And furthermore ...
Many thanks. You keep doing your part to make this page a forum - and to let us know when we, er, could do better.
Sometimes things almost seem choreographed. Aperture magazine devotes its current issue to Minor White, whose ''Grand Tetons'' photograph accompanied Rushworth Kidder's ''Dawn'' (June 27). And Barbara Morgan, whose photographs are prominent in the Aperture issue, gives us a lift by sending this shot of Martha Graham dancers in ''Celebration.'' On the back she celebrates Faye Field's alternative to electronic polling in ''A questionnaire'' (April 18), wishing her ''& the universe and the future a livable and enjoyable world.''
It didn't take a questionnaire for readers to ask where to volunteer for recording books as Dennis Mayes does in ''Stay alert and keep foot out of mouth'' (July 24). He says such recording is arranged through various organizations, including state libraries in most states. Further information from Mrs. Freddie Peaco, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20542.
''I don't enjoy all the 'art' pages in your dept.,'' writes Peter Holmstrom on a post card of Rogue River Valley. ''How about a little more lightness and joy?''
Was the balloon-and-blimp page of June 20 light enough? Eleanor Weston's ''Looking up'' brought us the added pleasure of John H. Townsend's ''Minister's Message'' from the First Baptist News of Los Angeles. In it he describes a similar delight in the Goodyear blimp (''an improbable kind of creation, suggesting that humanity hasn't lost its disposition entirely to gloom and despair''), plus an actual ride in it (''an impression of time suspended'').
''Since there are no cliffs or cliff dwellings anywhere near Taos Pueblo, one wonders how much more of Carl Senna's otherwise heartwarming 'Conquistadors' (July 17) is pure fabrication,'' writes Col. MacPherson Morgan of Albuquerque, N.M. To which Mr. Senna says that he was ''technically incorrect'' in using ''cliff dwellings'' to refer to what he described elsewhere in the essay as adobe houses. He was trying to convey his impression of them as seen against a far mountain backdrop. To give a general sense of his Southwestern trip he showed us this snapshot of himself (right) and a friend some distance south of Taos.
Ruth Robbins of Rochester, N.Y. - who recalls ''my good mother cherishing the First Edition!'' (of the Monitor) - gives an example of why she has ''always been partial'' to The Home Forum. She had wanted to know more about the night-blooming cereus after hearing a fascinating story about it from a friend - and when she opened the paper of July 20, there it was: the picture above and Barbara Wilson's essay, ''Gift from a stranger.''
Myron U. Lamb of Limerick, Maine, happened to be reading the same article around midnight when he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to watch two of the night-blooming plants of his own. He found four magnificent blossoms. ''I hadn't seen such blossoms since 1926, when my mother-in-law's imminently blossoming cereus provided a neighborhood watch one night.''
''The three pieces with the theme of giving (''Links,'' July 30) made me want to share some of my own experiences,'' writes Frederick Guidry of Ashland, Mass. ''Last winter, for example, I hit a pothole in my new car and (unknown to me) lost a hubcap. When the car behind me kept on my tail, honking occasionally, I was annoyed that anyone wanted me to go still faster on the slick road. But when I finally pulled over, the driver turned out to be a ladylike woman who had stopped her car, gone into the rutty snow and recovered my hubcap, then chased me to hand it over! The wonder of it stayed with me all day, and, of course, I have been glad when I had similar chances to do unexpected good to others.''
William Shaul of Tarpon Spring, Fla., makes some interesting points, ''having plowed through'' the ''Looseleaf library'' excerpt ''Gertrude Stein against the comma'' (July 24). He concludes, ''Ms. Stein would do well to use a comma here and there. ... However, Gertrude has done all right in this world, so who needs my advice!''
Apropos of the June 25 page including L. V. Fennelly's essay on the British Snail-Watching Society and some reprinted remarks by the founder of the society, Peter J. Henniker-Heaton:
Dorothy Ellen Hoel of Oakland, Calif., shares a handwritten reply from the founder. ''Alas, dear Snail-Watcher, no Snail-Watch 1973, but the news is building up & meanwhile the snails are heroically paddling their own canoe.''
Aleta Matteson of Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., sends a batch of snail drawings by third-grade pupils of last year. Alas, we have room for only this one.