LETTERS

Drugs in Junior High



I saw a copy of your April issue in the office, and the cover caught my eye. I have a fifteen-year-old son and a couple of daughters who will soon be teen-agers. I also live across the street from the high school, and every morning as I leave for work I am saddened by the number of kids openly smoking grass – I guess so they can “cope” with their tough lives.

I thought your cover story was well done, and conveyed something of the way kids have come to accept pot and drugs as an integral part of their lives. I personally think the only way future generations can acquire different attitudes is to start drug education classes in grade school, perhaps structured by qualified psychologists.

Walter Weidenbaum

Publisher, Madison Avenue Magazine

New York



Hats off to David Bauer for capturing the youth scene as it really is in “Getting High in Junior High” (April). Reading this story is like looking through a keyhole to see what really goes on behind closed doors.

This article should give parents some insight into their children’s way of thinking and way of life. Such insight is the key to parents being able to help their children.

Gwendolyn Wood

Dallas



The Women



After a few days considering the alternatives, I have decided to write stating how I feel after having read your various articles on “The Dallas Woman” (March). I must say I am appalled and shocked at how flip and superficial you have portrayed us “Dallas women.” If most men treated us as Dick Hitt suggested in “How To Handle The Dallas Woman,” I can see the reason for the definite rise in divorce and the unusually high increase of women staying single.

If this is supposed to be “tongue in cheek” humor, I feel you definitely lost it somewhere. Words fail me on describing the put-down in “Cutting Remarks” and “A Few Last Words.”

I would like to commend Jo Brans on “The Balancing Act,” the only article I feel worth remembering. There were some definite insights on transitions and hardships of marriage, divorce, and the single life of a woman.

If these flip remarks are the only things you have with which to fill your magazine, I can guarantee you that there are better magazines to which I can and will subscribe.

Donna Mabry

Dallas



I was delighted to see that you took on the subject of women and covered it from so many perspectives. I thought “The Balancing Act” was especially honest and moving.

But I also felt that you were being very careful and “polite” to your audience, probably out of consideration to both the women and the men; this makes a certain amount of sense the first time out, but I look forward to future coverage of the issues of painful and urgent concern to American women in general and Dallas women in particular.

Suzanne Levine

Managing Editor

Ms. Magazine



Undoubtedly your mailbox is quite full of correspondence from indignant, insulted “Dallas Women.” I am sure you are enjoying to the fullest the uproar you have caused by that series of articles since you allowed such drivel to be published in the first place.

I feel that the only way I can make you feel my indignation is by cancelling my subscription, which I hereby do. Please refund the balance of my subscription immediately.

Patricia L. Branch

Dallas



Our fascination with Jim Atkinson’s comments concerning The Dallas Wom an is exceeded only by our interest in his insights regarding sociology. In view of Mr. Atkinson’s obvious expertise in both areas, we would like to extend an invitation for him to present a colloquium at SMU. We suggest as a topic “A Journalist’s Views on Women (or How to Reduce the Female Sex to a Cultural Stereotype Without Doing Sociology).”

Richard O. Hawkins, Ph.D.

Susan C. Randall, Ph.D.

J. Greg Getz, Ph.D.

Vicki M. Rose, Ph.D.

Department of Sociology

Southern Methodist University



On Target



Your February issue “Collision Course” article is the best I’ve seen in 44 years as a Casualty Underwriter for Liberty Mutual. Tom Peeler really did his homework.

John F. Lamb

Dallas



Wrong Ingredients



The recipe in your April, 1978 edition incorrectly describes Sam Shum as the owner of the South China restaurant in Dallas. It is owned by Evergreen of China, Inc., which has six equal shareholders, one of whom is Mr. Shum. I also own one-sixth of the stock of the corporation and am Chairman of the Board of Directors. I am also the sole owner of the Fortune Cookie Restaurant in the Hillside Shopping Village at Mockingbird and Abrams in Dallas.

I appreciate the nice things you have had to say about both restaurants.

George Wong

Dallas

(Sorry about the misinformation, and while we’re setting the record straight, we might mention that a typographical error in the recipe called for “bones chicken breasts.” The word should, of course, be “boned.”)



Discovering Deco



Three cheers to D Magazine (February) for having the class to print “Dallas Deco” by George Toomer and Doug Tomlinson! I’ve long held that the spirit of the Twenties and Thirties was creeping back into the American lifestyle and I’m glad you took the initiative to tell it to Dallas. We have so many excellent examples of Art Deco in Dallas that my only disappointment was that you didn’t show more. Keep up the good work!

Cary Bass

Dallas



I thoroughly enjoyed the Dallas Deco article, but feel the need to point out that the elevator lobby picture on page 91 was taken in the Lone Star Gas building, not the Dallas Power and Light building.

John M. Cummings

Lone Star Gas Company

Dallas



Of course “Dallas Deco” (February issue) is nearly extinct. The prevalent at titude there seems to be to tear things down the minute they look “old fashioned.” So contemporary Dallas architecture continues, ironically, to reflect the city’s insecurity – the promise of better things ahead by doing away with the past.

The streamlined, radiator-finned, lightning-bolted style of Thirties architecture reflected this very same insecure feeling. The depression nailed people to the wall. And they had to believe in something. What better to pin hopes to than the “new technology”? So we streamlined everything from railroad locomotives to buildings, airplanes to vacuum cleaners and stoves.

Robert Miltner

Philadelphia, Pa.



Music to Our Ears



What a pleasure it was to read Tim Schuller’s article on Marchel Ivery in your March issue. It was very informative on the history of jazz music here in Dallas and also brought out clearly the distinction between artistic music and The trendy music we are too often sub-jected to. I’m glad to know that Dallas has such notable musicians and that D Magazine is uncovering them. I’m looking forward to more articles of this nature in your magazine.

Marilyn Kolakowski

Dallas



Well-Schooled



Congratulations to D Magazine! In your February 1978 issue you bestowed a “Thumbs Up” award to Dr. Alvin Granowsky. Director of Reading for the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). This award, by all means, was given to a dedicated educator, and I applaud you for recognizing this talented individual.

Robert Studeny

Librarian, Dallas Independent

School District

Thanks, Yanks



I was enlightened and delighted by your February article entitled “South Toward Home.” But with no small amount of presumption, and by virtue of having lived in Rhode Island, New York, Indiana, Florida, Texas, and Argentina, I now offer the definitive explanation of the term “Yankee”:

Abroad, a Yankee is someone from the USA. To a Southerner, a Yankee is a Northerner. To a Northerner, a Yankee is, a Northeasterner. To a Northeasterner, a Yankee is a New Englander. To a New Englander, a Yankee is someone who eats apple pie and cheddar cheese for breakfast, and says “Ay-eh.”

David H. Quinn

Austin