19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
SUNSTRUCK
Sir:
Let's hear it for the Caribbean (Taking It Easy Where It's Breezy, Feb. 4)! Your "Islands in the Sun" issue will reduce our fuel bill and help keep tuition down next year. Oh, how you've warmed a bitter Worcester winter—even the Jesuits are reading it! How about an SI poster of that fantastic cover? Christie Brinkley is definitely a 12.
THE BOYS OF CARLIN HALL III
College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, Mass.
Sir:
To this native Californian getting educated here in the frozen North, your annual swimsuit issue was better than a letter from home!
ALAN R. EAGLE
Hanover, N.H.
Sir:
I had just finished shoveling the results of the Chicago area's largest snowfall of the season when what should I find in my mailbox? Your annual swimsuit issue! SPORT ILLUSTRATED, your timing is impeccable!
DON VOIGT
Evanston, Ill.
Sir:
Who needs OPEC?
JOE POWERS
Belmont, Mass.
Sir:
There is only one word I can think of to describe the girls in this year's swimsuit issue: absolutely unbelievably incredibly beautiful.
MARK LEVINE
White Plains, N.Y.
Sir:
The cover photograph of Christie Brinkley sure beats other cover photos.
STAN WELLS
Johnson City, Tenn.
Sir:
Your pictures of Bernadette Swann prove that Lynn Swann does not confine his spectacular catches to the football field. She may be his best ever. Congratulations on another stunning swimsuit issue!
DICK DAVIS
West Middlesex, Pa.
Sir:
Once again SI has provided a surefire cure for post-pigskin depression. I have only two questions: Who is Irina Gerasimenko, and where has she been all my life? She is the most beautiful woman ever to have graced your pages. What a way to start the '80s!
JOSEPH BRODNICKI
Jacksonville
Sir:
In an effort to counteract some of the anticipated caustic criticisms from offended church members of various denominations, may I commend you for that bountiful bevy of beauties? I can't imagine Adam's Eve in the Garden of Eden having been any more pleasing to the eye in her scanty fig-leaf bathing suit!
THE REV. LESLIE CONRAD JR.
Pastor
St. Luke's Lutheran Church
Richardson, Texas
Sir:
Again this year I firmly object to your swimsuit edition. I was so disgusted with the cover that I tore the issue into shreds without reading it and tossed it into the fire where it really belongs with the devil and his imps.
If Khomeini is considered barbaric in his treatment of the American hostages, and if the Soviets are marked as infamous in their subversion of Afghanistan, you are no less Satanic in the exposure of sex and nudity as an enticement to buy or read SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. Shame on you! I wish that all of your subscribers, especially the charter members, would flood your office with complaints and protests of your lack of decency and respect in publishing such a distasteful and shocking edition. Why, oh, why stoop so low?
THE REV. PHILODORE H. LEMAY, M.S.
Missionaries of La Salette
Attleboro, Mass.
Sir:
I understand from a longtime subscriber that your swimsuit issue is an annual affair, and perhaps a letter such as mine is an annual common response. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to vent my ire at such ridiculousness. It is hardly relevant for a sports magazine to display scantily clad women, and it is entirely unjustifiable to equate this "fashionable" and unathletic swimwear with the sport of swimming. The masquerade, if indeed one can masquerade at all in so little attire, is unconvincing.
VINCENT REGAN
Notre Dame, Ind.
Sir:
If "brevity is the soul of wit," would it be fair to say that page 44 of your epidermis issue featured the funniest bathing suit of the season?
ALAN B. MAVER
Southbury, Conn.
Sir:
The cover of the Feb. 4 issue is extremely out of place, and the display of cloth and flesh is far from reporting sporting events that are healthy for our young American boys. You don't, need articles like this to increase circulation! Stick to articles about genuine sports.
MRS. JOHN MALEY
Clarence, N.Y.
Sir:
Enclosed are your X-rated pictures. I thought my daughter ordered a sports magazine. What do pictures like these have to do with sports?
PEGGY SLAY
West Lafayette, Ohio
Sir:
The issue with Ms. Brinkley and the British Virgins was not sports and had to be censored and edited before my 12-year-old son could read it. Another issue like this one, and you'll have one less reader.
E. BROWN
Glen Ridge, N.J.
Sir:
Please discontinue my subscription as of now. I do not want a magazine coming to my address with a cover picture like the one you had on the Feb. 4 issue. Such covers belong on "other" magazines. Please return whatever money you owe me for the balance of my subscription.
MRS. C. W. KIHNEMAN
Hot Springs, Ark.
Sir:
If the hierarchy of your magazine has elected to take the "porno" route, it is fine with me. However, I do not wish to take the trip with you.
R. JEAN FINLEY
Baltimore
Sir:
You can be assured of my no-vote for any more subscriptions in our family.
TED J. PRUS
Chicago
Sir:
What's going on? Your annual bathing-suit issue has gotten noticeably raunchier each year. I was embarrassed to pull that issue out of the staff mailbox. I even had to cut off the cover as well as the offending article before I could pass SI on to my kids. Give me a break! Stick to your excellent coverage of the sports scene and leave the sex scene to someone else. Clean up your act, SI. Now!
JEFFREY RANDOLPH HULL
Hope Town
Carmel, N.Y.
Sir:
The students in the library look forward to each issue of SI, and I am usually happy to assist them with their interests. Imagine my disappointment when the Feb. 4 issue arrived and I could not put it in circulation. If this is what we can expect in future issues, please let me know, and I will spend school money on something more appropriate.
CAROLYN HESTER
Ider High School
Ider, Ala.
Sir:
The display of nudity in this issue certainly is not the type of reading material I can put in my office waiting room.
JAMES D. HALL, D.D.S.
Pittsburgh
Sir:
I wanted to take my old SIs to the church for my basketball team to read, but you have settled that. Into the garbage they go.
ROBERT M. THOMAS
Jamaica, N.Y.
Sir:
The article had little appeal for your female reading populace, I am sure that many of the styles shown would "leave as few strap marks as possible," but what does that have to do with sports? Any sports-oriented female reader would surely be in the market for swimwear a bit more practical.
If you must include such "sportswear" in your magazine, then could we females also see a "little" of the latest in men's swimwear?
P. A. BAUGHMAN
Pittsburgh
Sir:
I subscribe to SI and the whole family enjoys it, but your tasteless display of sexist photography could set women athletes back a decade. If I wanted articles such as this, I'd subscribe to a girlie magazine. How dare you! If I see women displayed as objects again, I'll cancel. You can depend on that.
JANE M. CONTOIS
San Jose, Calif.
Sir:
I'd like to see more athletic-looking models. Don't get me wrong—Ms. Brinkley & Co. are very beautiful. But on page 23 of that same issue there is a much more perfect example of what a woman can, and should, look like: pentathlete Jane Frederick.
STEVE WANVIG
Minneapolis
Sir:
All those who'll end subscriptions, or won't let this issue be seen, might as well wear blinders when they walk down the street or along the beach. God created beauty in both nature and people. Everyone takes a break from a regular routine once a year, even in the sports world. Much obliged for the great photos, and the girls are darn good-lookin'.
JEFF REGNIER
Billings, Mont.
Sir:
Congratulations on a quintessentially tasteful display of what beautiful women won't be "wearing" at the beach this summer.
CHRIS FIELD
Providence
Sir:
Christie Brinkley's smile has more impact than Dave Kingman's bat on a baseball.
JEFF STINNEFORD
Raleigh, N.C.
Sir:
Your swimsuit issue was, as usual, superb. Next year, though, do me a favor: be careful where you put the mailing sticker. This year it covered more of Christie Brinkley than her swimsuit did.
ANDREW TIMKO
Millbrook, Ala.
Address editorial mail to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, New York, 10020.
