The photo accompanying Peter Baker's May 7 news story "Memories of Soviet Repression Still Vivid in Baltics" had a rather benign caption that belied its content. I wonder whether the editors who chose the picture were aware of its significance.

The picture showed two signs in a storefront in Riga, Latvia. One featured a peace symbol and the words "Imagine, George!" The other showed President Bush with raised arms over the phrase "Welcome Peace Duke." Your caption blandly observed, "Storefronts in Riga display posters of President Bush, who arrived in the Latvian capital Friday to meet with the leaders of the three Baltic states." Indeed.

But to a Russian speaker, the message of the second poster was clear: "Peace Duke" is a cross-language verbal pun. Pronounced "Pizdyuk," its Russian homonym has a crude reference to the female anatomy as its root and renders in English as something you're not likely to print with editorial letters.

If you did this on purpose, well, some of us salute you. If you did not, don't feel bad that you got suckered; people of the former Soviet Union are quite clever at getting political nose-thumbings past the guardians of the media. They had a long practice period, and to quote your article on Soviet oppression, "It's still a very, very living and present topic."
-- Danny Collier