The Nation's Pulse/Point Doom
Stein, Benjamin J.
THE NATION'S PULSE POINT DOOM by Benjamin J. Stein Point Dume, Malibu T he morning after Labor Day, and 1 there was absolutely no energy at all in the air. It was foggy out over Santa Monica Bay....
...You used to work for Norman Lear when I was working for Dick Clark...
...I get nervous talking about other people's money...
...That was about midnight...
...Because there are lots of people who look like derelicts wearing great big gold Rolexes, and that's always a clue...
...Shtarker...
...34 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1989 holders' money to fight you and wear you down, and even if you do get a judgment, he'll just go out and do it again, and use the stockholders' money to defend himself again...
...My friend Al Burton has the new Lassie, and that's going to make him a very happy guy...
...I watched the deputies measuring tread marks and skid marks...
...What does that mean...
...There'll be pictures in the paper...
...We flew there first class on United to Oahu, and then Norris rented a private plane for us and took us to Maui...
...But he only does those things to gain credibility to make really sensitive, caring movies...
...Suicide...
...D inner at Morton's with my pal Michael Chinich and his son, my pal Jordan...
...I don't care how much it costs or if I get a penny...
...She's also twenty-six...
...I ran back outside...
...I'd like to consult with you about some of my other holdings," Sally B. said...
...Tragedy...
...And I would say that for maybe half of the trip, I was fainting and throwing up...
...I don't think he made it...
...Come back at any time...
...He just held my hand and told me it would be all right...
...Sally B. wanted to talk to me about Mr...
...Box Hampton, Iowa 50441 Phone hours: Monday-Friday 8 to 5 CTZ Payment Method ^ Check Enclosed ^ Visa ^ M.C...
...Sally B. believes that in his whole life, he has never seen anyone behaving as questionably as a certain Michael Dingman, CEO of a major industrial company called Henley, based in San Diego...
...I know you," he said...
...Not anymore...
...Right," I said...
...Are you married...
...As I raised my camera, a tall thin deputy said that I was not allowed to take pictures of accidents...
...Occasionally she looked over and smiled...
...The players, the ones with the big dollar, bring their wives to Morton's...
...I drove to our house in the Hollywood Hills...
...And bad people...
...29 CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-558-1244 ...i..a...
...Her house-mate brought her slippers...
...I played with the dogs for a few hours until my wife returned from the park with our son...
...1211111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111t111111111111111111111111101111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111LS° THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE MONT PELERIN SOCIETY announce the Olive W. Garvey Fellowships 1990 GENERAL MEETING OF THE MONT PELERIN SOCIETY (Munich, West Germany - September 2-8, 1990) The Garvey Fellowships will be awarded 'PROSPECTS FOR LIBERTY IN THE =-= -POST-SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY' Essays of not more than 5,000 words may be submitted by students or young faculty members 35 years of age or younger, who are not members of the The Mont Pelerin Society...
...I don't know the rationale," the deputy said...
...Studio executives...
...I'll think about it...
...Suicide...
...It's amazing," Marci agreed...
...Anyway, so we got to Maui and I'm shivering and throwing up, and we go to the hotel, and I sleep for about six hours, and I'm fine, and I'm slamming vodka and tonic and Long Islanders for the rest of the weekend, feeling totally and completely great...
...It sounded as if it came from the long driveway next to my house...
...He showed no interest whatsoever...
...Sally B. came from the South Side of Chicago to downtown Chicago...
...He loves Morton's...
...Again, help was promised...
...We swam with him in the pool, which my wife likes to keep at an even hundred degrees...
...A hush fell over the room as Marvin and Barbara went over to talk to Allen and Marilyn Bergman, star songR ead Pat Buchanan's pointed, insightful column about national affairs every week...
...Just as the sheriffs and paramedics were getting the man out of the car and laying him on a gurney, another neighbor came sidling out of his house...
...Colleen Camp...
...I have a pilot for a sitcom at CBS," my neighbor said...
...I think his left leg is just about decapitated," someone said...
...The place was lively, jumping, cheerful...
...I just want him to know he can't get away with it...
...Well, that's the perfect part...
...A number of people I know from Washington were sitting around a table talking about modalities...
...We all talked about what we would do if we were as rich as Marvin, and what we would do better, and then we talked about United Airlines, and then about the food...
...Lunch at La Scala with my two darling pals Marci and Darci...
...I started to come over to her...
...And most of the day, we just lie in these lounge chairs and drink and they bring us shrimp and lobster...
...First-run syndication...
...But it changed, and people actually started skimming from the casino tables by the millions," he added...
...I used to do 'Bloopers and Blunders.' " Over on the street, not fifteen feet away, a paramedic was lying stomach down on the ground trying to intubate the kid who had been in the car...
...A moment later, we could see the helicopter taking off...
...It used to amaze me that people had houses both at the beach and in town...
...The nurse wore a pin that said her name and "CCRN...
...I ran inside and called 911...
...First prize Garvey Fellow Award of $2,500 + $1,000 travel grant to participate in the Society's Munich meeting...
...I reported the accident and said we needed an ambulance immediately...
...She led me silently into a study where Sally B. and his lawyer awaited...
...Suddenly, as I lay in bed, I heard a huge crash...
...Another paramedic started to shine a halogen beam on the victim's elbow...
...Yes," he said to me...
...A director with a thick New York accent was telling a nude woman actress that she apparently wanted to ". . . be the first actress in history to make it with both Romeo and Juliet...
...The lawyer and the black nurse let me out...
...Movie star...
...Then, when we got onto the plane to Maui, I just ran to the bathroom, and I fainted, and then I threw up...
...Jordan has just turned sixteen and it's his birthday and I wanted him to have fun...
...Where's he going...
...Yes," Sally B. said, nodding sadly...
...He stopped talking, and he'd lost a lot of blood...
...Third Prize Garvey Fellow Award of $1,000 + $1,000 travel grant to participate in the Society's Munich meeting...
...It was a perfect, quiet day for writing...
...Very romantic...
...It'll take an act of Congress to get that guy, and don't hold your breath for that...
...He sounds dreamy," Darci said...
...So as soon as I got into the limo that Norris sent over, and as soon as I had the first few sips of champagne, I felt sick...
...I vividly recall the day I learned that the pressure of running the Sands or maybe it was the Flamingo, I'm not really sure which, got to be too big, and all of a sudden, there was no way that the son of my closest friend could put up with the headaches of running a business, and he was found dead with two bullets in his head...
...Sounds perfect," I said...
...Also to just be still and not feel a thing and then go on...
...I just wanted them to throw me out the window and let me die...
...A white Chevrolet from the early 1970s was crashed into one of my live oak trees...
...It's just Sheriff's Department policy...
...Marci asked...
...The guy had iron nerves...
...I flipped on the TV to a cable channel...
...It all had to do with certain other people from Chicago who came out of the jukebox business and had friends in Kansas City and Cleveland, and played various tricks involving a justice of the Supreme Court and rigging stock prices and threatening the lives of people's wives and children...
...Before I got under the covers I read from a book that told me that when I was upset I must just think that feelings come and feelings go, and I'd be all right...
...B at Point Dume, there was that 1. 3 same empty feeling in the air...
...Producer...
...His wife is still a lovely woman...
...No big thing...
...I ran back inside to call 911 again and to get a blanket...
...Now, when you subscribe to the CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE, you get two Buchanan columns printed in full every week along with the opinions of over 24 other distinguished columnists and 20 cartoonists with conservative appeal...
...Always," I said...
...It looked as if a huge cloud had moved in at the bottom of my back yard, past the last palm tree...
...Darci is shorter, with perfect cheerleader's features and blue-green eyes...
...So I ran out of my front door in my pajamas to investigate...
...John Goldwyn and Alan Ladd, Jr...
...Can you feel my hand...
...That's why I can't find a vein...
...Meanwhile, Darci, how are you...
...The problem," I said, "is that he can get away with it...
...We played "Motorboat" and "Throw Tommy to Mommy" (or Daddy...
...You don't see that many beautiful girls at Morton's on power nights...
...To get Buchanan and a great line-up of his conservative contemporaries, call toll free or mail coupon and take advantage of an exceptional value — 52 issues of the CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE for only $36.00 — with a money back guarantee...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1989 35 writers...
...With them was someone whom I guess to be either family or the accountant...
...When I was in Vegas in the sixties, it was a very honorable, honest place," Sally B. said...
...T wo p.m...
...The essays will be judged by a panel of three senior members of The Mont Pelerin Society...
...He reeked of alcohol," the nurse said...
...There was an X-rated version of Romeo and Juliet...
...Buchanan revived his respected column after serving on the Reagan administration as communications director and assistant to the president...
...Then we all shook hands out in the parking lot and thanked each other and I went on my way...
...He's from Brazil, and his father was a really famoussurgeon down there, and he didn't get upset at all that I was sick...
...It's my first one without Dick Clark, and I really think it's going to work...
...No engine hood, no windshield except slivers, squashed like an accordion...
...The main difference between them today, however, is that Marci is in love...
...I ran inside and called again...
...From that, he got into owning a chain of parking lots and funeral homes...
...She told me I was a critical maniac, but then we laughed and reminisced about Yale, so that was all right...
...A meeting at a huge 1 house in Bel Air with a man named Sally B. A man...
...Damn," the first paramedic said,"this guy has no pulse at all...
...A woman promised that help was on the way...
...Usually...
...A bout 2:00 a.m., I went inside to go to sleep...
...There is a fire station on Point Dume, but there was no sign of the paramedics...
...The nurse was still there, soothing, helping...
...There was so little power in the area that I did not even have my usual morning panic attack...
...He is paralyzed from the waist down...
...Sherry Lansing...
...And he has a chain of discos in Buenos Aires and in Montevideo and in Rio and he also produces, well, sort of like action pictures, only they have a lot of sex in them, and you'd think he was a real low-life, right...
...In his head...
...At exactly eight o'clock, the door opened and Marvin and Barbara Davis appeared...
...Two bullets...
...All it takes is working yourself sick...
...I hear Lassie has cleared over a hundred and sixty stations," my neighbor said...
...A moment later, we could hear and see a helicopter landing in the pitch darkness at the parking lot of the Mayfair, a few hundred yards down the road...
...Previously an assistant to Presidents Nixon and Ford, he offers an insider's look at the workings of government and a behind-the-scenes perspective on policy-making in Washington...
...They relieved Susan, who came over next to me and told me she thought the young man was in shock...
...Producer...
...By this time it was about ten after midnight...
...Maybe I'll send a letter to the County Council...
...It's like a fairy tale," she said as she ate her rigatoni...
...I don't know," I said...
...It was per fect...
...For people who need care very critically...
...I ran back outside...
...Goddamn," the paramedic said, "it's so dark I can't find a vein...
...The only people who live down that alley are the people who have the frequent nocturnal visitors...
...In the living room off the study, the black nurse glided silently back and forth in her high heels...
...There's something terrifying about Malibu at times, and this morning was one of those times...
...I think you would have liked it a lot...
...I complained to my wife about our bills at the vet and at Tiffany...
...Further information is available from: The Mont Pelerin Society P.O...
...Could you be available...
...Just before I fell asleep, I could hear the neighbor's German shepherd barking...
...I just got back from a four-day weekend in Maui...
...She was holding the hand of the driver, who was moaning and trying to talk...
...The result of a relatively minor surgical procedure at Cedars that was bungled...
...Why...
...I mean, the guy is by far the hottest producer in all of Brazil, from what I hear, and he was totally taking care of me, who can't make five hundred dollars a week, take-home, like I was Victoria Principal or something great...
...I asked a deputy...
...Deadline for submission of essays is 31 March 1990...
...Sally B. is ninety years old...
...Read Buchanan's "Dividing Line" feature in every CONSERVATIVE CHRONICLE along with George F. Will, William E Buckley, Jr., Donald Lambro, Jeane Kirkpatrick and many others...
...Marvin looked as if he had lost quite a lot of weight...
...Box 7031 Alexandria, Virginia 22307, USA for the for the three best essays on the topic omminimooloominimioffiiiimisomommoinommoniummussomminoimmoimumminsinoommommommoomomme 36 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1989...
...I put on analyses of the President's drug speech on the TVs in the living room and in the bedroom...
...Twice, an attractive white woman walked through t le living room in pedal pushers and high-heeled backless pumps...
...It was the size of a bathroom rug...
...But if you sue him, he'll use the stockBenjamin J. Stein is a writer and producer in Hollywood...
...A lot of blood...
...In Las Vegas...
...This man's got to get out of here right away," a paramedic said...
...Sally B.'s house was not all that large...
...From that, he miraculously managed to own four of the biggest casino-hotels in Las Vegas and three good-sized ones in Havana before Castro ruined everything...
...Can you feel your foot...
...Strange people live at the end of that driveway, as far as I can tell...
...I think there are a lot of drug people there though," Marci added...
...Westlake Hospital," the man said, "but I think he's already gone...
...However, that empty feeling in the air was scaring me, so I decided I had better go into town...
...You're kidding...
...I promised Jordan that when he bought a car for his birthday, I would help him buy a C.D...
...My next door neighbor, a lovely woman named Susan, an emergency room nurse from Wales, was standing barefoot in a bathrobe in a rubble of broken glass...
...At the wheel was a young man who looked terrible...
...I understand I can obtain a full refund on unmailed copies at any time...
...I want you to help me sue Mike Dingman to make him pay for the way he's been mistreating us stockholders...
...He owns this huge plantation in the Amazon jungle, and he's clearing the land to graze cattle, and he's really good to these Indians who live there, and he's a totally amazingly kind guy...
...Sally B. had seen some of my articles on financial misconduct...
...Sweat was pouring off me...
...You'll be all right," she said...
...I asked...
...She's tall and blond and blue-eyed and twenty-six...
...I met him at a party at David Sonnenbaum's house, and he's one of David's biggest clients at ICM, and he had shoulder length blond hair, which is apparently really rare in Brazil, and he showed up in an Aston-Martin, and normally, a guy like that, with a huge Rolex, is the kind of guy who you'd think would be a scammer...
...Blenheim Palace is far larger, and so is Versailles...
...Sounds like it to me," Darci said...
...We sat at the little table by the runway and watched the people come in...
...He's the star of a big sitcom hit called "Night Court" and I guess he feels he needs the dog for protection here in Malibu...
...I went inside to get my camera to take a photo of the car...
...An unbelievably beautiful black woman answered the door in a nurse's uniform unbuttoned to the fourth button and in high heels...
...He had his lawyer call me to invite me to meet him...
...Date Name Address yrEs I accept your subscription offer of 1 year (52 issues) for $36.00 (add $20.00 for foreign postage...
...But he's the most incredibly kind, caring man I've ever met...
...Right, Ben...
...On the asphalt next to the front door was a puddle of blood as thick as barbecue sauce...
...It was torn up like a tuna fish can...
...Can you hear me...
...It means I am registered as a critical care nurse," she said...
...Like he wants to do one about an advertising executive who decides that he's Jesus and makes ads about the Golden Rule, only it turns out he's insane...
...That's certainly what I'd say," I agreed...
...Menachem Golan...
...Another paramedic was trying to jab a needle into the kid's arm...
...The paramedics put the man into an ambulance and took him down the road...
...You look like an honest man," Sally B. said...
...I'm totally mad at my Mom, because she gave this guy who's been hounding me my new phone number,and I think he's dangerous...
...He spent a year in jail for selling cocaine, and I think he's a psycho...
...For almost an hour, sheriffs and paramedics worked with a generator and various tools to cut the man out of his crumpled up heap...
...Anyway, I heard and felt the crash in the alley belonging to the late-night hosts...
...The only problem was that I drank a little the night before the trip, and then I had to get ready in a hurry and didn't have time for breakfast...
...But we're in love, and he's building a huge house in Brentwood right down the street from your pal Norman Lear, and we've already named our first five kids, and we also want to have seven dogs, all Weimaraners, and that's just how great it is...
...Tamara Asseyev...
...At any rate, someone lives there who has visitors all night long, who has visitors who zoom up to the house, run inside, come running out after five minutes saying, "Wow, that's righteous stuff" and "Wow, I feel so high," and zoom off...
...Sally liked you," the lawyer said...
...We talked about other horrible people, and then about Columbia Savings and Loan, an empire waiting to crumble, in my humble opinion, and then Sally B. began to reminisce about how his own empire in Vegas was taken away from him...
...Right...
...Dingman...
...He's played twenty different kinds of scammy games as I see it, and he's getting to be a billionaire fast while the stock is in the toilet...
...I hope so for your sake," I said...
...Marci looks like the young Kim Novak...
...Norrie didn't mind at all...
...What kind of watch did he wear...
...I wonder why he was turning into that alley so fast...
...In the temple of Mammon, Mammon himself had appeared...
...I didn't even know where I was...
...Skimming...
...AX ^ Bill Me Card # Exp...
...By the time I got back outside, the paramedics were there...
...Squeeze my hand if you can hear me...
...I told a deputy about when I had heard the crash and what I thought of neighborhood drug conditions generally...
...player for it...
...If blood makes you upset, you'd better stay a little back," she said...
...I'll have to tell Bill Bennett about this little skirmish in the war on drugs...
...Right," I said...
...The man was clearly killed while trying to make a very much too fast turn off the street down the alley next to my house...
...Second prize Garvey Fellow Award of $1,500 + $1,000 travel grant to participate in the Society's Munich meeting...
...He owned a company that cleaned factories and office buildings...
Vol. 22 • December 1989 • No. 12
