Frank Sinatra

Some ideas about aging in Murray Kempton’s article (Commentary, Nov. 18) on Frank Sinatra bothered me.

He can’t be “tender” or “mean.” He has no more “illusions of anger and . . . romance.” He is “cured . . . of achings for what (he) cannot have.”

These statements might be true for Kempton. How could he know how Sinatra feels? It sounds as though the author thinks Frank is not only breathless but lifeless as well.

Sinatra’s new “Duets” album is second on the billboard chart and has sold a million copies. “He has nothing to aspire to” can’t be true. I believe he is planning another album.

Older people are productive. They are living longer and healthier lives.

I’m 68 and still wear bobby sox. I swoon when Sinatra sings.

LOIS LEVINE

Los Angeles

* Sinatra sings in the wonderful album “Trilogy,” “ . . . When the cat with the scythe comes tugging at my sleeve, I’ll be singing as I leave.” Let’s let him do it his way and be thankful we had him.

MRS. JERRY MEYER

Irvine

* Kempton’s implication that only singers who are contemporaries of the great American songwriters can know what their lyrics really mean shows that Kempton is not listening to today’s great singers. He should listen to Mary Cleere Haran singing the lyrics of Larry Hart or Andrea Marcovicci singing the words of Jerome Kern’s lyrical collaborators such as Dorothy Fields.

He would then realize that the meaning of the lyrics is timeless, and a sensitive singer of any generation can interpret them.

LESTER TRAUB

Beverly Hills