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At the same time, in your usually very accurate magazine, your reviewer [Aug. 8] committed two errors: when he spelled my name Edward instead of Edmond—and when he committed a sin which is usually unpardonable to a sexagenarian. He added six years to my already very ripe 61. These I insist on reclaiming from you!
EDMOND SOUCHON, M.D.
New Orleans
Afterburner
Sir:
Your article on New York International Airport was very interesting. You said there are 640 take-offs and landings a day. Let's see, that's approximately one take-off or landing every two minutes. Yes, progress is wonderful. But every one of those planes goes over my house—24 hours a day. Progress—ha!
BETTE GENE JAKER
Laurelton, N.Y.
Sir:
Seven-dollar meals complete with ketchup bottle, a chapel where one prays for a safe journey from New York to Chicago (after having purchased sufficient insurance), gas stations designed by the renowned Edward D. Stone: such grossness, so typical of the times, is disgusting and just a little alarming!
MRS. JOHN H. SHELLY Birmingham
Speaking in Tongues
Sir:
Thanks so much for the article entitled "Speaking in Tongues." I was especially impressed with the phrasing of the article, since many writers seem to belittle those who believe and practice, this phenomenon. Father Bennett might also be surprised to learn that many of the estimated thousands of Pentecostalists in the U.S. are not ignorant and unlearned, as many seem to think.
(THE REV.) J. LAMAR GILMER The Church of God of Prophecy Fries, Va.
Sir:
Glossolalia is a lot more widespread than most Christians realize. I am a Roman Catholic and for years have found speaking in tongues to be an integral part of my private worship.
MICHAEL CALLAGHAN
Denver
Sir:
In the mid-1940s, while living in Pascagoula, Miss., a shipyard town, my wife and I used to go to outdoor meetings of an evangelical sect where "tongues" was a routine business. Nevertheless, to see it and hear it is always an eerie experience, even when aspects of the whole scene may touch on the ludicrous. There was one young preacher from Meridian who had the most perfect flow of melodious unknown phrasing, and an odd delivery which sent his lines coldly wailing through the moonlit pines. I made notes occasionally. One fragment—"Camma-moh-sanda! Handelosah!"—I gave years later to my character, Count Roller Skates, in a novel of the same name. Many of my writing friends in New York thought I was faking nonsense. I wasn't.
THOMAS SANCTON
New Orleans
Sir:
After reading the Aug. 15 article on glossolalia, I tried it myself. Here is what emerged: "Glog willich wolloch sog?", which freely translates as "My God, is this the 20th century?"
R. H. HOLMES
Brockville, Ont.
Poverty in Plenty
Sir:
You have done a great service by focusing attention on the plight of the migrant farm workers and their children.