Bigger Picture

Re "As Smog Thickens So Does the Debate," May 24: Your story on "weekend smog" missed several key points. Ozone smog is not our only air-quality problem. Fine-particulate pollution, also known as PM2.5, creates hazy vistas and is an equal if not greater threat to health. It has been linked to a wide range of health effects from increased hospital admissions to early deaths. Since a major portion of PM2.5 is composed of nitrogen compounds, we cannot reduce PM2.5 levels without reducing nitrogen-oxide emissions.

If she is remembered at all, art critic and writer Amy Goldin is remembered as the most important theorist of the Pattern and Decoration movement. Golden died of cancer in 1978 at 52. Had she lived longer, she may have been recognized for all of her other passionate and nuanced insights. For many art writers, she's an "ace in the hole" -- someone to read if you want an attitude adjustment, if you want to read a grown-up who isn't writing just about the art world but about the world.

At least Michael Gilmore admits what many of us have long suspected -- Darwinians are just as religious as anyone ("Feeling at Home in a Scientific World," Commentary, Feb. 11). He waxes poetic about finding a "true religious sense" in evolution, in a blind universe where we can be "star stuff contemplating star stuff." I'm sorry if I'm not moved by that. Darwinism is a religion with a profoundly empty source. The supposed "facts" of purposeless descent are being increasingly exposed as fallacious.

Edward Norton is eating a burrito. It seems more a pastime that would have better suited Ed Norton, as he was known before he became famous. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Edward does not use a faux-familiar nickname like Tom, Brad, Matt or Ben; he's made it clear that he's not the guy who would ever end up in a Tiger Beat poster or deemed by People magazine the sexiest man alive.

The definitive book on Baja's cave paintings ("A Trek to Hidden Troves of Rock Art," Oct. 27) is "The Cave Paintings of Baja California," written by Harry Crosby and published by Copley Books. Sally Gutman Studio City

Too often, demolition precedes design, according to a designer who routinely sees home improvers tiptoe their way to results that are skillfully done but short on aesthetics. Homeowners should copy the "user base" approach taken by professional designers, said Melissa Birdsong, director of trend forecasting and design for Lowe's, a national chain of home centers. This process examines the relationship of design to who will use the room and how they will use it.

With the personal computer industry's obsessive focus on microprocessor speed, the PC device that dominates most consumers' desks--the monitor--has gotten comparatively little attention. But with the rise of the Net and falling computer equipment prices, consumers have begun putting more emphasis on bigger PC screens to get a better view of the colorful, multimedia content on the Internet.

If you thought George W. Bush said in Tuesday's televised debate that all elderly Americans would have affordable prescription drug coverage if he were president, you could be forgiven. If you thought Vice President Al Gore said the Clinton-Gore administration had slashed the federal bureaucracy by 300,000 jobs, you would have good reason. Those no doubt were the impressions the presidential candidates wanted to leave. But it was not quite what they said or what their programs would do.