Mail

Captain and Tennille

Why the put-down of people like the Captain and Tennille (PEOPLE, Oct. 18)? If “square” is applying obvious talent to bringing pleasure to others, then it’s a shame there aren’t more “squares” in this world.

J. Brooks

Miller Place, N.Y.

Are those the lyrics of Love Will Keep Us Together sewn in the pant leg of Toni Tennille in the picture on page 77? And did she do it?

Mike Trella

Covina, Calif.

Yes. Toni did it on planes and buses last summer while on tour in the Midwest.—ED.

John Adams

I want to express my appreciation for the piece about candidate John Adams of New Hampshire. His accomplishment of “winning without spending” has gotten much publicity, but a lot of the media have tended to get the facts wrong in their haste. Your article was a very enlightening exception. You have the deep appreciation of all of us in the Adams family.

Elle Adams Hoey

Dallas

Jane Pauley and ‘Today’

I sympathize with Jane Pauley. There is a certain loneliness connected with thorough dedication to any work, but perhaps especially to TV, where that work is either acclaimed or criticized by large numbers of people, most of them distant and faceless. Thanks for the hometown plug, but be advised that WISH is the CBS affiliate, not NBC.

Dan O’Rourke

WRTV (NBC) News

Indianapolis

What happened? Did reporter Linda Witt get blackballed by Kappa Kappa Gamma? What else could have caused her to lose her objectivity to the extent that she wrote such a sour-grapes article on Jane Pauley? It’s a shame she couldn’t overcome her petty jealousy long enough to write an unbiased story—or to give the new girl a break.

Katrina D. Hampel

Marina Del Rey, Calif.

Bullfight Doctor

It’s true, as Barbara Wilkins says in her article, that it has been many years since a full matador has been killed in Mexico—thanks in part to antibiotics and penicillin. Balderás, in 1940, was the last matador de toros, or senior matador, to die from a cornada. But that fact makes la fiesta brava seem undangerous when actually it is still one of the most lethal pursuits in the world. To become a senior matador a youth must go through hundreds of encounters during his apprenticeship—which is when most fatalities and crippling gorings occur. There have been dozens of matadores de novillos (aspirants) killed since Balderás. Some modest villagers, others stars like Felix Guzmán and José Lillo. Banderilleros and picadors also continue to die on the horns but with smaller obituaries.

Barnaby Conrad

Carpinteria, Calif.

Conrad is the famed author of several books on bullfighting.—ED.

Sylvia Miles

Sylvia Miles’s life-style is so insipid that even I am not envious.

Barbara Snyder, Inmate

Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women

Pewee Valley, Ky.

Do my eyes deceive me? In the picture of Sylvia Miles with Debbie Reynolds, is that a cigarette in Debbie’s hand? Debbie, the former Girl Scout who was so opposed to smoking. What happened?

B. A. Monroe

Irvine, Calif.

A few years ago Debbie began smoking moderately in the evening after work.—ED.

Robert Redford

Robert Redford is pictured throwing a football with his left hand and writing with his right hand. Is he ambidextrous or does he throw with one hand and write with the other like President Ford?

Paul L. De Barros

Rye, N.Y.

Redford throws with his left hand; President Ford with the right. Redford writes and eats with his right hand. Ford uses his left. Neither is truly ambidextrous.—ED.

Your story about A Bridge Too Far brought back fond memories of the “fun” war and made me feel a lot closer to Robert Redford.

We didn’t have a football, but we did row our rubber boats with our M-1 stocks, and we did get wet and muddy just because we were too young and ignorant to ask for stand-ins.

The only real difference was that some crazy guys kept shooting at us, even after we had offered them our autographs!

Come to think of it, I never did get my two million dollars, either.

Mark Anthony

Lubbock, Tex

C.Z. Guest

It is somewhat unsettling that you should include both an informative, scary article about the dangers of aerosol sprays—and then a large picture of C.Z. Guest pushing the button on her new aerosol can.

Mary J. Lee

St. Paul

Sherwood Rowland

The National Academy of Sciences has not indicated that a ban on aerosols is inevitable, as your interview with Dr. Sherwood Rowland states. It has indicated that a selective ban on some uses of fluorocarbons seems inevitable within two years. Dr. Rowland’s studies involve the effects of fluorocarbons on the upper atmosphere. These are man-made chemicals used in refrigeration, air conditioning and as propellants in about half of all aerosols manufactured each year in the U.S. The other half—about 1.5 billion aerosol cans—use other forms of propellants not suspected of depleting the ozone. Johnson Wax has removed all fluorocarbon propellants from its aerosol products.

Thomas B. Martin

Vice President, Public Affairs

S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

Racine, Wis.

Clare Evert

As Clare Evert’s guitar teacher, I resent your calling her a “passable guitarist” (PEOPLE, Oct. 11). I can fully assure you that this little girl is an extremely talented guitarist, singer and natural performer. In addition to playing for her own enjoyment, she also coordinates her fourth-grade folk group, which plays for the fourth, third, second and first grades at their weekly folk masses. How many just-turned-9-year-olds do you know who can do as well?

Mrs. Linda Lucree

Fort Lauderdale