Sir.—Perhaps the headline for Dr Stiehm's lament, "Being Just a Husband Is No Fun" should be amended to read, "My Social Attitude Is No Fun."
He's missed the reason for his fall from status as a "big wheel" in Los Angeles to that of a "nonperson" when he visits his wife, a provost of a large university in Miami, Fla.
He's not, as he contends, a victim of a bicoastal marriage. His problem is a simple case of snobbery.
The examples he lists of encounters with his wife's colleagues at her Christmas party in Miami reveal that outside of his own milieu, he can't converse his way out of a paper bag.
Imagine the hardships of having to speak to members of his wife's professional community who discuss pets, mixed doubles, and, horror of horrors, a lowly associate professor who "criticizes the acoustics in the room." To make things