CATCALL

While I understand that Sylvia Bursztyn and Barry Tunick have to take literary license with making a puzzle, I don’t think they should use words that are totally incorrect. I refer to the clue in last Sunday’s Puzzler, 31 Across, “opalescent gem,” for which the answer to be used is “cat’s-eye.”

Cat’s-eye is a chatoyant gem--in fact, in most dictionaries it is used as the example of “chatoyant,” which means refraction along a single line. Chatoyancy is not opalescence in any way, shape or form--two entirely different forms of refraction.

KATE REEVES

Fullerton