Perhaps you heard that this week saw the US Postal Service unveil a new 42-cent Frank Sinatra stamp on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the death of "Old Blue Eyes" and "The Chairman of the Board."

(It also helped mark the occasion of postal rates going up, which apparently will now happen in 1-cent increments each May, which is OK by me since I think the postal rates are one of the great bargains we still have. Other countries charge a lot more.)

Well, the choice of Sinatra is perfectly OK and perfectly understandable and maybe even desirable, even if he did have ties to orgnaized crime.

But this week also saw the death of the influential artist Robert Rauschenberg.

So Art Talk is wondering: If we look more at art and less at entertainment, who would you like see on American postage stamps as far classical musicians, the fine arts and the performing arts are concerned?

This spring, for example, marks the 50th anniversary of pianist Van Cliburn's victory in Moscow when he won the first Tchaikovsky competition and helped thaw the Cold War. Should Cliburn be put on a stamp? (Or are the living excluded from consideration?) A good black-and-white photo of Cliburn with Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev (see the photo above left) would probably make a great looking stamp, don;t you think?

Maybe it would help the arts and classical music scene among young people to put some major American figures on stamps, especially if they are still living. Someone like, say, cellist Yo-Yo Ma or singer Renee Fleming or composer William Bolcom.

Some other names, all of deceased figures, come immediately to my mind as possibilities: Composers Edward MacDowell and Ruth Crawford Seeger, pianists William Kapell and Rosalyn Tureck, singers Richard Tucker and Marian Anderson, conductor Leonard Bernstein, cellist Leonard Rose, artist Roy Lichtenstein.

Who would you nominate?

Of course the odds are low you'll get your way. According to an Associated Press news story, 50,000 proposals for commemorative stamps are made each year.

But hey, let's have fun with some wishful thinking.

Let Art Talk know whose faces you would like to see on stamps to celebrate performers, composers, performers, creators, etc.

Maybe someone from the Postal Service will be reading and agree and then do something about it.