Sir, - Congratulations to Tom Humphries. He showed great vision by being one of the first Irish journalists to spot the opportunities presented by the new profession of expert drug-test commentator. Very soon after the Olympics he was, in his Monday column in The Irish Times, among the earliest to warn us that we should not be blind to the possibility that heroines can have feet of clay.
The fact that he has well and truly established himself in this new profession was evident from the fact that your edition of May 1st included no fewer than five separate reports or features written by him. Incidentally, he may also be credited with having invented a new phrase, "could be would be", which should be most useful in the area of speculative journalism. His gripping article on "Gravity" on page 17 included the words: "A significant fall in specific gravity between first measurement and second could be would be an indication of tampering somewhere in the chain of custody . . .".
I suspect that I share with many thousands a genuine love of Tom's off-beat style and his tongue-in-cheek approach to sports. I hope that events - and you, dear editor - will allow him to get back to his old-style articles as soon as he can retire from his new profession. - Yours, etc.,
Gerry Ryan,
Oakley Park, Blackrock, Co Dublin.