But what about this Tiki icon?

RE “Paradise Down the Street” [Feb. 16]: I was sorry that you left out my introduction to Tikidom -- the James Michener-created television series “Adventures in Paradise” (1959-62), starring Gardner McKay as the skipper Adam Troy. With a Tiki icon on a leather string tied tight around his neck, McKay was a hunk that many teenage girls drooled over. I decorated my bedroom with Tiki statues and a grass rug, hung fishnets with colored glass bubbles and fantasized about Skipper Troy. It was my little bit of paradise in a Sacramento tract home.

JUDY GRAFE

Marina del Rey

*

WHILE interesting, the Tiki piece blithely skipped over a growing problem in settled housing areas: the conversion of garages into habitable areas. The article did not mention whether one of the owners replaced the garage’s parking spaces. Some may consider this a technicality but I can assure these folk that no matter how attractive the room may be to a columnist, the neighbors probably are not all happy about the interior remodel.

ERIC DAVID

Long Beach