Spectator's Journal/A Brief Meeting in Geneva
Evanier, David
SPECTATOR'S JOURNAL A BRIEF MEETING IN GENEVA by David Evanier A man in his sixties, he glowed like a light bulb. His arm in an orange sling, red shirt, he looked dashing. Brisk color, fine skin....
...Move there...
...You've never been to Aspen, have you...
...Why don't you pick up and move to some other city...
...Move to Aspen...
...Years ago...
...My son made me see...
...That's all you have to say...
...Erasmus High School...
...It doesn't prove a thing...
...I'm reading Armand Hammer's autobiography...
...Lovefest...
...Now there's a plot...
...Take this lunch we're eating...
...I stood up and said I had to make a phone call...
...Are you anti-Chinese...
...David Evanier is a research specialist with the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith...
...Change your subject...
...Wonderful...
...The Swiss did this with absolutely no notice...
...They demanded he come down...
...Four months in East Hampton...
...Go to Aspen for three months...
...He pointed at the chicken, which was rubbery...
...People don't want to make moves because they'reafraid...
...Brooklyn...
...Shaking their clubs...
...People don't understand anything...
...That's a good story," I said...
...A Russian winds up in Harlem, living among the blacks, impoverished, no hope, drugs...
...No...
...But it looks bad...
...And suddenly the boy did a flip, a somersault, down the tree onto the ground...
...Should have used water tanks...
...The United States...
...A million kids were destroyed on drugs...
...The boy was laughing...
...No...
...He's 83, and he looks younger than you...
...This is a better meal than you'd get at any of your Village restaurants—the good ones—at fifty dollars per person...
...This veal...
...Why not...
...I was in Washington Square Park with my son...
...These fluffy potatoes, and fresh peas...
...He was grinning...
...he said...
...Yes...
...The crowd was laughing...
...It was beautiful...
...You told it well...
...He began his third glass...
...Only way to get through this is to get stoned...
...A tennis reception...
...He was going to Berkeley, where he'd been radicalized...
...I meant it was an incident...
...Cocaine...
...They're losing $100 million in P.R...
...I get your drift...
...They clubbed him...
...He carried a thick paperback book...
...Homosexuals dying off...
...And you...
...And the pigs descended on him...
...Fix up 200 extra meals of superb quality...
...What business are you in...
...People are bored with the subject...
...But why do you live in New York...
...I'd rather not...
...Which one would you rather be, the black or the Russian...
...Name is Levin...
...The police came...
...Where did you grow up...
...He held up his glass...
...He poured another glass of wine...
...I waved goodbye, and he went back to Armand Hammer...
...The Village...
...That's a book you should read...
...Where do you live in New York...
...The police were furious...
...What Jew has ever exerted such power with the Russians...
...Are you anti-Yugoslav...
...Well, what kind of anti-Communist are you...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1988...
...Hammer made a million by the time he was 26...
...I didn't mean it was fiction...
...Not at all...
...He paused, looking at me, waiting...
...A hundred police were soon surrounding that tree...
...The kid—he had a beard—wouldn't come down...
...on this business in the Gaza...
...Bad time for your book...
...Textiles...
...I asked...
...I met him at the White House...
...Are you in business...
...West Palm Beach...
...He laughed...
...But you don't know how you'd feel about other places...
...A good story...
...Where are you coming from...
...Hose them down...
...A crowd gathered...
...He even looks younger than me...
...That's the trouble with people...
...When our plane was grounded in Geneva, he sat down at my table at the airport restaurant...
...He resembled Barry Goldwater...
...Except conservatives...
...That would be funny...
...But how do you know without moving there...
...You're not an anti-Communist, are you...
...Flatten them with water...
...He opened a bottle of wine...
...I didn't want to make a speech...
...They called to the boy to come down...
...His father was a Communist and framed by the government...
...1968...
...I came to Geneva fourteen years ago...
...Always followed the dollar...
...And a black goes to Russia, where he's a writer, living among the elite...
...They form opinions without knowing...
...I learned in the sixties...
...It was a test...
...I live in New York City...
...No kidding...
...Then they called for reinforcements...
...Two men exchange planes...
...The crowd protested, but they wouldn't stop...
...My son said to me, `Now do you understand, Dad?' And I did...
...They beat him to a bloody pulp...
...This boy had chased a squirrel up a tree...
...Wouldn't that be funny, don't you think...
...I began to move off...
...I've already used up two...
...They had riot helmets...
...You know where's best now...
...Twelve-hundred pages...
...The Jews aren't being sent to Siberia anymore...
...Nixon, that psychopath...
...I asked...
...The boy scrambled up after him...
...War zone...
...let them drown...
...It can be delicious in New York those four months...
...Three days is the limit on this...
...Anyway, why write about Russia when America is just as bad...
...The squirrel darted away...
...The squirrel went up higher...
...They can't swim anyway...
...He poured mustard on the chicken...
...The crowd applauded and cheered...
...Israel...
...Only New York can do this operation—fractures—properly...
...Great man...
...I always went where the dollar was good...
...Yes I am...
...You met Hammer at a party...
...I like it...
...You don't mind making money, do you...
...But my doctor won't wait for me...
...Or have the soldiers throw rocks back at them...
...On Soviet Jewry...
...I'm on pain killers...
...Absolutely aelicious...
...Here's an idea for the book you should be writing...
...I'm writing a book...
...I stared at him...
...Slim...
...I don't agree with it," I said...
...Broke my shoulder skiing...
Vol. 21 • July 1988 • No. 7
