It was a great idea to do a cover story about John Malkovich’s sense of style (“One-Man Show,” Jan. 30). It would have been an even better idea to shoot the photos against a lighter background so that we could actually see what his clothes looked like. With photos like these, I’m still waiting to find out something about Malkovich’s style.
— Yvonne Koyzis, Glen Ellyn
John Malkovich resembles either an undertaker facing a difficult assignment or a clergyman who has just eaten all his communion wafers.
— John D. Austin, Crystal Lake
BURIED TREASURES
You will never believe how much your article “The Last Beach” (Sidewalks, Jan. 23) brought to me. I recognized the area immediately, as I came from that lovely former piece of Rogers Park lakefront and spent so much of my early life playing and swimming there.
There were only two apartment buildings between Rogers Avenue and Sheridan Road on Eastlake Terrace. I housed my motorboat under the farthest building north in a lower boat storage facing Lake Michigan during and after World War II. The first owners of that building were a family named Plotkins, from the ’20s until after WWII. They had the largest leather tanning and leather manufacturing firm in Chicago. But that was decades before Jane Flynn Royko lived there. The beach was pristine and clean back then and full of many wonders for little people to play in.
Like your last paragraph, stating that “some people know when they’ve got a good thing,” it sure was my place of secret things to bury into that sand. We young pirates had so many treasures hidden in that sand. Thanks for the memories, Rick.
— D. Olson, Des Plaines
NEEDLESS TO SAY
After reading the amusing tale “Winging It” (Jan. 30), I feel both sorry and annoyed that the author, apparently a teacher of writing, chose to use “Oh, Jesus” as an expression of startled disgust over a bad smell, when “Oh, yuck” could well have accomplished the same result. This blasphemy, sadly, is ubiquitous these days–all the more reason not to lower the quality of a piece of writing by its gratuitous use.
Ms. Author, you’re too valuable for this. Omit it next time.
— Eltaine P. Krodel, Valparaiso, Ind.
LETTERS ON LETTERS
Just read the Jan. 30 Magazine, and found people still flogging your decision to print the Hugh Hefner article of some time ago. Personally, I enjoyed the deserved article. Mr. Hefner’s ideas and beliefs flew in the face of the system, and our society, and he won. Hard to take for some. And if Mr. Hefner feels he is in his second childhood, I applaud him for still winning and enjoying what he believes in. To those folks who think otherwise, live with the fact that his legacy is being chiseled in stone.
— Lee Kinden, Effingham, Ill.
I think it strange that you ran two weeks of letters on the Hefner article but only three letters on the Oct. 31 piece concerning a group of wounded veterans of World War II. Granted, your responses on Hefner were deservedly critical, but your follow-up on the veterans was not enough! Their sacrifices were of such a nature that we cannot fully express our appreciation, but a page of letters would have offered some comfort and thanks for the wounds they must live with the rest of their lives.
— Carl Siegel, Carol Stream
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The Magazine welcomes letters. Send mail to The Editor, Chicago Tribune Magazine, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611, or to our Internet address, tribmag@tribune.com.
All correspondence, including e-mail, must include the writer’s name, home address and phone number. Letters may be edited for space and clarity.
