Editor's note: Perhaps we didn't see the forest for the trees. We did cite the article on the gulf oil spill on the cover, but apparently not prominently enough. We appreciate our readers' careful scrutiny and will review future covers more carefully.

As nurses, we often need to have nerves and stomachs of steel, but the placement of the title of the lead article, "Conservative Management of Fecal Incontinence," just below the September issue's cover photo is disconcerting-the contents of the jars in this image look a little too much like stool. The subject of the photo, the gulf oil spill's impact, isn't identified until page 18.

But thank you for providing information on both of these topics. Each is very important yet isn't addressed often enough.

Michelle Orcutt, RN

Minneapolis