Excesses of Forbes

How sweet it is that the five children of Malcolm Forbes banded together to fly 600 friends and business associates to Tangier, Morocco, for a 48-hour-long birthday celebration “fit for a sultan” (“Forbes Fete,” by Betty Goodwin, Aug. 18). I do hope that during those 48 hours, Forbes got a chance to be introduced to all of those guests who have been invited for business reasons. And all that jet lag in 48 hours! Yeccht!!!

On the other hand, the money spent for Forbes’ 70th birthday is the most outrageous display of hedonism since Marie Antoinette gave her galas amid the starving peasants of France. Of course, the affair will be written off as business expense with no thought whatsoever of all the good the money being spent could go instead to helping some of the thousands of homeless in this country. What a shameful disregard of human misery amid so much of it. Off with their heads!

DELICIA BRACEGIRDLE, Carson