Letters from our readers.
Oct. 16 1998 3:30 AM

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No Starr of the Web

Re the Oct. 8 "Today's Papers": Kenneth Starr did not put anything on the Internet. Congress did that. If Shuger believes Congress did a poor job of redacting the report before it was posted, he should say so. But Starr is blameless (on this score, at any rate).

--Dick ReedWashington

Race to the Finish

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In Judith Shulevitz's response to Michael Ladenson's letter of Oct. 8, she rightly points out that admission to an elite university is often based on a set of subjective judgments. She goes on to list such things as volunteer work, athletic or artistic ability, recommendations, and so forth.

But simply listing a set of criteria is neither a justification for expanding them nor an argument against striking a few. Including race in that set of criteria and making it coequal with qualifications such as volunteer work or ability is a concept that I, and many other people, find disturbing.

--Yon LewArvada, Colo.

My Mouth as Raw Hamburger

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Re "Paste Test": I'll have to put the hex on Colgate Total. I bought two large tubes after your super review. After two days of using the paste, my mouth turned into raw hamburger. After the return to Colgate Gel--because of its positive characteristics when used with the Sonicare cordless brush--my mouth was just about back to normal. After three days of using the gel, my mouth has returned to its familiar self.

--Joy KenworthyMadison, Wis.

Paste for Greenies

I have always suspected the majors were trying hard to cover the fact that a generic will do. Two things, however, that you missed in "Paste Test": Colgate Total makes your tongue numb (I've tested this with a friend), and Mentadent/pump pastes in general are hugely wasteful. They waste paste inside their complex mechanisms, and their packaging couldn't be less eco-friendly.

I wish this piece had included the idea that you will be using paste your whole life and that that means a lot of tubes--and overly built pumps just for the "aesthetic" value are a bad deal for the environment.

--Benjamin KeyserSan Francisco

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