SEVEN-YEAR GLITCH

In your Letters column (Aug. 21), Fred Bauman of Riverside, commenting on your piece on my wife, Diane Sawyer (Aug. 7), claims, in a hot news flash, that he and I attended school together in Berlin and that as he is 69, I am 69, not 62.

I congratulate Mr. Bauman on being able to remember anyone from the first grade. I remember only two or three people from college.

I was born in November, 1931. In 1939, I attended the school Bauman refers to for two months before going to the United States in May. I was 7. The reason for the disparity in our ages is that in Jewish schools in Berlin during the ‘30s, children of different ages were in the same class.

My passport is available for purposes of ascertaining my age. It is dispiriting to have someone unknown to me reach out from the grave, which is what 69 is--who are we kidding--to try to do me harm. Sixty-two is tough enough.

MIKE NICHOLS

New York

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Shame on you, Mr. Bauman! You must be a very mean-spirited creature to be prompted to write a nasty, bitchy letter about the age of another person. It’s none of your business.

What a shallow existence you must lead to be preoccupied by other people’s ages. And shame on you, Calendar, for printing his letter!

DIANA HALE

Los Angeles