Saturday, March 17, 2007

The JFK School

In his March 9 op-ed column, "Higher Ed Superpower," David Ignatius said that Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government was founded in 1978. I know that isn't true because I applied for admission there in 1971.

In fact, as the school's Web site describes it, the Graduate School of Public Administration was founded in 1936 and renamed for President John F. Kennedy in 1966. What happened in 1978 was that the Kennedy School of Government moved into the newly constructed Littauer Center, putting three master's programs under one roof.

-- Roy Gamse

Arlington

Mountains Meet City

Regarding Colbert I. King's March 10 op-ed column, "Appalachia Helps Where D.C. Fails," about the Appalachian State University students working in the District on their spring break:

While I appreciate his sentiments regarding the state of the District's public school system, the attitude he exhibited regarding the students from Appalachian State was disheartening. He seemed initially to be prodding the reader to ask, what could people from Appalachia possibly offer us?

As a native of West Virginia, I find this type of attitude all too common among the local population and in the pages of The Post.

-- Timothy M. Miller Jr.

Arlington

'Architects' Aren't Killers

As an architect, I took offense at the March 15 front-page headline "Alleged Architect of 9/11 Confesses to Many Attacks."

Architect, as defined by my Webster's, is "a person skilled in, or a professional student of, architecture; one who designs and oversees the construction of buildings" and "a contriver, designer or maker."

Architects are all about construction, not destruction.

-- Lisa Dall'Olio

Martinsburg, W.Va.

No Cadets at Annapolis

Regarding the March 13 Metro section headline "City Council Considers Slavery Apology, Cadet Case":

Former Navy quarterback Lamar S. Owens Jr. is not a "cadet." He and all students at the U.S. Naval Academy are midshipmen. Midshipman is a rank in the Navy. Students at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., are cadets.

I would expect The Post to know this, given that the Naval Academy is in your back yard.

-- Tom Eversole

Alexandria

Minus Right Terminology

I'm no mathematician, but it seems to me the "easy" quiz show question posed in "Easy Does It" [Style, March 13] is quite difficult. The reporter, Paul Farhi, suggests that the "Twenty-One" game show scam would have been found out if one of the contestants had been asked "the sum of five times two."

If I remember my elementary school math, there is no "sum" of anything times anything. The "sum" of five and two is seven. The "product" of five times two is 10.

-- Mitch Katz

Falls Church

Poor Choice of Words

"Woman, 30, Is Found Shot in Home by Children" was the disturbing headline on a March 11 Metro story. Not until one got into the story was it clear that her children found her but had not shot her -- and that the shooting was fatal.

A mild editing fix -- "Slain Woman Found at Home by Her Children -- would have been the better choice, yes?

-- Warren C. Herz

Washington