I too was appalled by the treatment Aretha Franklin received in the New York Times year-end issue. Even as a child Aretha had a sense of self and of style. She also was beautiful, and certainly part of that beautiful was her lovely skin tone. Always enhanced by the latest in fashion. As a child on radio in St. Louis I already was working with black people and making friends with black kids (there were plenty of opportunities to do that, even during segregation) and I soon learned the beauty of black people with their infinite variety. When I started college, it was at a junior college, 50 per cent black, 50 per cent white, and so I had black and white friends and the black ladies in particular arrived at school looking like movie stars. I asked one why so dressy and she responded "We are the first people in our families to go to college; we owe it to our parents to look business-like," I particularly don't like the Times cover because black women have always had a broad palette of skin tones and it was makes them particularly beautiful. I have net know one who looks like an animated piece of dark chocolate, as does the Times portrayal. I have met and worked with the gamut of famous black artists in the music field, including the amazing talent at Motown, and always admired their sense of class and their sense of style and above all their warmth and intelligence.