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Donald A. Philipp '51 Reseda, CA

My comments are in response to the article titled 'Life Preserver' in the April 2007 issue of UCLA Magazine. Both current and past medical staff as well as all alumni might be amused to discover that graduation ceremonies for all students in the classes of 1950 and 1951 were actually held in the Hollywood Bowl, because the existing amphitheater located north of Le Conte was being razed for the 'First Atomic Era Hospital.' You can imagine the smug smiles of my colleagues subsequently at the University of Minnesota, where I was studying for a master's degree, when they found out that I physically graduated from the Hollywood Bowl — presumably with dark glasses.

Jasmine Taylor Oakland, CA

It is absolutely wonderful that you chose to publish an article on Juliana Jones ['Trajectory,' January 2007]. Ms. Jones is a wonderful person and an inspiring teacher. She is the reason I am doing so well in school now. Ms. Jones was my algebra teacher in the eighth grade, and now I am in trigonometry at Skyline High School as a sophomore. Thank you for writing this article, and I hope you continue to write many more on the subject of great teachers.

John H. Zimmerman '82 Nicosia, Cyprus

In the April 2007 piece 'Road to Ruins,' Phil Hampton details an alumni trip to North Africa that included a stop in Algeria. As Mr. Hampton notes, 'internecine bloodshed' took the lives of 200,000 in the 1990s ... I was living next door in Tunisia for nine months during 1997-'98, and I would describe as slaughter what was occurring in Algeria at that time. The horrors of Algeria in the 1990s, and the continued terror and repression the last several years, strike most those completely innocent of any wrongdoing or affiliation with any group. In the simplest terms, there is no good vs. bad or government vs. extremist, but often bad and much worse.

Justin Ruhge M.S. '67 Ann Ruhge '55 Lompoc, CA

In your April 2007 edition of UCLA Magazine was an article titled 'Road to Ruins.' In 2005 my wife and I made a similar trip to Egypt with Grand Circle Tours. We were surrounded by the army and secret police from the time we arrived in Egypt until the time we left. We saw most of the antiquities in Egypt, went to Alexandria and then down the Nile to Aswan by boat in two weeks. They like American money but have to protect us from ... Muslim radicals.

F.W. Schott Professor Emeritus, UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, Westwood, CA

Re: January 2007, page 54 ['Trajectory']: Let's replace the old adage with a new one: 'Those who can, do; those who understand, teach.'

Published Jul 1, 2007 8:00 AM