Unhooked
The so-called "sport" of catch-and-release fishing is nothing less than the heartless torture of innocent animals for the questionable pleasure of human beings who should know better ("Fish Story"). Fishing for sustenance is one thing. Anything else is decidedly unsportsmanlike.
Chris Glenn
Badger, California
Fish caught with barbed hooks and then released are often marred by open sores, some of them quite extensive. Barbless hooks can minimize the disfigurement. Anglers should be encouraged to use them as a matter of conscience. Since I switched to barbless hooks, I have not noticed any increase in missed hookups or lost fish. And barbless hooks are much easier to unhook from fish, trees, clothing—and ears.
Skip Mackey
Melbourne, Florida
Papa's Cuba
There is a huge difference between Ernest Hemingway's Cuba and the Cuba that Valerie Hemingway visited 47 years later. All the customers that shared a daiquiri with Ernest Hemingway in the Floridita or a room in the Ambos Mundos Hotel or any other place in Havana were native Cubans. Today, it's mostly tourists from other countries with their pockets full of capitalist American dollars who can enjoy those simple things.
Miguel A. Echenique
Miami, Florida
Taking Atlanta's Temperature
I have lived in metropolitan Atlanta for 45 years ("Some Don't Like It Hot"). Yes, it's too hot in the summer. But a big plus for me is the multicultural, multiracial population. There have been problems, and still are, but Atlanta is living out the spirit of our forefathers, whose dream of a place where all people are created equal is realized. So y'all come see us. Just not in July or August.
Margaret Morris
Conyers, Georgia
Why's Atlanta so hot? Old photos of the city show a tree-friendly area. Not so anymore. Suburban development cuts down large shade trees, which provide wonderful breeze potentials near a house, a feature that pioneer folk knew something about before air conditioning. We have foolishly divorced ourselves from the friendly physics of keeping cool.
Mike Reid
Sheridan, Oregon
Model Cowboy
My grandfather, the artist Allen Tupper True, was the unnamed model wearing "full cowboy regalia" in the photograph accompanying the "Around the Mall" story about Liza Kirwin's book Artists in Their Studios. But the studio in the photograph was not in Denver, as stated. Nor was it N. C. Wyeth's. Rather, the studio was at Howard Pyle's school in Wilmington, Delaware. Wyeth and True were fellow students at the school and would be close friends throughout their lives.
Victoria Tupper Kirby
San Francisco, California
Curator Liza Kirwin, of Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, responds: Thanks for setting me straight about the studio's location. And I am glad to know that the cowboy is your grandfather. We will change the location of the photograph on our Web site.
Smile. Please?
Psychologist Dacher Keltner misses the point when he says it's alienating for managers to "order their subordinates to smile" ("What's Behind a Smile?"). At my shop, all customers are greeted with a smile. If I had a dollar for every frowning customer who has reacted positively to friendliness, I'd be rich. Hey, I already am: I enjoy my shop so much more because of the power of smiling.
Janet Shelton
Cannon Beach, Oregon
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