for Mozart

Music critic David Patrick Stearns is swell to suggest Mozart might have made a comeback if he hadn't died during the creative decline of his last years ("The later lives of child prodigies," Tuesday).

Products of that decline that come to mind: the Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet; the Requiem; Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutte, and The Magic Flute; the E flat, G minor, and Jupiter symphonies; three string quartets; four string quintets, and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; two piano concertos.

This was one of the most fertile four years of any composer's life.

Maybe it's Stearns who's just having a slump?

Richard Everill

Collingswood

Senate must follow

House's lead

Though I have my qualms with the clean-energy bill narrowly passed by the House last week, I am extremely excited because it is the first piece of climate-change legislation to be passed by either body of Congress.

It is crucial that the Senate also pass this bill, because its provisions will put the United States on the path to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The bill also provides strict standards to increase the use of clean energy.

Aside from preventing further damage to the environment, clean energy will provide Americans with green jobs in the construction and manufacturing industries.

Andy Forrest

Philadelphia

Who believes hike

will be temporary?

Gov. Rendell says his proposed income-tax increase would be eliminated after three years. Let's be real: This is never going to happen. Consider the 1936 Johnstown Flood tax. Not only did this alcohol sales-related tax not go away, but it was even increased in 1963 and 1968, and now generates more than $240 million in annual revenue.

We've been snookered; it is certain to happen again. Why don't lawmakers eliminate waste in the budget before soaking state residents again?

Keith R. Chamberlain