Regarding “A Banner Year” [Nov. 24]: Had Peter Elliott included the Chicago suburbs on his cross-country odyssey in search of flags to photograph, he might have come across this house just east of beautiful downtown Gilmer, Ill. Note that all the walls and roof of the house, which is an actual occupied residence, are adorned with our beloved red, white and blue.
Lester J. Hartrick / Buffalo Grove
Lakeside charmer
For quite some time now we have enjoyed Rick Kogan’s articles and Charles Osgood’s accompanying pictures in the Magazine. Many’s the time we have thought that we should visit a place they have covered.
We were intrigued by the article on the Lakeside Inn [“The Man on the Porch,” Nov. 17], particularly since we were planning a trip up the west coast of Michigan shortly after we saw the piece. We were passing Lakeside at about 4 p.m. on our first day and decided to look into the Inn for our first two nights.
The Inn is every bit as charming as Kogan described. After only two hours we decided to stay there for the entire week. The stay turned out to be one of our most enjoyable in over 30 years of leisure travel around the country. Our thanks to Rick and Osgood for both the article and, from our standpoint, the timing.
Blake and Barbara Anderson / Woodstock
On selling TV sets
Kurt Youngmann’s remarks about the sales pitches on early TV in the ’50s [In-box, Oct. 20] brought back memories of when I sold televisions for Howard Shapiro, the owner of CET (Chicago Engineers for Television).
Howard was a marketing genius. He ran sales and his brother ran delivery and TV repair. At its peak, their store had 16 full-time salesmen visiting homes that phoned in answer to those TV and radio pitches by Marty Faye and Bill O’Connor. TV commercials were live, so we had to haul the TV sets to the studio, then back to the store after the “Sunday Night Movie,” sponsored by CET, was over. We carried a TV in our car for the “home demonstrations.” I was young, just starting in sales, and it was the best training I could have had on how to handle people in all kinds of situations. I have been in sales over 50 years and am still in it.
Fred Brandt / Marengo
Debatable numbers
Don Terry’s article “A Leap of Faith” [Oct. 20] states that there are 6 million to 8 million Muslims in the United States. The best estimate, based on analysis of surveys and other sources, is that there are 2 million Muslims. Even accepting high-side estimates puts the total at no more than possibly 3 million.
Furthermore, the statement that nearly 30 percent of Muslims in the U.S. are African-American is speculative. There are no solid figures on what proportion of Muslims in the U.S. are African-American. Estimates range from 20 percent to 42 percent.
Tom W. Smith
National Opinion Research Center
University of Chicago
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