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Sir: Baseball could be made much more of an action game by one simple change in the rules: three balls walks the batter instead of four. This would shift the advantage from the pitcher to the batter, probably lead to more hits, and certainly put more men on base. All this would mean more runs, more excitement.
CHARLES WALLACE PACKER Winnetka, Ill.
Dream House
Sir: Long live 35 Heathcote [July 26]! The "robust posterior" of Mr. Pleuthner's house is most appealing to me. Every time I go by it, I have to stop myself from driving into the yard, knocking on the door and asking to see the rest of the house. For me, it is a dream house. It reminds me of the wicked witch's house in Hansel and Gretel. How happy I am to learn that the house is not owned by a mean old lady but by a fine man who is imaginative and creative, has a strong mind and who, at 83, still has the spirit of usefulness and youthfulness. Shame to those who would destroy a work of art—Mr. Pleuthner's inspiration and my dream.
CONNIE HENDERSON Scarsdale, N.Y.
No Man Is an Islander
Sir: Claims to "islander" status by mere residents of the island of Nantucket [July 26] seem to be at variance with the views of the real natives who are fond of a story that in essence runs as follows: A man was brought to the island from "overseas" (the nearby Massachusetts coast) when he was three months old. When he died there ninety-three years later, the inscription on his tombstone read: "Goodbye, Stranger."
G. N. TSANDOULAS
Stoneham, Mass.
Sir: Woe is me, woe is me.
Here comes Walter Beinecke.
The wharves are his,
The sidewalks too,
Most all the buildings, old and new.
Poor Nantucketers, once quite content,
Now see their island being spent.
One must wonder why they wail,
All they need say is "Not for sale!"
GRETCHEN T. DUCE Bay Shore, N.Y.
The Light Fantastic
Sir: Whoever it was that caught the "dizzy spell" suffered by Laurence Olivier during the filming of the National Theater's production of Strindberg's Dance of Death [July 19] missed the point (by a mile). The script not only "called for him to launch into an energetic dance," also required that he collapse as a result of the forced effort.
Evidently Sir Laurence's acting was more convincing that we thought or even he could have hoped.
DAVID PALMER Public Relations Officer National Theater London
Graven Idol
Sir: I was overcome with a fit of nostalgia to read that John Wayne was back winning the wars as a Green Beret [July 19]. I was never happy with him in all those westerns. Those shared hours at Wake Island-Guadalcanal-Bataan had created a vision of sweat-stained jungle kit, tin hat at a rakish angle and clenched teeth never to be forgotten.
I must own to a secret wish as a teen-ager that we British had been left in slightly direr straits so that Mr. Wayne would have perforce crept up our beaches and liberated our hamlets; what ecstasy the idea gave me! I shall see the film with all speed.
(MRS.) M. SULLIVAN
London