As a new subscriber, I recently pulled my first issue of NEWSWEEK out of the mailbox and did a double take (“Prince Charming,” SOCIETY, June 26). Make that a triple take. Prince William is truly an amazing young man with an incredible future before him. We can hope and pray that he not only fulfills his destiny, but also makes his own private and personal dreams come true. One look at Diana’s son, and we are all reminded that life truly does go on. Lisa Lacy West Point, Miss.
The press invasion has begun. God save Prince William! K. C. Murphy Cullman, Ala.
It’s a mystery to me why the media consistently try to reconstruct William (and brother Harry) as ordinary Yuppies-in-the-making. Despite Diana’s legacy and Earl Spencer’s caution, William is a bona fide product of the British monarchy–and his father’s son. However he rules, he’s the heir to a throne. Linda Christman Santa Clarita, Calif.
“Prince Charming: the man who was born to be the king of England.” C’mon, guys and gals, we’re almost in the third millennium and you (the media) are still pandering to the most backward (and snobbish) instincts of your readership. With a significant portion of the world’s population living in deplorable conditions your vicarious ravings about royalty are obscene. So the British like to show off the remnants of their decadent culture? That’s fine; it sells newspapers and brings in tourists. But the rest of the world doesn’t give it a second thought, to put it politely. Raul Santiago Aguascalientes, Mexico
Start Your Engines I’m glad that Tito Morales is so secure in his moral superiority that he feels he can tell the rest of us what to drive (“SUVs: Fuel-Wasting Garbage Trucks?” MY TURN, June 26). My SUV is no garbage truck–it carries groceries, home-improvement equipment, luggage, members of the organ-transplant team I work with, bicycles and gardening supplies, just to name a few examples. Oh, and my wife and young children, whom I prefer to protect behind two tons of steel against the idiots (many in tiny sports cars) on our nation’s roads. Garbage? Hardly. P. J. Geraghty Richmond, Va.
I’m a professional with a master’s degree, and I still drive the same car I bought in college–a Ford Festiva. Yes, the soup can with wheels. At this stage in my career, I could afford to buy a new behemoth, but my glorious gasoline go-cart gets 40-plus miles to the gallon. I am so grateful that I didn’t fall into the “newer, bigger, better” trap. When you shop with your brain instead of your ego, you get a car, not an SUV. Gail Padwick Dallas, Texas
What Tito Morales fails to consider is that not everyone lives in Pacific Palisades, Calif. There are many people who live in more remote areas of the country, such as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (a.k.a. Yoopers) or perhaps Minnesota. Mr. Morales, in such areas they have a season they call winter. I believe that if you had to bust through three- to four-foot-deep snowdrifts in your driveway to get to work in the morning, you might have a different opinion of the need for the dreaded SUV. Bob Hamlin Escanaba, Mich.
I lament the passing of Jack Kroll (“A King of Infinite Space,” TRANSITION, June 19). Every intelligent reader knows that Kroll’s intellect, his judgment and his writing were of a high order. But I remember most his generous spirit. When I was new here at NBC, and others regarded me from a skeptical distance, Jack Kroll extended his hand in greeting, and spoke to me never from on high, but most courteously. I will remember his kindness. Gene Shalit, Film Critic “Today,” NBC News New York, N.Y.
In our June 19 Conventional Wisdom (“Special Double-Billing Edition,” PERISCOPE), we called Toledo, Ohio’s minor-league baseball team the Mudheads; the name of the team is actually the Mud Hens.
