I hate to start nit-picking this early,...

I hate to start nit-picking this early, but I am afraid that John Houseman dealt with strict accuracy the old-fashioned way--he spurned it. He speaks of reading “The Golden Bough” in a public park “overlooking the Missouri River in central Kansas.” But the Missouri River touches Kansas only along its upper northeast corner, approximately 200 miles from its center. Then, I gravely doubt that the Southern Pacific ever used a “wood-burning” locomotive to pull his soot-filled lower berth along the Gulf Coast (he probably was on the Sunset Limited). Still, I enjoyed his lovely and nostalgic article, and I’m more than willing to give him another “Second Chance.”

Irvin Borders

Laguna Hills