Letters to the Editor

Hanson brothers are Mmmback

I’m writing in regard to your review of Hanson’s new album, “Underneath” (Arts etc., Tuesday). Though you gave credit to the work that the band members put into the album (writing, producing and performing it all on their own), I can’t help but be offended by the lack of credit you gave these men about the songs.

You said the Hansons have not gotten into the indiscretions of most musicians, and therefore the music didn’t come from their feelings. Well, sir, they have had trouble of a different kind, including problems with their record label and a four-year wait before they could release an album on their own. That would say otherwise.

Also, it sounded as if your reviewer listened to a couple of the songs once and that was the end of it. I understand it’s Hanson and you think it’s “Mmmbop,” but doesn’t a band that took four years to make a perfect album deserve the same chance you give others with your reviews? I mean, just pointing out one instance, you talk about the way Isaac sang in “Misery.” Sir, Zac sang “Misery.”

You say it was hard to take them seriously as Taylor sang the line “take a walk on the wild side.” How can you take words so out of context? That song is about meeting someone and wanting to escape with that person. Your quote sounded like a bit of mockery, though earlier in your column it’s the first song you compliment.

JILLIAN MARINA JATRAS

Rockville

Now, about those medals…

Regarding the article “Records on medals spark questions” (Page 1, yesterday), I am ashamed that Sen. John Kerry was a naval officer. His record is questionable at best. At worst, he is a bald-faced liar. Why do I take umbrage? I am the son of a disabled Marine who earned his Purple Heart 10 days after he ascended Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima with 45 other Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment, 5th Marine Division. To this day, his life is impacted by the wounds he received. Shot in the head by a sniper, he received a steel plate to go with his medal. Mr. Kerry’s questionable awards insult all the honorable men and women who earned their medals. Shame on him. But of course, he is a man who knows no shame.

KURT G. KESSEL CWO

U.S. Navy (retired)

Fort Collins, Colo.

America’s past time in America’s capital

Two articles in yesterday’s issue (“Angelos may ruin baseball here, too” and “Two cities, just one team?” Sports) reflecting the idea that Peter “King” Angelos is doing his best to monopolize this area with his Orioles make the point that Congress must take away Major League Baseball’s exemption from antitrust laws.

I wish somebody would stand up to Mr. Angelos in Baltimore and strip him of his kingdom. Major League Baseball needs to wake up and recognize that it would gain millions of baseball fans by relocating the Expos to the nation’s capital or to Northern Virginia.

MAC HERNDON

Arlington

A stamp collector’s ire

As I read the article “Agencies shred past by the ton” in Wednesday’s edition (Nation), I became angrier and angrier. I’m a revenue stamp collector and have been for some time, and I am a subscriber to Linn’s stamp publication. I have been following the story of the excess revenue stamps held by the National Postal Museum for a while.

I want to know who registrar Ted Wilson thinks he is. Why on earth is he worried about the collector stamp market? Anybody who collects high-end stamps knows that attempting to use them as an investment is very speculative and that new copies of “rarities” can come to light at any time and lower the value. This is one of those times. Who put him in charge of regulating and manipulating the stamp market to protect a few people who paid a premium for certain stamps? In my opinion, the statement that he does not “want to devastate the market by flooding it” expresses a ridiculous reason to destroy these works of art and deprive the public of a chance to own them.

JAMES SPERO

Westminster, Md.

The question is: Was the Bard bald?

Stephanie Nolen’s “Shakespeare’s Face” (“The face of genius?” Books, Sunday) may be interesting and fun on its own, but even if the portrait in question is an authentic image of the man from Stratford, it is not evidence that he was the dramatist.

The two other images of William Shakespeare with any claim to authenticity are not without problems, either. Nobody knows whom the sculptor of the Stratford funerary monument used as his model or whom Martin Droeshout used for his 1623 engraving in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays. If Droeshout (the younger) was “not very skilled to begin,” we might ask why an inexperienced artist was commissioned for such an expensive book. If, on the other hand, the artist was Droeshout the elder (the younger’s uncle and an experienced engraver), we might ask why he created such a “dull,” not to say disproportioned and unsatisfactory, portrait.

Because he addressed the authorship problem, reviewer Tom O’Brien might have, in fairness, mentioned a few of the unique deficiencies in the orthodox biography. Shakespeare left behind no personal papers (manuscripts, letters, diaries) that would prove he was a writer. No poets exchanged commendatory verses with him. The many contemporary references to Shakespeare are to published works or play performances; none refers to the man in personal, literary terms. Indeed, nobody wrote about the author as though actually knowing him. The traditional biography brings to mind the song Joel Grey sang in “Chicago,” “Mr. Cellophane.” As an actor, theatrical entrepreneur and businessman, Shakespeare is well-documented, but as a literary figure, he is invisible.

Miss Nolen’s book may be a fun read, but it is unfortunate that Mr. O’Brien’s review perpetuated some factual inaccuracies.

DIANA PRICE

Cleveland

Boone should stick to singing

So now a little censorship in the arts is “healthy,” according to Pat Boone (“Censorship in arts ’healthy,’ Boone says,” Page 1, Wednesday). Mr. Boone should know better. Once that particular camel get its nose in that particular tent, the assault upon our freedoms cannot but increase.

What Mr. Boone finds charming is the ability to censor what is in opposition to his own set of religious beliefs. I dare to speculate that censoring, say, the Sermon on the Mount would appear far less charming to him.

Let Mr. Boone sing of love letters in the sand, but let his ill-conceived pronouncements on censorship bewritteninthatsame medium, wherein the slightest wind will render his opinions invisible.

FRANK TYRRELL

Savannah, Ga.