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. . What Father Davis calls "verbal bacilli" seem to be signs that the old "language of Chaucer and Churchill" still has plenty of life in it. They may seem vulgar to some delicate minds, but to me they are interesting, hilarious, and even educating . . . sure signs that American culture is still far from stagnation. It doesn't make any difference whether the birth of a word is midwifed by a learned lexicographer or a slapdash advertising man . . .
ANDRE BAIDINS New Brunswick, N.J.
New Esophagus
Sir:
Re TIME'S Jan. 17 story on young Mike Stansberry's operation: the Molly Mayfield Foundation, which was established as a nonprofit trust fund by our columnist on the Rocky Mountain News, heard of a little boy in Sterling, Colo, whose esophagus had been seriously burned by lye. The foundation [arranged] for payment of all fees involved in the rare type of surgery necessary. The operation was performed successfully and TIME published an excellent piece, [but] there was no mention of the Mayfield Foundation or of the Rocky Mountain News. We had hoped . . . that our role would be noted . . .
JACK FOSTER Editor Rocky Mountain News Denver
Sir:
Please keep us posted on young Mike's progress.
C. R. ROUGHGARDEN JR. Bellerose, N.Y.
¶ Mike, still in hospital, is doing fine, taking all food through his new esophagus. Favorite drink: chocolate milk. -ED.
For Marilyn Karenina
Sir:
Re Director Billy Wilder's suggested sequels to Marilyn Monroe's proposed movie, The Brothers Karamazov [Jan. 24]: Would Wilder care to collaborate on a song for Marilyn called Just Write Me Karamazov, Baby, 'Cause That's Where I Will Be ?
ROBERT D. KEMPNER New York City
The Senators from Oregon (Contd.)
Sir:
With reference to your Morseberger story [Jan. 17]: You relate that President Roosevelt, on a trip to Puget Sound (during the senatorial campaign in 1944), gave me a verbal message to relate to Republican Candidate Wayne Morse. This story is completely false. I never met President Roosevelt. Moreover, I probably was persona non grata with him, for he knew me to be a disciple of the late Major General Charles H. Martin, former governor of Oregon, who was purged for his anti-New Deal crusade . . .
EDGAR W. SMITH Portland, Ore.
¶ TIME had the right story but the wrong Democratic candidate; it was Democrat Willis Mahoney.—ED.
Social Climbing Rose
Sir:
Re the proposal by Senator Margaret Chase Smith and Representative Frances Bolton to make the rose our national flower [TIME, Jan. 24]: Why should the rose be chosen as the national flower, when it is not even indigenous to the U.S.? . . . Perhaps Mesdames Smith and Bolton are not up on their botany and world horticulture. Let's not make ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of the world! . . . And why a national flower ?
A. E. SMITH New York City