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Like the perpetrators of the Revised Standard Version of the King James Bible, this new group of Biblical scholars is doing irreparable harm to both religion and literature. The substitution of "that you and we together may share in a common life" for "that ye also may have fellowship with us" is obviously a plug for togetherness. Did the child ever breathe who would not have preferred Joseph's "coat of many colors," as in the King James Version, to the "long robe," which presumably flapped about his ankles, in the Revised Standard? If the purpose of the revisionists is to turn bread into stone, they should be congratulated on 100% success.
MARGARET LEE SOUTHARD Hingham, Mass.
Sir:
You speak of the complete obscurity of the King James Version to modern minds and then give a wonderful example of how it is going to be "improved." "Den of thieves" becomes "robbers' cave." Of course no modern understands the word thieves, and as for den—horrors, the word is virtually cryptic.
JAMES McD. CRAVEN Brooklyn
Master Flackmaker
Sir:
No performer could ask for better treatment than that which you gave me. It is regrettable therefore that I find it necessary to correct you on one point. Your article generously gives me credit for possessing two flacks. Being in the public eye, I am aware that I am fair game, and if I have two flacks the public should know about it. The fact is, however, that only one of the flacks your reporter noticed in my apartment is my own. The other was lent to me by Dr. Leon Page of Coolidge, Ariz. My own flack had unfortunately broken down and the good doctor was kind enough to allow me to use his until mine was repaired. Dr. Page's flack is a much better one than my own, having been made in Leipzig by Gustav Schmidt, an old master flackmaker. Leipzig, as you know, was for years the flack center of the world.
My own flack is a plastic-bottomed job with the four-inch base so common to American-made flacks. It has, of course, three speeds but no reverse, and if a mistake is made, there you are. I frankly was surprised to find that your man had noticed the flacks at all. In the past few months I have had very little need for flackery and had put the flacks in a closet along with my stults, which I haven't used for years. Incidentally, I do have four stults.
SHELLEY BERMAN New York City
* Thomas O'Connor, who won the primary but lost the election, and Edmund J. Buckley.