Slate: blank. Face: red.

On page one of your December/00 issue, in the squib referring to the cover photo of President Randel, you say he is posed for "a tabula rosa portrait." The background, probably meant to be white, does have a slight violet tinge to it, but it is definitely not rose. Nor maroon either, although his University of Chicago tie certainly is. Was your writer thinking sub rosa? Or perhaps it was early in the morning and your squib writer noticed rododaktuloj Hoj coming up over Lake Michigan.

In fairness, I should point out that, out of curiosity, I did a search on the Internet and came up with over 300 sites that had made the same mistake for tabula rasa.

Robert R. Walsh, AM'90
Richmond, Virginia

---

I think you meant to write tabula rasa rather than tabula rosa. Either that, or your tabula rosa involves a pun that, despite my 13 years of university education (three at Chicago), I've somehow managed to miss.

Charles M. Whitman, DB'66
Evanston, Illinois

---