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We noted with interest that Paul Volcker [March 8], an avid cigar smoker, has selected our Antonio y Cleopatra Grenadiers as his favorite. However, we challenge the pejorative description of that cigar as "cheap."
A&C Grenadiers may be relatively inexpensive compared with handmade imported cigars selling at $1.65 each and up, but there is nothing cheap about the ingredients or the finished product. Grenadiers are blended with fine domestic and imported tobaccos and wrapped with an imported natural-leaf wrapper—hardly the composition of a cheap cigar.
In an economic environment where many American-made products are at a disadvantage in the marketplace because their foreign-made competition undersells them, it was unfortunate that a fine American-made product be characterized as cheap because it remains affordable to a broad range of consumers.
Kenneth Noone, Marketing Manager
American Cigar
New York City
Goodbye, Belushi
John Belushi was as endearing and creative as any other of the best of this country's comedians and actors. The initial reaction to his death [March 15] was "Why Belushi?" At week's end it had turned to "Why, Belushi?"
Jon Rothe
Pomona, Calif.
Whether he turned somersaults or cocked an eyebrow surreptitiously, whether he played a demented samurai or a vulnerable columnist, John Belushi was brilliant. I am still grieving.
Joann Dionne
Nashua, N.H.
American Innovation
Your cover story "Striking It Rich" [Feb. 15] is a refreshingly positive report on American innovation and the freedom to capitalize on it. Daring men and women are still pursuing the American dream of owning their own business.
Because I believe computer technology will aid them in this enterprise, I will be introducing in Congress the family opportunity act, which is a tax incentive for setting up a home office with a home computer. The bill will also provide a tax credit of $100 for each family member. This tax credit will put into the hands of every small business owner the same computer power that helps General Motors and AT&T make a profit.
Newt Gingrich
Representative, Sixth District, Georgia
Washington, D.C.
Off-Topic Debating
As a college debater, I can well understand the appeal of off-topic debate competition [March 15]. Traditional debate has an air of hypercompetitive pseudo superiority that manifests itself in petty rivalries between judges, coaches and students. One needs to hear only one speaker spewing out obscure congressional hearings at 265 words a minute to see that it lacks entertainment value as well. As long as on-topic debate continues to be unattractive except to a handful of masochistic diehards, "debate hybrids" will continue to flourish.
Monica L. Smitt
Bakersfield, Calif