Tour de Pharmacie
As a competitive cyclist in the United States, I was particularly impressed with John Brant’s coverage of an almost decade-long scandal that has completely rocked the professional road-cycling world (). I agree with Brant: Though it would be easy to fix rampant drug use in
elite racing by legalizing it, it’s better instead to fight the problem by rewarding clean riders and continuing to finance government-run antidrug campaigns.
Gardie Jackson
Park City, Utah
Cyclists, French fans, and the authorities all knew about doping prior to the recent scandal. The French police and government have just put on a show to let the world know how assiduously they’re handling this “drug problem.” Moreover, the drug-use discussion ignores other important elements of competitive cycling. Long-distance racing is more a mind-and-willpower
game than a test of physical prowess. It’s about being constantly alert for trickery. It’s about unselfish support and sacrifice for one’s team. Virenque rides again! I hope he wins.
John Reid
Modesto, California
Original G’s
I was thrilled to see the beauty, complexity, and discipline of competition aerobatics covered in your June issue (). I take exception, however, to Peter Maass’s statement regarding aerobatic pilots being “better fliers” than fighter jocks鈥攁n assertion I
doubt would pass muster with any F-14 or F-16 squadron. The g’s that fighter pilots pull are sustained g’s rather than the short-duration g’s that competition pilots endure. I’ve known more than one aerobatic pilot to pass out in a fighter jet from the g-forces produced by a two-minute turn.
Patty Wagstaff
St. Augustine, Florida
The Writing on the Wall
You miscaptioned one of the photos in your July Dispatches item by five letters. The climbing wall identified as being at Ohio State University, in Columbus, is in fact at Ohio University, in Athens.
Erin Hines
Athens, Ohio
Hallelujah, I’m a Fan
I’ve come to expect excellent writing from every issue of 国产吃瓜黑料, and Mark Jenkins’s ) was no exception. His testament to the dregs of everyday life that even the most adventurous souls must reckon with was both telling
and inspiring. Mr. Jenkins, I thank you.
Kurt D. Peterson
Boone, North Carolina
I thoroughly enjoyed Mark Jenkins’s account of his expedition up Mount Waddington. It reminded me of some of my own treks that, though less adventurous, seemed to start out as disasters and wound up as miracles. Which is among the good reasons why some of us have to get out of our own skull and see our hometown as one of many fading lights in the rearview mirror.
Daniel Christopher Barr
Columbus, Ohio
Undercooked
I strongly resent David Roberts’s disparaging characterizations of the Dr. Frederick A. Cook Society and Dr. Cook himself (). We try to communicate our topics in an objective and nonoffensive manner. Mr. Roberts, however, could have offered a few positive
credentials when describing Cook’s life beyond that of a dreamy-eyed, lisping lover of solitude. What about his medical and ethnological achievements? What about his first circumnavigation of Mount McKinley in 1903 and his undisputed attainment of an altitude of 11,400 feet?
Warren B. Cook Sr.
President, Dr. Frederick A. Cook Society
Mahwah, New Jersey
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