19th HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

AIR RACE: SECOND WIND
Sirs:
We read Lament for the Old Bendix (SI, Aug. 12) with great interest, for it contained some very obvious truths and some rather common misconceptions.

True, the military has run away with the air race as far as pure speed is concerned, and the necessarily scientific atmosphere surrounding this accomplishment is not the sort of thing to inspire young boys to hero worship, but there is more to air racing than unknown service pilots flying all-alike airplanes at cosmic-ray altitudes from Point A to Point B.

In COMING EVENTS you list: Saturday, August 10, Midget Airplane Races, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This is air racing in the old tradition: airplanes custom-built by the men who fly them, pilots who race for the sport and the love of flying, races entirely in view of the grandstand with airplanes flying 200 mph-plus, less than 75 feet off the ground.

Now the once hopeless invalid is showing signs of approaching complete recovery; the biggest races in years will be held Labor Day weekend at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and plans are now under way for the return of the Cleveland National Air Races.
DON BERLINER
JOHN C. DURAND
Columbus, Ohio

BEGINNING BUTTERFLIES
Sirs:
Here in Florida I see daily many interesting and beautiful butterflies (Beauty on the Wing, SI, Aug. 12). Could you recommend books on butterfly hunting?
POLLY ROBERTSON
Miami Beach

•Two books will be especially helpful to the would-be lepidopterist. They are: The Butterfly Book by William J. Holland (Garden City: Doubleday, $12.50) and A Field Guide to Butterflies of North America by Alexander Barrett Klots (New York: Houghton Mifflin, $3.75).—ED.

FITNESS (CONT.): GOOD WILL
Sirs:
I recently used U.S. Fitness: 1957 (SI, Aug. 5) extensively for lecture material in a class of elementary physical education for in-service teachers, and I found that many of our teachers in the elementary schools, while they were ignorant of many of the facts concerning physical fitness, were extremely interested in doing a better job of teaching physical education.

We are going to use Bonnie Prudden's article, How to Get More out of Life, in our regular physical education classes.
FRED M. BEILE
Acting Chairman
Dept. of Health and Physical Education
University of Kansas City
Kansas City, Mo.

FITNESS (CONT.): CHALLENGE AND RESPONSE
Sirs:
I consider A Measure of Fitness so informative and challenging that I would like to use it for study purposes with our city-wide Physical Education Committee composed of teachers in our public schools.
ALEXANDER GEORGIADY
Director of Instruction
Manitowoc Public Schools
Manitowoc, Wis.

FITNESS (CONT.): SEX APPEAL
Sirs:
I am planning a District Federated Club Women's rally here for some 70 women's clubs from 14 counties. I want to use your articles for this meeting.
MRS. PAUL G. KIEF
Minneapolis

FITNESS (CONT.): PLANS AND IDEAS
Sirs:
Congratulations on your article on U.S. physical fitness.

I met recently with Billy Talbert (Captain, U.S. Davis Cup team) and the Rev. Bob Richards to formulate plans and ideas for the Junior Chamber of Commerce's national tennis and track and field program. U.S. Physical Fitness Director Shane MacCarthy heartily endorses our idea, and all concerned believe as I do that "sports encourage mental and physical perfection, and a nation based on this theory will be a strong, unified nation."
PARRY O'BRIEN
Venice, Calif.

SHOOTING: SMALL DANGER
Sirs:
A hearty slap on the back and sincere thanks from the nation's small but enthusiastic corps of handgunners for your tremendously interesting and accurate article on the National Pistol Matches (Ready on the Firing Line, SI, Aug. 12).

Of interest to your readers might be the fact that one of the veteran shots who has cracked the 2,600 barrier is a woman, Mrs. Gertrude Backstrom, of Hoquiam, Wash., who piled up a 2,613 aggregate at the Northwest Pistol regional to become the newest member of the most exclusive club in the handgun world.

You might also have mentioned Bill McMillan, USMC, who has broken the national three-gun record three times in the past four months. His best effort to date—2,652/2,700.

Regarding the international matches, I doubt if there is any danger of civilians taking the ball from our servicemen champions. With the state legislatures and the United States Congress passing more and more restrictive legislation each day, the civilian shooter is slowly being squeezed out of the pistol shooting game by laws which only the law-abiding obey and which are ignored by those whom the laws are passed to restrict. For this reason, civilian shooters, who for the most part are not able to leave their jobs to compete in international matches, thank God for our servicemen who have done their best to uphold the honor of our country on the firing line.
ROY C. SMALL
Harrisburg, Ill.

AMATEURS: WHO IS? WHO ISN'T?
Sirs:
I'm sick to my stomach over the AAU and the men who are bull-headed enough to permit technicalities to destroy American athletes. Herb Flamm is allowed by the USLTA to appear on a quiz show—Lee Calhoun can't get married on TV without relinquishing his amateur status. The old men who decide who is and who isn't an amateur are the most confused people in the sports world today.
HOWIE SCHWARTZ
Brooklyn

GOLF: SHORT, SHORTER, SHORTEST?
Sirs:
I had the pleasure last summer of playing on a hole shorter yet than Mr. Lowell Thomas' No. 3 (Flags in the Front Yard, SI, Aug. 12): the 4th at Peninsula State Park in Door County, Wisconsin. This hole is 71 yards long, a figure which is misleading, since the tee, situated on the edge of a cliff, is 70 feet higher than the green.
RODNEY BURTON
Geneva, Ill.

Sirs:
Although I have always considered Bermuda "out of this world," I feel it does hold claim to the shortest hole in the world: the 72-yard 3rd hole at Castle Harbor.
SHIRLEY J. CHILSON
Andover, Mass.

Sirs:
Our No. 4 hole at the University of Wisconsin's golf course is shorter than Mr. Lowell Thomas'. The 4th hole there is 52 yards.
KENNETH M. GORSHKOW
Seattle

THE POET'S LOT IS NOT AN EASY ONE
Sirs:
Heartiest congratulations on your discernment in selecting In Summer's Amber by Gilbert Rogin (E & D, Aug. 12), an altogether charming and admirable bit of verse. I hope there may be many more equally excellent, now that the drought is broken.
HAROLD WILLARD GLEASON
Ellsworth, Maine

Sirs:
I like those funny little verses you have been printing much better than the sort of things appearing in the August 12 issue under the title In Summer's Amber.
C. A. BISS
Joliet, Ill.

PHOTO

MRS. GERTRUDE BACKSTROM