The Continuing Crisis

...tion...

...David Fisse...

...the scuba diver, apparently bit off more than h~" could chew when he promised to exterminate t h e g r e a t white s h a r k t h a t had killed a local surfer, Photographs and stories ofhis long vigil seated on a rock in the Pacific sent him around the bend, and after all this media attention he was finally committed for psychiatric observa...

...In San Francisco, a city bus driver stopped his w:hicle for ow:r a half hour when passengers persisted in staging " J i n g l e Bells" andante despite his protests...

...Once again George J e a n Nathan's wisdom is confirmed: "Whom thc gods would destroy they first make famous...

...9 In r e c e n t y e a r s , the h e i r s attd a s s i g n s of Eleanor Rooseveh have d u r i n g t h i s c h e e r y season temporarily foresaken their struggles with the Eastern Bankers and surviving white s l a v e r s to b r i n g to America's c h i l d r e n t h a t peculiarly sour vision of the world that is the reformer's inspiration and constant condition...

...And there was still more proof last month that the oceans of the world suffer from an overabundance of whales...

...Boushley's death are not known, but plant foremen at the Colorado Brick Company theorize that Mr...

...So are adult films with sadomasochism and killing...

...Throughout the West philippics were w)iced at various decibels from all except French Communist Party chief Georges Marc h a i s , but the s a l i e n t f e a t u r e of the crackdown--though never widely noted--was the m i l i t a r y a c t i o n ' s swift f i n a l i t y . One minute t h e r e was p o l i t i c a l v i t a l i t y , t h e n armor and silence...

...In Pawtucker, Rhode Island, the Christian establishment t h w a r t e d t h e American Civil L i b e r t i e s Union by raising that city's nativity scene on private ground, though they probably could have r a i s e d it on p u b l i c ground - a n d with ACLU approval!--had they the wit to claim it an educational tool fur demonstrating inadequate housing conditions or the capacity of animals and humans to cohabit amiably in a non-capitalist,society...

...No reformer is safe...

...According to t h e commander of the U.S.S...

...Yellowstone, n e a r l y a q u a r t e r of t h a t s h i p ' s female crew became pregnant last year...

...This year the r e f o r m e r s p r i m l y u n v e i l e d t h e i r s a c r e d index of approved playthings for hermaphrodites, but the kids guffawed and Santa Claus took their side...

...Notwithstanding all their dread stratagems, the kids usually triumph...

...Yet the occasion was not t o t a l l y free of ugly p r e j u d i c e , t h e r e being many rcferences by the constabulary as u~ the certitude o f " a quick a r r e s t . " _9 In c u l t u r a l news, v a n d a l s doused Elvis P r e s l e y ' s " e t e r n a l f l a m e " forasecond and pc.:,sibly final time...

...l.ennon's philosophy, held several seminars...

...beginning to participate fully in our society was provided by a thief in Freeport, Long Island, whet) he rode his wheelchair into the Friendly F r e e p o r t Gulf S t a t i o n , brandished a gun, c o l l e c t e d $487, and o r d e r e d a b y s t a n d e r to wheel him off into the dark...

...l.aurel L. Boushley were buried in a private ceremony attended by members of the Boushley family and t h o s e of his f r i e n d s considered mature enough to repress a laugh...

...Arctic winds blew upon American-Israeli relations...

...John (.Johnt!y Wadd) Holmes, the t a l e n t e d s t a r of theatre pornographzque, is under i n d i c t m e n t . Mr l tohnes has written five " c h i l d r e n ' s classics," and he once informed the Ann Arbor News of his l o a t h i n g for the movies of John Wayne ( " t h e r e ' s blood and g u t s everywhere with gallons of stage blood spewed all over...

...9 An indication of the frightening jingoism that is overtaking the country was witnessed in the Milwaukee County Zoo where zoo d i r e c t o r G i l b e r t Boese was b a r r e d from flying t h e American flag at half mast to commemorate the d e a t h of Samson, the z o o ' s most i l l u s t r i o u s gorilla, ht Hasten, Maryland, Mr...

...Two Santa Clauses were mugged, one in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, the other in Benton Harbor, Michigan...

...A third has charged false imprisonment in Oklahoma City, and in Manila six men, possibly members of the Knights of Columbus, were charged with burning a witch beyond recognition...

...His enemies are apparently growing in number and the used-car salesman who has faithft, lly maintained the flame is now a p i t i f u l b a n k r u p t . If you felt a l i t t l e blue on December 8, it can probably be explained by the fact t h a t December 8 was the anniversarv of John I.ennon's death...

...People s e n d t h e i r kids to watch t h a t s t u f f , i t ' s disgusting...

...Now he has been arrested on s u s p i c i o n of t h e bludgeon murders of four Californians last July...

...RFT 2 TIlE AMERICAN SPI'CTATOR I:EBRUARY t982...

...At Nantucket Island, 14 of the vicious beasts spilled onto the shore, causing the usual heahh problems but very little constructive talk about how to rid the world of these aquatic oafs...

...Art lovers all over the world took it pretty hard, but in Kansas City, The l)reamers, that group formed to discuss Mr...

...Four thousand hours of former President Richard Nixon's tapes will be lost until 1987 owing to the Reagan budget cuts...

...Matt Brooks what he t e r m s " a t e r r i b l e s h o c k . " Replying to Mr...

...9 That Princeton University drum major who led an unauthorized p a r a d c following his s c h o o l ' s f o o t b a l l triumph over Cornell has received an official pardon from New .Jersey's Governor Byrne, and in New York there was gloom on the Bowery when p r i v a t e t r a s h c o l l e c t o r s ended a 17-day s t r i k e and began removing those colossal piles of garbagc that had meant so much to so many...

...Brooks had t h o u g h t he was 63...

...9 Apprehension that Japan might be entering upon a rime of social unease similar to our own a r o s e when a Japanese f a c t o r y worker was s t a b b e d to d e a t h b y a r o b o t . InWarrington, England, the government's records office has g i v e n Mr...

...Still, the Christians did_g-uffer some setbacks...

...Boushley have now been recovered from the vat and from nearby equipment...

...District Judge Marion J . Callister ruled that states could still withdraw their EllA ratification and that Congress had committed mayhem on the Constitution by extending the deadline for ratification in 1,)78...

...Precise details of Mr...

...No a t t e m p t will be made to reassemble Mr...

...The KGB never sleeps...

...B r o o k s ' request for retirement information, the record office informed the old boy that he is 79 years old...

...The toy tycoons are reporting a boom season...

...he New Right is playing tough...

...9 S n o r t s and bellows were h e a r d from t h e women o f t h e f e v e r e d brow on December 23 when U.S...

...In Boulder, Colorado, bricks bearing parts of the body of Mr...

...9 And Christmas was a fount of brouhahas in other quarters also...

...Kemal Cem Sekip Deniz wants to l e n g t h e n his name to Turkmenogluen Yilmaz Barburoglu Saras Deniz so that more people will be aware of his Russian heritage and "becavse he faw)rs the policies of the Soviet Union...

...Working through such disagreeable cad,es as the Consumer Affairs Committee of the Americans for Democratic Action and the Non-Sexist Child Development P r o j e c t o f t t , e Women's Action Alliance, the reformers take to the talk show c i r c u i t , d i a b o l i z e t h e toy b a r o n s , and harass parents...

...Boushley, and the parts will be interred at a separate burial plot...

...Boushley perished when he fell into a mixing vat, for additional parts of Mr...

...It is a thing for all disarmament fanatics to contemplate...

...9 F i n a l l y , in l.os Angeles Mr...

...and in Alexandria, Louisiana, a 20-year-old jail inmate who had i n g e s t e d a t o o t h p i c k , t o o t h b r u s h handle, three spoons, and a piece of cloth in a clever attempt to escape, died...

...Our sexually integrated navy may soon come under fire from Planned Parenthood...

...The decision may have been a lethal blow to the mischievous amendment and to the hopes and dreams of all those eager lawyers who had envisioned flush times ahead...

...Two Oceanside, California women took a bath when a con artist placed an out-of-order sign on the night deposit box at a branch of California First Bank, suggesting that nocturnal depositors use a yellow metal box that the scoundrel had left n e a r b y . Proof t h a t t h e handicapped art...

...9 In Monterey, Califi)rnia, Mr...

...Sex and violence proliferated beneath the holly, and most of it was plastic...

...The month began with editorialists all over the Republic solemnizing suave Ron's unhorsing of the 97th Congress and ended with m i l l i o n s of kids squealing merrily over their toy pistols, their bow and arrow s e t s , t h e i r deadly armor divisions, and their dolls, girls' makeup sets, toddlers' brassi&res, literally thousands of sexs p e c i f i c p l a y t h i n g s . It h a s been a t i m e of troubles...

...On December 11, French aficionados of the sorely pressed nouvelle cuisine were p u t at e a s e when a French court rejected the citizenship claim of Mr..Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the former emperor of the C e n t r a l A f r i c a n Empire and s u s p e c t e d c a n n i b a l . There had been rumors t h a t he i n t e n d e d to open a r e s t a u r a n t in P a r i s . America's Roman C a t h o l i c b i s h o p s may be revising their position on arms policy in light of t h e month's police a c t i o n s in P o l a n d . There S o l i d a r i t y , armed s p a r s e l y enough to please the most irenic American bishop, was overwhelmed almost instantaneously by Pol a n d ' s military...