LETTERS

LETTERS

readers react

Sharon’s mom (like most moms) was right.

DAVID MCKINLAY JONES ’78

Tucson, Arizona

Oh Brother

I enjoyed seeing all of the sibling faces and reading the article, “Sibling Revelry” [March/April]. Attending Dartmouth with my brothers certainly enhanced my college experience. Decades later, we can share our common memories and remind one another why we all bleed green. My siblings: David Frem ’92 and Daniel Frem ’96, Th’97, Th’98.

LAURA FREM ’94

Northborough, Massachusetts

Fandom

The entertaining and moving “A Fan’s Notes” [March/April] by Robert Sullivan ’75 brought back memories of my father, Jack Little ’40. He followed Dartmouth football with fervor. Dad was a wordsmith and a gardener. At one point he created a hybrid vegetable to convey his desire to defeat the Crimson: “lettuce beet Harvard.”

CARL LITTLE ’76 Mount Desert, Maine

Terrific article. I felt like I was reliving every moment described. I was one of the few diehards at the Brown game last fall. I went solo (my regular companion, Stu Cable ’75, was out of town). I was looking for familiar faces but didn’t see any. I guess I was looking for faces as I remember them from years ago. Brown’s quarterback scared me to death. It wasn’t until the sack by Niko Lalos ’20 at the very end that I relaxed a bit—I knew we had them. Then, when Isiah Swann ’20 intercepted the last pass—I sort of expected it—I let out a sigh of relief.

I was also at the Harvard game (with Cable) to the very end—what a thriller. I was texting all my Midwest buddies that it was better than a Ted Perry ’74 field goal.

AL AUSTIN ’75 Hingham, Massachusetts

I enjoyed Robert Sullivan’s impassioned article on the famed Dartmouth-Harvard football rivalry. Like the author, my loyalties through the years have been occasionally challenged—I have degrees from both institutions, although I remain steadfastly in the Big Green camp. While the 2019 version of Dartmouth football is to be lauded, I can’t help but think that Bob Blackman’s undefeated 1965 squad deserves top honors. That fabled team was awarded the coveted Lambert Trophy, emblematic of the East’s best football team, boasting a 14-0 shutout of Harvard, seven All-Ivy First Team selections, and ranking higher nationally than traditional gridiron powers Penn State, Syracuse, Army, and Boston College!

PHILIP K. CURTIS ’67

Atlanta

The Bear Truth

The story by Put Blodgett ’53 about going hunting as a Dartmouth student and propping up a dead bear in a Topliff bathroom was great [“Continuing Ed,” January/February]. Please publish more stories about hunting and game processing and fewer stories (none would be fine) about progressive politics and climate religion.

WILLIAM ROBBINS ’83 Los Angeles

Good Energy

In reading “Fuel for Thought” [“Campus,” January/February], about how College officials are rethinking plans for the biomass plant, I am heartened to hear the College listens to the experts, as President Hanlon suggests students do [“Nothing But the Truth,” November/December 2019]. Beyond doing what is right, whether scientifically, socially, or ethically, it is the ability to stop, think, listen to others, and re-evaluate that is most impressive and important for ensuring the best possible future for the College. Glad to hear Dartmouth is practicing what it preaches and leading by example.

SCOTT LACY ’13

Aspen, Colorado

More Concerns

Daniel Benjamin’s contention [“A World of Trouble,” March/April] that our primary task with China is “engagement with China’s President and General Secretary Xi and his lieutenants” is astonishing. Our primary task is to engage China in an unending series of covert and information operations to bypass its great information firewall, a censorship system second only to North Korea’s, to break the hegemony of the Communist Party. To talk about China without mentioning the more than 1 million Chinese Muslims now in slave labor camps is inexcusable.

PETER HUMPHREY ’76

Rockville, Maryland