PAIN IN THE R’S

Ooops! Rudolfo Anaya’s book, reviewed by Kevin Mcilvoy Aug. 30, is titled “Alburquerque”--not “Albuquerque,” as in the name of contemporary New Mexican city.

Otherwise, the revelation that the city “might have kept its original spelling if not for the Anglo stationmaster in the 1880s who remembered to paint both q’s but could not remember both r’s” makes no sense.

Alas, it appears that today’s computerized spell-checker is no more accurate than the 19th-Century sign-painter!

DINAH BERLAND, LOS ANGELES