ADOLF & THE VEGETARIANS

Well done! Calendar Letters’ reply to Rachel Rosenthal’s letter (Dec. 7) is surely the cretinism of the year. It breaks new ground in areas The Times has until now timidly skirted: editorial peevishness, desperate witlessness and thundering irrelevance.

Your point about Hitler is, of course, the most devastating, since nutritionists and metaphysicians have proven that prolonged vegetarianism leads inevitably to funny mustaches and membership in white supremacist groups. And I am much assured by the logic: Anti-vegetarians are not fascists because a fascist was a vegetarian!

Right. “Hilter was also a vegetarian.” A lethal refuktatin. The put-down heard ‘round the garden. Vegetarians like myself have much to ponder (but, sadly little to ponder with, equipped as we are with silly, whimsical minds). What fallacy to turn to next? We await your counsel.

People lament the talent drain from journalism, but I see only well-deserved Pulitzers in your future, O anonymous pundit. You have exploded so many illusions: We thought we were doing the right thing at the expense of the conveniency thing, obeying conscience rather than appetite, but all along we were endorsing Hitler.

RAY HASU

Glendale