleased to get any corrections, but the more important fact, of which my book's once-sentence description of Minnetonka was only an illustration, is that similar needless expenditures are being made across America. The point of the book is to explain the defective philosophy underlying the modern regulatory state, one htat bars human judgment and makes government wastful and ineffective. My hope is that the book will help change the way government addresses public issues.

Philip K. Howard New York City

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ART LOVERS

While your article The Spoils of War" discussed the controversy over the rightful ownership of precious art taken from Germany at the end of World War II and hidden in Russia for 50 years [April 3], it overlooked an important piece of information. The Hermitage invited an American publisher to document the collection with both Russian- and English-language editions of a book, Hidden Treasures Revealed, and to arrange for its sale. The exhibition of exceptional art will not travel outside Russia, so the book becomes the only opportunity for most people to see all 74 works in reproductions of the highest quality and with the benefit of scholarship that art historians expect will forever alter the public's perception of several of the artists.

Paul Gottlieb, President Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York City