Flying squirrels: nvo ghosts in a snowstorm 



Seiichi Meguro; Nature Production 



animal cells; perhaps changes in the pro- 

 teins that confer resistance demonstrate 

 "convergent evolution at the molecular 

 level." 



Roger Prince 

 Pittstown, New Jersey 



Inconsistent Sexual Politics 



I have just belatedly received the No- 

 vember 1993 issue of Natural History and 

 cannot fathom how you managed to pub- 

 lish Stephen Jay Gould's "The Sexual Pol- 

 itics of Classification" and "A Goddess 

 Unveiled," by Harry Y. McSween, Jn, in 

 the same issue. Gould's article is almost 

 comically sensitive to gender stereotyping 

 in the nature writings of past centuries. Yet 

 a few pages farther on, readers are ex- 

 pected to accept a contemporary author's 

 use of a metaphor in which the planet 



Venus is a seemingly beautiful goddess 

 who, when stripped naked by science, is 

 revealed as an "old floozy" with pimples, 

 wrinkles, blemishes, blisters, and sores 

 that suggest an interesting past. The latter 

 is far more vicious an image than anything 

 quoted by Gould. 



Eileen Fielding 

 Chesterton, Indiana 



Evolution of Cakes 



In her sidebar, "The Twelfth Cake" (in 

 "The Rise of the British Wedding Cake," 

 December 1993), Bridget Ann Henisch 

 laments the collapse of the Christmastime 

 and Epiphany celebrations by the end of 

 the last century. Actually, such obser- 

 vances continued in southern Louisiana. 

 Today, the traditions and games linger in 

 the form of King Cakes, which begin to 



appear with the Twelfth Night parties that 

 launch the Mardi Gras season. 



Frederick Stielow 

 New Orleans, Louisiana 



Simon Charsley's article on wedding 

 cakes brought to mind the words of The 

 Woman's Home Companion Cookbook, 

 published in New York by Colliers in 

 1943. 



On page 750 we are advised: 



The true wedding cake is a rich fruit cake. It 

 may be decorated and placed on a reception 

 table or it may be packed in small boxes to 

 hand to the guests as they leave. In the latter 

 case, a bride's cake may be used on the 

 table. The bride's cake is usually a white 

 cake, pound cake, sponge cake, or light fruit 

 cake. Frequently the true wedding cake is 

 dispensed with and only the bride's cake is 

 used. 



Decorate with lilies of the valley.. . .an at- 

 tractive addition is a series of streamers of 

 lilies of the valley running from top to bot- 

 tom. Surround the cake with real flowers.. . . 



As the baker on the vessel Inspiration, I 

 use this cookbook a lot, but I am not going 

 to make such a cake. 



William F. Steagall, Sr. 

 La Paz, Mexico 



An Extra Ghost 



January's "Natural Moment" photo 

 ("Ghost in a Snowstorm") by Seiichi Me- 

 guro was a deUght, and tiie patience of the 

 photographer seems to have been weU re- 

 warded. However, you may have inissed a 

 second tiny ghost in the snowy scene — an- 

 other wide-eyed flying squirrel attached to 

 the trunk of a tree, below and to the 

 viewer's left of flie feahired performer. I 

 feel this apparition should have been given 

 equal billing. 



James Randi 

 Plantation, Florida 



Errata: In the April 1994 issue, the 

 article on Caribbean dugongs, "West 

 Indian Tuskers," states that modern 

 dugongs uproot sea grasses with their 

 tusks. This, an editorial extrapolation, is 

 in error. According to author Daryl 

 Domning, dugongs (like manatees) can 

 uproot small rhizomes of sea grasses with 

 their snouts; the tusks are used in combat. 

 We apologize for the mistake. 



Clear Creek, shown on page 42 in our No- 

 vember 1993 issue ("Damming the Past"), 

 flows into die Arkansas River, not the Col- 

 orado. Natural History regrets the editor- 

 ial error, which several readers brought to 

 our attention. 



6 Natural History 5/94 



