19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

IN THE SWIM
Sir:
Congratulations on the Feb. 5 swimsuit issue, your best yet. Leave it to Walter Iooss Jr. to come up with fabulous photographs (She Sells Sea Shells by the Seychelles and The Islands of Paradise). Christie Brinkley, Barbara Carrera and Apollonia (Apples) Van Ravenstein have got to be three of the most gorgeous women on this planet.
JIM HENSON
Huntersville, Minn.

Sir:
In addition to the girls being beautiful and wholesome and the swimsuits fetching and imaginative, the photography of Walter Iooss Jr. was sensational. In all respects, very well done indeed!
TED BILBO III
Oakland, Calif.

Sir:
I tip my hat to SI and to the beautiful girls for the most fabulous bathing-suit issue I've ever seen.
JOE MESSINA
San Gabriel, Calif.

Sir:
It seems you get better and better every year!
STUART BLACKWELL
Atlanta

Sir:
Your cover is exquisite.
J. J. DOYLE
Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Sir:
As a young man enduring the rigors of law school, I find your 1979 swimsuit issue deplorable! I mean, how is a guy supposed to study? Christie Brinkley is devastating.
ROBERT J. LaFOREST
Livonia, Mich.

Sir:
Your annual swimsuit issue has become an American tradition. As if baseball, hot dogs and Mom were not enough, you've now added "Apples" pie!
JOHN G. KUHN
Saugerties, N.Y.

Sir:
A very hip issue, with Apples capable of tempting Adam.
KEITH A. HAYMAN
Cazenovia, N.Y.

Sir:
It hit me like a ton of bricks! I was utterly shocked, amazed, disillusioned, upset, furious, disappointed, depressed and almost suicidal to discover that Cheryl Tiegs was not included in the swimsuit photographs. Not one single shot! You have destroyed one of my fondest concepts of this great country of ours: baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Cheryl Tiegs in the SI swimsuit edition. Do you have any extra pictures of Cheryl from last year?
CHRIS PRIEBE
Dearborn Heights, Mich.

Sir:
No Cheryl Tiegs? Say it isn't so!
STEVE CERUOLO
Winchester, Mass.

Sir:
Let's face it, an SI swimsuit issue without Cheryl is like baseball without the Yankees.
NEIL GAFFNEY
Fords, N.J.

Sir:
I think Christie has just surpassed Cheryl as the world's most beautiful model.
NORM STEVENS
North Vancouver, British Columbia

Sir:
Have I died and gone to heaven? No, I've just seen SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S annual swimsuit issue.
DAVID QUATTLEBAUM
Greenville, S. C.

Sir:
You've got to be kidding! Last year's swimsuit issue was upsetting, but this year's has got to be the worst. Most underwear covers more than the swimsuits you insist on photographing. Why must you, year after year, turn a great sports magazine into a cheap thrill?
DANA SANTELLANO
Mishawaka, Ind.

Sir:
Today I am an irate mother (and my husband backs me up) because of your Feb. 5 issue coming into our home. We do not need or want magazine pictures of half-naked women in bathing suits or whatnot lying around our house. And we don't care if it is in just this one issue. One is too many.

Certainly some of you are fathers and mothers who realize that it is hard enough in this day and age to raise children to be chaste and pure. But I doubt if you people would understand what I am talking about. No more of that stuff!
Mrs. E. A. PFANNENSTIEL
Hays, Kans.

Sir:
My wife and I were somewhat taken aback by your cover and its subtitle. "Getting Away From It All." You sure did! What sport were you trying to depict? How would I explain the inside photographs to my son? (Fortunately, I intercepted the magazine before he was able to see it.) Please don't get away from it all. Get back to the business of sports.
JOHN SHELDON
Utica, N. Y.

Sir:
I purchased a subscription to your magazine for an 11-year-old boy. You can't imagine what I felt when I saw that cover. I want a complete refund immediately and will never subscribe to your magazine again. And believe me, I'll spread the word and my feelings to a great many people.
NOLA C. GIARRANTE
Joliet, Ill.

Sir:
I am 11 years old. I usually enjoy SI but not the Feb. 5 issue. I don't want to see girls in bathing suits. I want to see sports like football, baseball, etc.
JOSEPH A. LOSCALZO
Woodbury, N.Y.

Sir:
This is one SPORTS ILLUSTRATED my sons won't see.
MELVIN PAIGE
Presho, S. Dak.

Sir:
This issue will take its rightful place in the trash.
NANCY GLOVER
Duncanville, Texas

Sir:
I don't think that your journal is fit to be displayed on my waiting-room table.
GHITTA EIBSCHUTZ, M.D.
Cranford, N.J.

Sir:
The Feb. 5 issue of SPORTS(?) ILLUSTRATED cannot by any stretch of the imagination (or bathing suit) be considered recommended reading for my students. I know your intentions are good, but is this necessary?
BARBARA SMITH
Media Specialist
Mary Hunter School
Bassett, Va.

Sir:
As the librarian of a Christian college, I wish to protest the usage of such pictures on the cover and centerfold of SI. The issue that came out last year was uncalled-for, and this one strikes me as being more vulgar than that.
Mrs. JOY McELROY
Librarian
Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College
San Dimas, Calif.

Sir:
As one man living in the midst of winter in the Midwest, I found your swimsuit edition a most welcome warming experience. However, as a pastor in a very small town, I have one request: Could you please send next year's issue wrapped in plain brown paper?
THE REV. ROGER DAHLEN
Pastor
First Baptist Church
Plainville, Ill.

Sir:
As a high school librarian, I know students often use SI as a resource for reports, speeches, papers, etc. So, from now on, could you try not to print any important articles in your bathing-suit issue because it always gets stolen? Thanks.
HOLLY BEAVER
Librarian
Lawrence North High School
Indianapolis

Sir:
My son has gone away to school.
He writes and says, "I miss you.
I don't need food or cash—but, please,
Where is the swimsuit issue!"
CARRI BENSON
Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Sir:
I can find absolutely no justification for the swimsuit issue. I see no relationship to sports at all. You excuse yourself by saying it is an article concerning a vacation spot. Do only women vacation there? I saw no men pictured on the beaches "almost wearing" bathing suits. You have said that the feature is a preview of this summer's swimwear. Why then do you show only suits that few women could wear and fewer would want to? It would be impossible to move in the majority of the suits you have featured, much less attempt to swim in them. Each year I find this feature to be offensive and degrading to women, especially to those women who make substantial contributions to athletics in this country.
GAIL F. LaROSA
South Hadley, Mass.

Sir:
Your swimsuit issue is indicative of your coverage of women in sports—scant. Why not devote more time to women athletes?
VIRGINIA DELANEY
Oakmont, Pa.

Sir:
Equal time please! We sexist females want an issue with beautifully built men in skimpy non-swimsuits. After all, what's good for the gander is good for the goose.
JESSICA RAYMOND
Cheyney, Pa.

Sir:
How come we didn't see George Plimpton in a bathing suit? He's tried most other forms of sport.

On second thought, never mind.
JOHN PFAFF
West Hartford, Conn.

Sir:
My second-favorite issue each year is the one in which all the red-necked, white-hot blue-noses, full of apple pie and dudgeon, write in to cancel their subscriptions. Have you ever checked to see how many of those subscriptions are reinstated in time for the next year's issue?
ROBERT C. MILLLR
Wheeling, W. Va.

Sir:
Where will all the cries of outrage come from this year? Instead of writing to SI, perhaps those outraged parents would better spend their time looking for the more revealing magazines that their sons hide under their mattresses. My mom always did.
ED STEFANKO
Shreveport, La.

Sir:
I think you have found a cure for cabin fever.
RICHARD ZIMMER
Milwaukee

Sir:
I think I speak for everybody here in the Midwest when I say thanks for making the snow and the cold a little more bearable. It's a comfort knowing that whenever a winter storm hits or the temperatures are low, the Seychelles are only a few pages away.
JOHN BOCHNIAK
Hales Corners, Wis.

Sir:
As I read George Plimpton's article I fell in love with the Seychelles. And the accompanying photographs of the islands were excellent.
CRAIG ANDREW
Green Bay, Wis.

Sir:
The article by George Plimpton was absurdly out of place. It belonged in some other magazine—which one I can't tell you, because it's the kind I don't read.
ALAN SIMMS
Creston, W. Va.

Sir:
I was disappointed in this year's swimsuit issue. After last year's I was expecting some rather interesting photographs. This year, the only consolation is that I like legs.

It's hard to please everyone, ain't it?
MARK SHUFORD
Hickory, N.C.

Sir:

O, cursed SI, have you confounded us? Here I was about to ask you for Christie's address and phone number when my mesmerized eyes detected an apparent wedding band on her finger in the cover picture. Halt your cruelty instantly! Is Ms. Brinkley spoken for?
ROB MacKNIGHT
San Luis Obispo, Calif.

•Afraid so.—ED.

Address editorial mail to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, New York, 10020.