The Big Lift

Sir:

If the Army plans to send up a live animal in a satellite, may we suggest that they use the Navy goat?

GEORGE M. WRENN

Wharton, Texas

Sir:

What'll you bet Pravda renames our Explorer satellite Spitenik?

RIP REILLY

Cleveland

Sir:

Instead of the trite sobriquet Explorer, the U.S. moon should have been dubbed Minerva ; for, like the goddess of old, it too sprang from Jupiter's head.

WILLIAM T. INFIRMIER

Catonsville, Md.

Sir:

Isn't it a coincidence that the launching site for the projectile in Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon was distant from Cape Canaveral by only the width of Florida?

ROBERT W. MAYER

Champaign, Ill.

P: Author Verne's space ship was launched in 1862 just 115 miles west-southwest of Cape Canaveral.--ED.

Sir:

May I congratulate the American scientists who built the American satellite under the guidance of Wernher von Braun. Of course we know that Von Braun was educated in Germany and built V-2 rockets for the Nazis, thus killing thousands of innocents.

HANK K. VAN POOLLEN

Duncan, Okla.

Sir:

Re the Explorer: You beautniks!

RAY SMITH

Melbourne, Australia

Sir:

With the advent of Explorer, perhaps aggressive man will find a better planet on which to live. Then surely "the meek shall inherit the earth."

MARIAN ELKINS

Clarksville, Tenn.

A Prize for the Secretary

Sir:

In your Jan. 13 issue you published a cartoon of John F. Dulles characterized as a rocket. Recently the Sigma Nu fraternity house patterned its winter carnival ice statue after your cartoon. We were fortunate enough to win third prize in the statue competition. I enclose a picture.

EARLE J. PATTERSON ('60)

Dartmouth College

Hanover, N.H.

Hats Off

Sir:

Thank you for publishing so much of Mr. Sherman Adams' address. It's about time someone replied to the charges, half-truths, libels, etc. that Democrats excel in.

I. W. WARD Weaverville, N.C.

Sir:

Even though Sherman Adams is a Republican, I'm sure he can do better than what he looked like in your Feb. 3 issue. What a hat!

B. FELDMAN Cleveland

Talking About Turkey

Sir:

Your Feb. 3 cover story about Turkey's Premier Menderes was excellent. I believe our friends will be able to learn something about Turkey's "12-c--a-month mehmetciks" and the magnificent job they are doing in defending the Western world.

NECATI ZINCIRKIRAN

Ankara

Sir:

Your cover picture of Menderes does not show the blood of thousands of Greek Orthodox children and women (Istanbul massacre, Sept. 6, 1955). John Foster Dulles' flirtation with the corrupt country of Turkey is one of the greatest shames of today.

(THE RT. REV.) S. IRTEL

Encino, Calif.

Sir:

Apparently even a big bully can become a good Joe if he lets us play with our missiles in his back yard.

JOHN D. KENNEDY

New York City

Sir:

An exact and complete translation of your admirable story was published in Vatan. We received it in a cable of 5,200 words--quite a record for a Turkish daily--and published it in two parts (on account of a frozen quota of newsprint). There was an enormous demand for copies, so we had to publish the whole story again, adding your cover and the pictures after TIME itself arrived. The objective review of the personality of Menderes made a deep impression on the public here, and caused widespread discussions.

AHMED EMIN YALMAN

Editor

Vatan

Istanbul

What's a Scientist?

Sir:

Re your Feb. 3 article: I enclose an answer from a student in my class:

I picture a scientist as a man different from all other people. As a child [he wore] glasses, was skinny and tall, was never any sort of an athlete, had no school spirit, few friends, and wasn't looked at by girls. When the scientist grows up he gets married, usually at the age of about 30. He has no time for his wife as he is constantly engaged in inventing a supernatural device, etc.

RICHARD SALINGER

Wilton Junior-Senior High School

Wilton, Conn.

Sir:

I'm married to a scientist. I'm not going to give away all our family secrets here, and I'm not going to write an article on the sex life of a scientist, but there are a few things these high school students might consider. I'll admit my husband wears horn-rimmed glasses, but about the only time they set on his ears is when he watches some esoteric program on TV such as Perry Mason, The Tracer or Bugs Bunny. We also go skindiving, go on camping trips to the desert, chase rabbits with the kids, cook over a cozy campfire, make love by moonlight, and can have the best family fight in the neighborhood.

JULIE PETERSEN

Venice, Calif.

Success & Suicide

Sir:

As one who has experienced suicide within his own family, I want to thank you for your sensitive treatment of the Robert R. Young story. A working newsman, I've read enough suicide stories to perhaps grow a trifle cynical. But to such men as Young, success must be synonymous with life. The loss of success makes life unbearable. Statistics point to suicides frequently among the wealthy, often educated men and women. This indicates that money and prestige may not be answers. Suicide is a tragic parody of values gone haywire.

SHELDON J. KARLAN

Hollywood

Bufferin v. Aspirin

Sir:

Pardon me, TIME, but your slip is showing! In the publication of the item "Buffer Off?" in your Feb. 10 issue, we sincerely believe you were misled by the research reports in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Our own clinical tests have consistently shown that addition to aspirin of the particular antacid mixture (i.e., Di-Alminate) used in Bufferin invariably doubles the rate of absorption of aspirin into the blood stream during at least the first thirty minutes after administration.

In so far as gastric tolerance is concerned, no published report to date approaches, in our opinion, the caliber of our recent Michigan study. There, tablets of Bufferin, the four leading commercial brands of aspirin, and an inert placebo were administered on different occasions to each of 146 human subjects who presented a history of previous stomach upset from each of the four brands of aspirin. Less than 7% of the subjects reacted to Bufferin. That suggestibility played no role whatever in these studies is evident in that only one of the 146 subjects noted stomach upset from the inert placebo.

The same Doctor Batterman you quoted admits that his findings are at war with the research findings of three other prominent doctors, and your own writer realized that Doctor Batterman's report would come as "... a surprise to many physicians . . ." Do you really believe that physicians, dentists, nurses, and the public at large would prescribe or use a more costly medicine for almost ten years unless it fulfilled all their expectations?

R. B. BROWN

Executive Vice President

Products Division

Bristol-Myers Company

New York City

P: TIME recognizes that there is a debate on this subject, is happy to print Reader Brown's side. -- ED.

The Riddle of Birth

Sir:

I read with delight your Jan. 27 report of the case against the woman who bore a child through artificial insemination. Did she commit an act "far less responsible and far less human than adultery," as the learned Archbishop of Canterbury claims? Does it "violate the exclusive union set up between husband and wife," and "defraud the child begotten, and deceive both his putative kinsmen and society at large"? If so, the archbishop has splotched the character of the Holy Ghost. Did Joseph sue Mary for adultery? The woman in the case should tell her husband that the child was a gift from God.

WAYNE I. BOUCHER

Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

Sir:

The archbishop opposed artificial insemination. Rightly so. He also firmly supported the view that homosexuality was immoral and ought to be eradicated. Considering the medical support for the Wolfenden recommendations, is it not possible that here, as in the case of nuclear warfare, scientists have opened doors with no regard for the reasons that impel caution?

J. P. MORRIS JR.

Bryn Mawr, Pa.

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