Alas

Poor Pete Rose, another club he can't get into, ESPN's top 50 athletes of all time. So what does he do? He blasts the Babe Ruth of swimming, Mark Spitz, whose seven gold medals in seven world-record times at the 1972 Olympics separated him from all others who have ever competed in a pool. It's interesting to note that Pete didn't question the inclusion of Secretariat in the ESPN pantheon, perhaps having made a few mortgage payments off the sweat of the mighty steed. Alas, in spite of Pete's protestations, I understand that the head of ESPN is refusing to reconsider.

Re the picture accompanying Dick Roraback's review of "Monday's Warriors" (Feb. 16), the method of "fighting" used by the peaceful Maoris of New Zealand was to line up in opposing groups to make ugly faces at one another until one side gave up. Anyone initiating physical violence during this "battle" would be killed by his own peers. Alas, the Maoris were obliged to unite to fight with their own primitive weapons when the British arrived. . . . MARY J. McLAUGHLIN, RANCHO PALOS VERDES

Jack Miles' piece about "Ishmael" was one of the very best to ever appear. . . . I have worked on the problem of extinction for some time, and have a paper coming out in Science proposing that we carry out a wide, systematic sample collection and freezing of many species, because we aren't going to be able to preserve them, alas. The idea is that a century or two from now, we'll be able to study and probably use the genetic heritage of these samples--the "library of life," I call it. GREGORY BENFORD, LAGUNA BEACH.

Re "Death of Saturn dream," editorial, May 3 A year ago, I sold my 1995 Saturn SC-2, which had about 220,000 miles on it. It still looked and ran great. I absolutely would have purchased a 2008 version. Alas, as your editorial stated, there was no compact American Saturn anymore. This company was supposed to be the Toyota/Honda killer; it was headed in the right direction. Unfortunately, between the cowardly corporation and greedy unions, and to my disappointment, this was not to be. Gregory Greenfield Santa Fe Springs :: Another loss in the demise of the Pontiac brand is the dearth of any American Indian name as a constant in public life outside the last weekend in November.

The tech industry has been buzzing in recent weeks about the sudden burst of announcements about wearable computing, and in particular about rumors that Apple is working on some kind of iWatch. But in the view of some Apple fans, such a gadget wouldn't be Apple's first watch. As far as they're concerned, Apple already released -- and then withdrew -- its first watch when it introduced the 6 th generation of its iPod Nano in 2010. STORY: Waiting for Apple's iWatch As part of a larger story about Apple's iWatch plans, I spoke with Scott Wilson, a Chicago-based designer who has been involved in various ways with smartwatch efforts over the years.

'Life is short. Have an affair." That's the slogan of the Ashley Madison dating service, a website for people who want to cheat on their partners. That's right, unlike traditional Internet dating sites -- where you're expected to say you're unattached no matter what the truth is -- Ashley Madison is honest about its duplicity. Unlike match.