Vicki Hearne

I just wish Ernest Hemingway were still around in the Cosmos, bellied up to Harry's Bar and American Grill, so that he could have a nice talk with Vicki Hearne, author of "The White German Shepherd." She'd set him straight, and quick. "You know," Ernest might say to Vicki, "you don't look half bad for a girl. Let's go out to another bistro, or better yet, let's take in a bullfight.

Male readers: At first several glances, "Intimate Nature--The Bond Between Women and Animals," edited by Linda Hogan, Deena Metzger and Brenda Peterson (Fawcett Columbine, 1998, $27) is gonna strike you as pretentious, portentous and sappy. You're gonna get the willies reading about the sensitive artiste who seems to mistake her llama for her therapist, or the ego-unbalanced naifs who assert that some creature has come to them with a special message from the collective cosmic soul.

The correct spelling is "damn-yankee," or, alternatively, "dam-yankee," but never "damn Yankee." "Damn Yankee" is what Dodgers fans used to say. Nothing to do with Texas. VICKI HEARNE Westbrook, Conn.

Children cup their hands over them and hold keenly still against the plump and Pop of their flight. It matters to let go quickly for the rhythm of the thing, capture and grasping are release as with thought From "The Parts of Light" by Vicki Hearne. (The Johns Hopkins University Press: $12.95; 79 pp.) 1994 Reprinted by permission.

As I have read about the "Project X" controversy, I have become more and more curious about how animals that work in movies are treated. According to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Vicki Hearne's story was "The Trainers' Side of the Controversy." Now, I would like to hear the other side. WANDA BOWSER Mission Hills

Thanks for Vicki Hearne's tidy narrative "The Philosopher's Cat" (Nov. 3) . And thanks for that delightful photograph of Jack. I look deep into those tabby eyes and study that intelligent face, and, with apologies to Larry Wright, I wonder with awe, "Who is the philosopher and who is the philosophee ?" Larry Hugbee Burbank

Children cup their hands over them and hold keenly still against the plump and Pop of their flight. It matters to let go quickly for the rhythm of the thing, capture and grasping are release as with thought From "The Parts of Light" by Vicki Hearne. (The Johns Hopkins University Press: $12.95; 79 pp.) 1994 Reprinted by permission.

ANIMAL HAPPINESS by Vicki Hearne. (HarperCollins: $20; 256 pp.) Vicki Hearne, animal trainer, poet and philosopher, has been writing delightfully and with much delight about animals for decades. In the proud tradition of James Thurber she pauses not a moment in her assumption that humans were put on the planet to live up to the expectations and high moral standards of dogs.

As the screenwriter of "Project X," I want to thank you for your in-depth article exploring the trainers' side of the cruelty controversy ("Animals in Hollywood--Actors or Victims?" by Vicki Hearne, Dec. 11). I know Hubert Wells and Mark Hardin, and I find them to be decent, compassionate and intelligent men. I was on the set for a good part of the movie, and I never witnessed them or the other trainers abusing any of the chimpanzees. It's a cruel irony to make an animal rights film and have it condemned for the very issues that it speaks out against.

ANIMAL HAPPINESS by Vicki Hearne. (HarperCollins: $20; 256 pp.) Vicki Hearne, animal trainer, poet and philosopher, has been writing delightfully and with much delight about animals for decades. In the proud tradition of James Thurber she pauses not a moment in her assumption that humans were put on the planet to live up to the expectations and high moral standards of dogs.

The correct spelling is "damn-yankee," or, alternatively, "dam-yankee," but never "damn Yankee." "Damn Yankee" is what Dodgers fans used to say. Nothing to do with Texas. VICKI HEARNE Westbrook, Conn.

As I have read about the "Project X" controversy, I have become more and more curious about how animals that work in movies are treated. According to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Vicki Hearne's story was "The Trainers' Side of the Controversy." Now, I would like to hear the other side. WANDA BOWSER Mission Hills

As the screenwriter of "Project X," I want to thank you for your in-depth article exploring the trainers' side of the cruelty controversy ("Animals in Hollywood--Actors or Victims?" by Vicki Hearne, Dec. 11). I know Hubert Wells and Mark Hardin, and I find them to be decent, compassionate and intelligent men. I was on the set for a good part of the movie, and I never witnessed them or the other trainers abusing any of the chimpanzees. It's a cruel irony to make an animal rights film and have it condemned for the very issues that it speaks out against.

I just wish Ernest Hemingway were still around in the Cosmos, bellied up to Harry's Bar and American Grill, so that he could have a nice talk with Vicki Hearne, author of "The White German Shepherd." She'd set him straight, and quick. "You know," Ernest might say to Vicki, "you don't look half bad for a girl. Let's go out to another bistro, or better yet, let's take in a bullfight.