We were five days in Berlin in August ’05. On three of those days we were guided privately by Markus Mueller-Tenckhoff (Markgrafenstr. 39, 10117 Berlin, Germany; phone 0049 [0] 160 80 88 011, www.markusmuellertenckhoff.de or www.guidesinberlin.de/markus).

Markus went at a pace that seniors can handle and made sure that we saw all of the sights worth seeing. He was able to tell us a tremendous amount of history and show us East Berlin, North Berlin, Jewish sites, galleries, museums and...

In the letter “Ancient Carthage Secret” (April ’06, pg. 39), the assertion that Carthage won the first two Punic Wars is wrong. Rome won all three Punic Wars. Only the second one was a close call, with the Romans suffering years of defeats before winning the battle of Xama over Hannibal and restricting the Carthaginian empire to the city of Carthage.

The writer is correct that the Romans destroyed Carthage after the third Punic War, only to rebuild it some years later as a colony....

In the February ’06 “Ask Steve” column, Mr. Venables wrote about beating jet lag. I must take issue with his comment, “… over-the-counter melatonin or prescription drugs… help with the sleeping going over but don’t do much for your inner clock.”

It is well known to those who deal with jet lag, and to researchers in the field, that appropriate use of melatonin resets one’s circadian clock and hence is of great value in dealing with shift work, jet lag or any other such circadian...