Letters to the Editor

To the Editors:

I truly gave a chance to your article entitled “The Beauty Hunter” in the July/August 2009 issue. I have always been impressed with your publication. However, I found your article and cover of July/August 2009 issue outdated. When will Eastern European women be seen as intelligent and not just soulless beauties to be used as models and trophies?

As a registered nurse and licensed mental health professional, I believe stories like yours (complete with “appropriate” bodily measurements for beauty which are considered underweight by any body mass index scale) promote low self-esteem and eating disorders among women. I think it is time that esteemed publications such as yours cover the stories of every day women in Russia making a difference in their communities.

Sincerely,

Sarah Bucic

To the Editors,

I read with great interest in the Sep/Oct issue “The Hot Line.” As a teacher, I  would translate General Suvorov’s quote “Тяжело в учении–легко в бою” as “Train hard, fight easy.” But, “The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war,” suits me more as a Marine.

I will share this article with my students.

Semper Fidiles,

Eric Hood

Sparta High School, Sparta, NJ

To the Editors:

I thought your article on the cultural exchange program [1959 Kitchen Debate] was very good, however, if I am correct, it left out one very important element.

Part of the exchange program provided the US and the USSR with the ability to distribute a magazine in each other’s country. The USSR publication distributed in the US was Soviet Life and, believe it or not, in those early years it was mailed in a brown paper bag...

The reason I’m surprised... is that Soviet Life later became Russian Life... and I am certain Soviet Life was part of the cultural program and that it arrived in a brown paper bag... because I was a subscriber then.

Claude H. Grizzard

Tucker, GA

Claude:

Right you are!

— The Editors