To the Editor: I read with interest Brooks’ letter on the value of professorial titles.1 It is not only in academic circles that the subject sometimes arouses passions. A short while ago, my wife had reason to speak sternly to our two young children. Losing the plot, my daughter replied, “What would you know, mum? You’re not a professor.” At that moment in this household, as I found myself slinking towards my study, the status of a professorial title — at least in my wife’s eyes — amounted to very little.