THE WINNER, BY A GILL

Golly! Was I ever glad to have read Elaine May’s interview with Mike Nichols (“Still in Fine Feather,” March 3), where she says that he “races” trout. I’ve had a couple of them trouts around the house here for years that I’ve thought were pretty fast, but I had no basis for comparison. Perhaps Mike and I can have our trouts meet at some neutral site to see who has the fastest one.

RICHARD R. JOHNSON

Los Angeles

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At first I thought it was a typo, but then I thought, well, if anyone would race trout, it would be Mike Nichols.

AL GRESSLER

Thousand Oaks

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If the movie “The Birdcage” is half as funny as May’s interview with Nichols, it will be the movie of the century. OK, millennium.

NORA BARSUK

Glendale

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There was one major flaw in your Elaine May/Mike Nichols feature: It was too short! Theirs is an example when more is more!

JEAN LEWIS

Los Angeles

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I enjoyed May’s interview with Nichols very much. But when I went to my cookbook to find shoo-fly pie and apple pandowdy, alas, neither recipe was there. I wonder if Calendar would print the recipes for those of us who would like to have our eyes light up and our stomachs say “Howdy.”

CLAUDIA PEARCE

San Diego

The Times’ Food section printed recipes for apple pandowdy on Oct. 19, 1995, and for shoo-fly pie on July 8, 1993, and Nov. 18, 1993. An issue later this year will focus on dowdies, grunts, slumps and buckles, its editor promises.

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That was the most entertaining piece I have ever read in Calendar. I suggest you offer Elaine May a job at once--preferably Robert Hilburn’s.

ELLEN BROWN

Canoga Park