19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

MISS SI
Sirs:
We would like to express our appreciation for your article Swimsuits That Are Made to Get Wet (Jan. 20), and especially your "cover girl." Any information concerning her will be relished by every Duke freshman.
GEORGE BENSON
MIKE DROITCOUR
GREGG SPRINGER
Durham, N.C.

Sirs:
Her combination of natural assets and vitality of expression is delightful.
STEPHEN M. ANDRES
CHARLES J. BEERS JR.
DONALD L. RIFENBERG
Annapolis, Md.

Sirs:
Right now she is the talk of Noonan Hall, Marquette University!

Please keep us happy. Tell us more.
BOB MILARDO
MIKE BEVERLEY
Milwaukee

Sirs:
Tell Miss SI I love her. I want to marry her.
PHIL GRAY
West Point, N.Y.

•Sorry, fellows, Miss SI is bespoken.—ED.

Sirs:
Good night! Let's watch those covers. They raise too many eyebrows when my parishioners see something like that coming into my study via the mails.
The REV. WAYNE SCOTT
Morrill, Neb.

SIGN LANGUAGE
Sirs:
Coles Phinizy and Fred R. Smith have unquestionably recorded the ultimate in asinine comments with their unwarranted, vituperative attack on the underwater signs at Buck Island Reef National Monument (The Amphibious Resorts, Jan. 20).

I presume they will next advocate destroying all labels and signs in museums and art galleries since to identify anything or to explain anything is "absurd" and "marring."
RICHARD T. GALE
Coulee Dam, Wash.

Sirs:
I was shocked to find no mention of Richard Newick of St. Croix in your Caribbean section. Dick offers trimaran and catamaran sailing and guided tours of the underwater Buck Island Reef National Monument.

Newick's 32-foot trimaran, Trine, offers the fastest sailing anywhere in the Caribbean. His 40-foot catamaran, Aye-Aye, can accommodate 20 guests to Buck Island, and is a perfect boat for organized divers or for club use. Newick also has a 36-foot native sloop, North Star, which offers a more sedate and not quite so rapid, but nonetheless enjoyable, sail.

All are available for Buck Island at $10 per person or for weekly charter on inter-island cruises. Mr. Newick may be contacted at Box 159, Christiansted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
JAY BOREK
Gillette, N.J.

Sirs:
Your "Sneakers and Snorkels" map of the Carribean is in error. You have the island of Cuba completely off limits. It isn't so.

Some very fine scuba diving can be had off Cuba for only a small price: a four-year hitch in the U.S. Navy or the U.S. Marine Corps.
GLEN F. HORTON JR.
University City, Mo.

Sirs:
Coles Phinizy is right on target describing the quiet joys of Marina Cay, which my wife and I visited last year. But Fred Smith, in his Fish Watcher's Guide to the Caribbean, is unduly pessimistic about the difficulty of getting there. Instead of that three-hour, boat-taxi-boat routine, it is much simpler to charter a plane at the St. Thomas airport. The flight to Beef Island by Piper Apache takes 15 minutes, costs $16.50 per person and provides a breathtaking view of the Virgins. The Bathams will send a boat, at no cost, to take you from Beef to the Cay, a journey of about 15 minutes.
JOHN T. ELSON
New York City

FIGHTING IRISH
Sirs:
In Days of Wine and Bloody Noses (Jan. 20) Doc Kearns tells of starting Mickey Walker on the comeback trail in a match with one Shuffles Callahan at Chicago.

I was a reporter on the old Chicago Journal at the time and remember Callahan as a free-wheeling fighter who had an impressive string of knockouts in bouts with third- and fourth-rate opponents. He had a large and enthusiastic following among the Irish of South Chicago.

When Walker flattened him in the eighth round, the Irish wailed like banshees, but their injured pride was salved when they learned that "Callahan" was not Shuffles's real name, but that he had been born of parents who originated in one of the Baltic provinces, possibly Lithuania.

I also recall that there was some controversy about the decision that gave Walker the middleweight title in that fight with Tiger Flowers. Many at ringside thought the Tiger was the winner.

But it's a long time ago.
HAL EVANS
Larned, Kans.

HOME-TOWN DIPLOMACY
Sirs:
It is not within my competence to debate the logic of your continued references to the ineptness of the AAU), but I do feel qualified to disagree with your statement in SCORECARD (Jan. 13) that the "best the AAU could do for the Italian nationals [basketball] team was to provide opponents like...Glassboro (N.J.) State."

I don't believe the Italians came here just to sharpen their basketball skills against the best in our land. They were invited to tour America because a lot of people (including Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson) believe that through international competition in sports our relationships with other nations can be improved.

Being hosted on a small-college campus by a pretty good small-college basketball team (25 wins out of 28 games over the past two seasons) can have just as salutary an effect on the visitors' opinion of the U.S. as playing against a major intercollegiate basketball power. Perhaps more so!

GSC's athletic director, Mickey Briglia, arranged a tour of historic Philadelphia (including a tour of Independence Hall) for the visitors and a luncheon on our campus where warm words of welcome by college officials were immediately translated into Italian. The full day and evening at Glassboro ended in a well-played basketball game, which the Italians won (as expected).

That their visit aroused interest in this area can be attested to by the attendance of many of the Italian-Americans who live in south Jersey, as well as officials associated with the Italian consulate in Philadelphia.

I think you should tell your readers that in scheduling a game for them with friendly, typically American Glassboro State College, the AAU did pretty well by the Italian nationals.
JAMES M. LYNCH JR.
Dean of Students
Glassboro, N.J.

FLOATING FRANCHISE
Sirs:
I'm getting sick and tired of the way people are running baseball in these United States. If Charles Finley wants to throw money around so much why doesn't he just build a stadium between Seattle and Ta-coma? These two cities are only 30 miles apart and would outdraw Kansas City and Louisville put together. They even wanted to build a floating stadium in Elliott Bay (Seattle) that would seat 60,000 people. As far as attendance goes there are no problems. The combined Seattle-Tacoma population is more than 700,000. Bunched in between the two cities are several towns, such as Auburn (13,600), Kent (9,300) and Renton (19,300). Then about five miles from Tacoma is Puyallup, which has 12,400 people, and north of Seattle lies Everett with 44,500. So within a stretch of about 50 miles lies a string of cities with some 800,000. In a couple of decades this 50-mile stretch will be just like one mass city.
JIM GLEN
Tacoma. Wash.

TAKING AIM
Sirs:
Seldom have I read such poppycock as the letter from Congressman John D. Dingell (19TH HOLE, Jan. 6) regarding the "sacred right" to bear arms, a right no more sacred than the right to throw snowballs and a heckuva lot more dangerous.

The Congressman says, "Guns do not kill any more than do automobiles, airplanes, hammers, saws, ladies' spike heels," etc., etc. This could be so—although the incidence of fatalities from ladies' spike heels is, I suspect, not alarming—but guns are specifically designed to kill.

If, as Dingell says, there is now no legislation before the Congress which "would have prevented" or at least greatly diminished the likelihood of the horrible tragedy of November 22, may I suggest filling this void along the following lines:

1) It should be unlawful to own, possess or use a firearm unless licensed by law-enforcement authorities.

2) It should be unlawful to sell, transfer or give a firearm to any person not licensed.

3) All firearms should bear serial numbers.

4) All individually owned firearms should be registered with proper authorities.

5) All sales or transfers of firearms should be registered.

6) Licenses should be issued only to adults of good character and only for specific, legitimate purposes. Licenses to be revoked for any illegal, dangerous or careless use.

7) Licenses should not be issued to anyone ever convicted of a felony.

8) Violation of any part of the firearms law should be considered a felony with appropriate prison penalty.

Enacted into law, these controls would in no way restrict legitimate protective or sports use of firearms, but they would substantially decrease illegal use of firearms, prevent thousands of robberies and save thousands of lives—possibly including the life of some future President.
WARREN S. MITCHELL
Long Beach, Calif.

GREENER SLOPES
Sirs:
Current sun and snow conditions at Snoqualmie Pass hardly rate your Huston Horn's insistent description of it as the rainiest ski area known (No Wet Blankets at Snoqualmie, Jan. 6). Besides, who's asking for any Easterners to come try our slopes? We don't need any more. Here, the fellow with the price of the tow can put in a day on the mountains, not just the fat-walleted character who can afford the long weekend at the high-priced resorts in your part of the country. So we have just barely enough room for those around here. The reason everybody goes home at the end of a day's skiing is because they want to golf in Seattle the next day or go out in the bay to fish for salmon. Who needs overnight facilities when your own bed is just an hour's ride home? Take off those green eyeshades and quit being so envious!

Incidentally, we don't even own a snow-making machine!
DORIS MACLEOD
Seattle

Sirs:
I would like to point out a few details that were overlooked in your story of skiing at Snoqualmie.

To begin with, the first ski school of any size was managed by Ken Syverson, backed by The Seattle Times and operated at the Milwaukee Road Ski Bowl at Hyak, Wash. This was a snow-train promotion that started a few years before World War II and reached its maximum with four weekly trainloads of high school students from Seattle, plus an additional weekly trainload from Tacoma. Each trainload carried about 800 or 900 students, and Ken Syverson had an expert staff of 30 instructors who taught all classes without charge to the youngsters. Ben Paris had the food and ski-rental-repair concession in Milwaukee Road's huge lodge. The first chair lift in the Snoqualmie area (a snow-sled type carrying four passengers) was built at the Ski Bowl by Keith Talley, and was put to good use when jumpers from all over the world competed there during the Olympic ski-jumping trials in 1947.

This interesting chapter in the lives of thousands of ski-schoolers came to an end when the Milwaukee Road's lodge burned to the ground in December 1950.
WILLIAM J. KOHL
Minneapolis