The Ecphorizer

Letters - Issue 18

Issue #18 (February 1983)

Dear Editor:

Here is a useful tip for your readers. When driving east on Interstate 80, always carry a nickel, dime, and quarter for the toll on the Carquinez Bridge. Get into the extreme left lane and head for the automatic toll-taker. Throw the nickel in the hopper first. This is usually all it takes to get a green light. If it doesn't work, try the dime next. At worst, you'll lose 40 cents, but nine times out of ten the nickel will turn the trick. Also, don't bring this to the attention of the Toll Bridge Authority.

An Infomaniac


Dear Editor:

I am interested in readers' dreams. If you could trade places with anyone alive, who would it be? Please send your answer (in a page or less) to:

James Katic
[outdated address deleted]

Dear Editor:

I am a rather late subscriber to THE ECPHORIZER but need to comment on the article by Gareth Penn in the 9th issue, May 1982 . ...I knew Grant Mahony and went to US Air Corps Flying School in Glendale with him in 1939...

Grant Mahony graduated with honors and had the unusual circumstance of, upon being accepted for flight training, having to get his parents' signatures because at the time of acceptance of the training he was not yet 21 years of age. Actually I had gotten beyond that stage a few months before he had, but that still left us as the two youngest flying cadets in Glendale at the time...

Subsequently I ran into him in Sydney, Australia, and then once after that in Taclovan on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. He had aged considerably and was no longer the bright, blue-eyed, dark-wavy-haired, friendly-looking Irishman I had known just a few years before. War does terrible things to people. Even prior to killing them. Aside from the hero aspects of my acquaintance with Grant, he was one of those who are just really great to know and have as a friend. I thank Mr. Penn for filling me in on the rest of his life and his death as a "24-karat hero."

Fred Schumacher
Portland, OR 


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