It seems odd that any woman would pick a man of this character.

The manners of a cad and the tongue of a bargee.

Sincerely hope that this woman never leaves Europe.

How dreadful to return to find this bore where of course the first thing that will happen to her is to be blamed for his

very uninteresting unhappiness and in particular since he read

her e-mails without permission.

Why does not Cary Tennis be frank about the problem: this man is not fit to live with anyone least of all a woman for as long as he remains mummy´s little boy.

Please do not forget that as a widely admired American

Walter Cronkite became a global celebrity. He stood for the best of America, travelling like an elderly statesman to

various international functions.

In the year 2000 I attended one such function when he gave a talk in that loveliest of cities, Bologna, invited by the prestigious television festival, the Prix Italia. He was in great spirits, relishing personifying the America leading the way for all other democracies with a free and independent news journalism on television.

True he was not pressed much on matters such as

how independent journalism could be compatible with dependence on advertisers let alone the dimensions of pressure from the White House.

But then this was in 2000, i.e. before 9/11 and the Iraq war. (As you know so well the CBS under Les Moonvis did not wish to go public with their own scoop, the Abu Graibh prison scandal, because of pressure from the White House.)

Finding him afterwards surrounded by a thick group of people much finer than myself I went up to his wife Betsy sitting quietly by herself as if her facing the everyday task of living with a man with his hell of a life mattered little.

Some lady she was. The kind that Hemingway would have picked for going to the bull fights.

I wondered what her husband was like when coming home at night.

- Nothing special, he was always himself.

- Sometimes his evenings were rather special, I said.

- Nothing could disturb us, she assured me.

No matter what had happened, when he came back home we always did the same thing: each had a drink and then we got down to a game of cards".

That is the way it was, folks.

Where is the very necessary discussion on the quality of the

ingredients for the dishes - such as where do you find the best butter, the finest olive oils, non-pasteurized cheese,

eggs guaranteed from free ranging hens, the finest cream,

the best youghurt etc - those details that are the fundaments of a kitchen.

Besides how do you eat when what is a meal in the US - as I understand it- is not commonly agreed on. Let alone coffee while you are having food.

In France for instance a meal is a precise choreographed ballet of four acts, taught by public institutions

from the earliest kindergarten age and up. Menus are

put on public display for all passers by on the street to check the bliss of 3-yearolds: a meal is a no hurry moment.

In public hospitals same kind of menu let alone you find it at

every brasserie bistrot restaurant.

Also lunch and dinner are served during special hours only. One does not eat at all times.

Besides Julia Child is typical of the fate to which upper class women of her generation were doomed:the unpaid slavery of running of a house made into profitable cash

when making use of what was at hand such as her writing on food plus television shows. Above all she was very lucky to have access to France. Had she been in Norway - the catastrophe.

It seems that the lady who has cut down on her drinking is the one having problems. She cannot face the awful truth that in cutting down her alcohol consumtion a great friendship disappeared as well.

It has been shown over and over that drinking or not drinking

is a matter of a personal choice.

One must allow one´s friends the right to make their own choices. And have no fear when the outcome proves difficult.

What is this - should we understand that the whole idea of Julia Child is that having no children she cooks as a way of dealing with "the business of getting on with life"??? Her marvellous revolution nothing more than a compensation for not being a mother?? Come on. What utter drear silliness.

Apart from agreeing wholeheartedly with the intelligent letter of Tanaquil on the matter, I am surprised that feminist awareness should have come no further in an American film of today. A woman with a great zest for life like Julia Child is

then really with that "wordless moment" portrayed as basically a tragic person as a woman´s life first and foremost should be about conceiving.

This is too hairraising.

Especially as several studies have shown that the real losers in society are women with children.

It has somehow been left out in the dark that the release was prepared and managed by the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang.

Bill Clinton had all the limelight of course but the limelight does not tell the whole story.

Sweden by the way is presently also acting chairman of the

European community from July 1 and six months ahead.