I loved your article on Davis Square, but if your source, Bobbie Clark, graduated in 1970, she couldn’t have gone to Steve’s Ice Cream as an undergrad. Steve’s opened during the summer of 1973, when I was between my sophomore and junior years and attending summer school. For just 30 cents, you got more ice cream than you could eat. We went there every night, always bringing new friends. On one occasion, we even blindfolded a friend, figuring he’d never know where we’d taken him.
Christine Werme, J75
Berkeley, CA

The article on Davis Square was great, but as I live within walking distance of Davis, I’m quite sure that the photo labeled Poor Little Rich Girl is, in fact, a shot of Cibelline, a store that features women’s clothing made by the shop’s owner rather than the pre-owned attire offered in Poor Little Rich Girl.
Pat Wood, J64
Somerville, MA

UNIVERSAL THOUGHTS
I enjoyed the article about Alexander Vilenkin (“The Universe as Inquiry,” spring 2005). The article begins, “At some time or other, just about everyone has looked up at the night sky and marveled at the moon, planets, and stars, wondering how this strange universe came into being.” I remember when I was a child of about six having the following conversation with a young friend. I asked what happens if you take a piece of paper and then keep cutting each of the pieces in half. Eventually, my child’s mind was contemplating cutting pieces that were invisible, and yet these pieces were getting increasingly smaller. There was no conceivable end to the ability to halve things. And so it is, even a child came up with the notion of molecules and atoms and beyond, because the process never ends.
Ruth Elise Housman
Newton Centre, MA

IS THAT ALL?
Congratulations to sophomore Fred Jones for his long-jump record of 23 feet, 9 inches (“Sports Roundup,” spring 2005). However, it must be a personal best not a school record. Bob Jones, whose record Fred Jones broke, must have been having a bad day when he made 23 feet, 7 inches at the NCAA Division III championships. Most of his leaps in the “cage” were 24 feet, 6 inches and many over 25 feet. Even this humble writer jumped more than 23 feet.
Dr. Roger Schuler, A55
Boynton Beach, FL

A READER RESPONDS
As an alum of the Tufts Graduate School of Engineering, I take issue with Peter Stanley’s lashing of those students who have not spent much time at Anderson Hall, but who still feel compelled to question our nation’s single-minded reliance on fossil fuels (“Another Side of Coal,” Letters, spring 2005). I recognize the patronizing tone Mr. Stanley adopts for non-technical stakeholders; as an environmental engineer, unfortunately, I witness it quite frequently amongst my peers. And with it I associate the kind of brusque dismissal of sensible and ambitious proposals, such as calls for an increased focus on sustainable energy, that his letter represents. There is no doubt that our energy future would be much brighter and cleaner were it not for the millions of dollars spent by fossil-fuel interests to discredit and discourage development, coupled with a maddening imbalance between federal investment in sustainable technologies versus fossil fuels—subsidies that Stanley conveniently ignores. Contrary to the perception he offers, I am confident that there are few Tufts engineering students who would be fooled by the extraction industry’s oxymoronic “clean coal technology” PR campaign. I’m proud that Tufts is helping to produce individuals willing and capable of challenging the energy status quo, regardless of their academic department.
Stephen George, G04
Cambridge, MA

NOT ALWAYS PERFECT
I was disappointed to find a typo on the cover of the spring issue of Tufts Magazine (“Rounder Record’s Ken Irwin and Bill Nowlin…”). As an editor, I can appreciate the fact that mistakes are a natural, if unfortunate, fact of publication. However, as a proud graduate of Tufts, I was sorry to see such prominent evidence of editorial oversight.
Stephanie Adler Yuan, J97
Brooklyn, NY

Editor’s note: As proponents of correct punctuation, we regret our oversight; the subhead should have read “Rounder Records’ Fellow Rebels.”

MAYER"S WAR YEARS
After reading Sol Gittleman’s article on Jean Mayer (“The Accidental President,” winter 2005), I visited the Geneva Book Fair, where I came upon a huge volume titled Glières Mars 1944. Une Grande et Simple Histoire, Montmétian: La Fontaine de Siloé, 2000 by Michel Germain. In the index, I discovered the name of Jean Mayer dit Jean I. Could it possibly be the same Mayer of Tufts fame who was a resistance fighter during the war? Maybe Professor Gittleman or someone else could do further research on Jean Mayer’s war years and pass on more information to the Tufts community at large.
Fritz Lenze, F73, F74, F82
Geneva, Switzerland

correction: In the spring 2005 issue, a photo in the Class Notes section labeled
“The Big ‘50’” should have listed the people in the photo in the following order: Left
to right, Lisa Goldberg Ozer, Diane Hessan, Eileen Bortner Edman, Cindy Lewiton Jackson, Amy Zoll, and Laurie Kalb Kaswiner.