The Question: What sport provokes the most arguments in your home?
The Answers:
WARREN AUSTIN JR.
BURLINGTON, VT.
ATTORNEY
"Golf. My wife was afraid of becoming a golf widow. I didn't want her to tag along, but she would trail me to the country club against my orders. There she'd take golf lessons. Now she teaches me. It's downright humiliating. But the arguments are not so frequent. She's won."
HELEN BROWN
PHILADELPHIA
BARMAID
"Swimming. On the beach he'd eye every dame in a swim suit. Even auntie in a Bikini. And what arguments! Then I learned why. He couldn't help it. When he married me he had four other wives. And when I was getting an annulment he married another girl."
MRS. R. B. JENKINS
ESSEX FELLS, N. J.
HOME
"The double-header. It glues me to the television set for five wonderful hours. My husband, Dick, isn't a fan. He will plead with me: 'Our friends are hungry; go out and grill those steaks.' But I don't hear him. When the steaks finally are done, he says: 'Baseball; nuts!' "
HARRY HERSHFIELD
NEW YORK CITY
HUMORIST
"Any sport on television starts an argument. A prize fight will really make her mad. In one brutal fight, when Carter knocked his opponent down in every round, my wife said, 'Why don't they stop it? If they don't, I will.' And off went the set. In her mind she stopped that fight."
GEN. R. J. BROWNE,
USAF, COMMANDER
FIRST AIR FORCE
"Golf. My wife doesn't play. I love to. A typical work week recently took me to Philadelphia, to Washington, to Detroit and to Wilmington, Ohio. So, for the weekend, I was eager for golf. My wife objected. She is British and prefers cricket because afternoon tea is part of the game."
BART DIGGIN
WASHINGTON, D.C.
PATENT ATTORNEY
"Fishing. When I return after a weekend with my meager catch, my wife looks suspicious. She'll tell our friends, 'All Bart ever thinks of is fishing in the spring and summer. Yes, even in the winter. He has no time for anything else.' Then the argument starts."
MRS.STEPHEN STRONG
NEW YORK CITY
WRITER
"Football. My husband is a Harvard man. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Yale rooter. All my former beaux were Yale men. At the Harvard-Yale game last year I sat with him on the Harvard side, waving a Yale banner. What a razzing his classmates gave him. That's still an argument."
F. DARIUS BENHAM
GLEN COVE, N.Y.
PUBLICIST
"Wrestling. The women are crazy about it. What they see in it beats me. It was a great and honored sport with Hacken schmidt, Gotch, Jim Londos, Zbyszko and Strangler Lewis. They've been replaced by clowns and fakers."
MRS. C. SEWARD
OAKLAND, CALIF.
HOME
"Horse racing. My husband took me to my first horse race. He won that day. But he began to lose heavy bets. Then he pleaded, 'Let me have your money. I can get out of this. I know the jockey.' Like a fool I did. Now we're separated."
JOE GLYNN
NEW YORK CITY
PUBLICIST
"Golf is our big hassle. My wife is a former tennis champion. She'll ask 'What are you doing today?' My reply is, 'Golf.' She'll insist, 'Play tennis with me instead.' My wife is 30. A tough set is duck soup for her. I'm 48. And not crazy."
TEN PHOTOS
TWO ILLUSTRATIONS
SPORTS COURT
If a motorman sees a pointer pointing at birds in the middle of the tracks, is it his fault if he does not stop the train before hitting the dog?
No, said the Missouri Court of Appeals, because the motorman had a right to expect the dog to be smart enough to get off the tracks before he was hit.