Letters, May 9, 1977

Genetic Genie:

Monday, May 09, 1977

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    Are you aware that in the days before the battle at Marathon, Pheidippides was detailed to run to Sparta (approximately 150 miles) to ask for aid? He then ran back to Athens and shortly thereafter took active part in a battle that lasted several hours. Finally he was ordered to run from the site of the battle to Athens to announce the Athenian victory. If one of the modern Boston Marathon runners can match this record, my hat's off to him.

    Billie M. Pollock Los Angeles

    Gasp! If I look pained in the picture of me and Tetsuji Iwase sprinting to the finish of the Boston Marathon, let me tell you how pained I felt when I read Peter Stoler's claim that one must be a superb athlete to play left field for the Boston Red Sox, but anyone with enough determination can run a marathon. If it is simply skill that makes a superb athlete, I have no quarrel. But if physical conditioning has anything to do with it, sports physicians will confirm that the average marathoner is a more "superb" athlete than the fanciest of leftfielders.

    Edward Ayres, Editor Running Times Washington, D.C.

    Catch .22

    TIME should bone up on its ballistics. The "tiny" .22-cal. one-ounce slug referred to in your story, "New Mafia Killer: A Silenced .22" [April 18], actually weighs in at approximately 40 grains or one-twelfth of an ounce. One-ounce slugs are usually reserved for the largest of African game and are not made for the bore of a .22 caliber.

    Jack Dietz Sherman Oaks, Calif.

    Fuzzbusters

    By outlawing devices like the Fuzzbuster [April 18] while encouraging the use of police radar, state governments are condoning entrapment.

    I am a long-haired college student who commutes to school in a flaming red Alfa Romeo, and to the highway patrol it seems I am begging for a speeding ticket. Without my Fuzzbuster, I would be at their mercy. When police radar is no longer accepted as automatic proof of guilt in traffic court, I will gladly put my radar detector away.

    Scott Shirley Fort Worth

    The cops should take advantage of the Fuzzbusters and install low-cost radar transmitters on the power poles alongside the highways every few miles. The speeders would think they were in a continuous trap and drive 55 m.p.h.

    John D. Boatright

    Oxnard, Calif.

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