Witches

There's something inspiring for old-fashioned book lovers out there about an early scene in Deborah Harkness' novel "A Discovery of Witches" (Viking: 579 pp., $28.95). Magical creatures suddenly gather as a woman opens a legendary lost book. Never mind that most of these creatures ? vampires, daemons, witches ? are all plotting to get the book out of the hands of Diana, an American professor on a research trip in England. Menace aside, the scene is almost an hommage to the printed word: There's far more magic in an old book than in an iPad no matter how good the latter's backlighting is. "My fingers trembled when I loosened the small brass clasps?

Harrison states that in Winthrop's New England "witches, of course, were burned." I deny it. Yes, 19 were hanged in Salem; 10 at other places; two died in prison. But I know of no record of the burning of witches in New England. SHELBY J. LIGHT Long Beach

I take issue with the use of the words "Witch" or "Witchcraft" in general and specifically in the item "Workshop Explores Religious Diversity" in Valley Focus (Sept. 25). The word "Witch" should always be capitalized as is the custom when describing the adherent of any other religion, as should the word "Witchcraft" when naming the religion. By not properly capitalizing these words in this context, you denigrate and belittle the validity of our faith. Years after federal courts declared [Wicca]

A group of pagans and witches is holding a festival in a rural, deeply religious village, and not everyone is welcoming them. Members of the Reading Pagans and Witches group are holding their Celebrating Earth Spirituality Festival today in a picturesque section of Adamstown known as Stoudtburg Village, about an hour northwest of Philadelphia. Some shop owners say they plan to close for the day because they don't agree with the Reading group's beliefs. A church is organizing a wall of prayer around the festival in protest.

Colombian witches will have to stop teaching their craft over the radio. Communications Minister Noemi Sanin Posada said Thursday she will take steps against 11 radio stations that are ignoring her warnings against transmitting programs with magicians, sorcerers and fortunetellers. The minister said her office is also investigating the style of various radio sportscasters, because their emotional descriptions of sports like soccer apparently incite aggression and violence in their listeners.

Re "Heading toward the 'dark side,' " Opinion, Nov. 21 Once again, Vice President Dick Cheney and his, I mean, President Bush's, administration ignore not only sound ethical bases for prohibiting torture, but reality as well: Information gained by torture is not reliable. After all, the Spanish Inquisition uncovered thousands of witches because everyone who was tortured confessed and named other witches, who were then tortured and named other witches, who ... and so on. Those clerics who had the courage to point out the flaw in the system were often tortured and killed themselves.

The Halloween witches' predictions from the New York Center for the Strange are worth a few cackles. In its 14th annual list, the center, which claims to be in contact with most of the nation's real witches, says that in 1988 Lt. Col. Oliver L. North will open a franchise chain of military summer camps. If that's not enough toil and trouble for you, the witches also predict that Michael Jackson will try to adopt Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.

Interesting article on witches. But let me pick a few nits and add some background. The first word of your opening quotation should be Sumer, not Summer. Its words and the accompanying tune are the oldest known canon (or round). (A round is a tune that repeats, like in "Row, Row Your Boat.") According to the Harvard Dictionary of Music, Sumer was written probably in the 13th Century at Reading Abbey in England. Others pin it down to John Fornsete, a monk at the Abbey, in 1226.