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WHO GRADUATED WHOM? Departing editor Bob Cohn titled his farewell column "Graduating Stanford -- Again" (First Impressions, March/April). With a bachelor's degree earned in '85 and 10 years reporting for Newsweek, how did he escape learning that Stanford graduated him and not vice versa? Ralph Perlberger, '53 New York, New York   Bob Cohn describes Stanford as the "epicenter" of Silicon Valley. But the epicenter of an earthquake is the point on the earth's survace vertically above the center of the quake, which lies at some depth in the earth's crust. Surely, Stanford is the "center" of Silicon Valley. Nothing is more central than the center. Glenn E. Sorensen Jr., '59 Barre, Vermont   BARELY AFLOAT Your item on the new $3 million boathouse (Farm Report, November/December) reminded me of my own crew-related experience. Two fellow hashers at Lagunita recruited me to help get the crew's "coaching launch" running. The launch was an ugly beast bought from a prune grower with money raised entirely by the rowing team and friends. The prune grower had used his own ideas of design, providing power with a Ford "60" V-8 automobile engine. We did manage to get the engine working, but it would repeatedly overheat and quit on us out in the Bay. Even when the engine was running, it was virtually impossible to get up enough speed to get the hull "up on the step," and the shells -- even the practice "barges" -- would outpace the coaching launch. Still, our crew teams were good, competing well against some of the East Coast schools, as I recall, using shells donated by the University of Washington when that school acquired new ones. Fortunately, someone donated funds the following year to replace the prune grower's monstrosity. But a $3 million boathouse? Unheard of! John B. Onken, MBA '49 Dearborn, Michigan   NOT BAD FOR DINOSAURS Below is a photo from the October reunion of the ROTC men of '44 ("Mission Accomplished," January/February). Even though we are dinosaurs, we are a pretty good-looking group. Robert Farrar, '44 La Jolla, California AT EASE: Former ROTC cadets (from left, back) Marv Greene, Norm Wintemute, Hal Freemon, Russ Collier, Lou Sloss, Bob Sylva, Bob McNeal, Max Myers, (front) Bill Green, Len Levy, John Galen, Dick Keusink, Bob Farrar, Bob Hannah and Bern Bernhard trained together on campus. Peter Fox Address correspondence to: Letters to the Editor STANFORD Bowman Alumni House Stanford, CA 94305-4005 Or fax to (650) 725-8676; or e-mail to stanford.magazine@stanford.edu. Letters may be edited for length, clarity and civility.

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