Current Wisdom
Jackasses, Assorted
"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." —Euripides — Current Wisdom DEPT. OF PREPOSTEROSITIES: Another gripping moment with Professor Marlon Brando, Hollywood's pre-eminent theorist...
...National Observer April 24, 1976 THE HIGHER INTELLECTION: Another informative diatribe by the Hon...
...Ms...
...Unless the heart opens, you will be driven crazy by the monkeys of the mind...
...Henry Bonge, Belleville —St...
...I want to thank Alice Walker for revealing, in her review of Buchi Emecheta's book, Second Class Citizen (January, 1976) that L was not alone in my writing blackout after the arrival of a noisy and demanding infant...
...Dale E. Walker, Cheswick, Pa...
...Chicago Tribune May 30, 1976 38 The Alternative: An American Spectator August/ September 1976...
...Louis Globe-Democrat March 13, 1976 SELF-ABUSE: Another sweeping view of recent American history for the constituency of conscience crowd: There is a new and slightly disturbing trend emerging today in the world of televison and movies: the focus on the fun and frolic of the 1950s...
...Others think it is in the ass...
...When he died, we thought it was all over for us...
...in English...
...I have Wally's ashes in my house...
...It could become America's energy cornucopia—if Congress doesn't turn it into just another corporate asset to be exploited for the sake of private greed...
...Michael Killian, sounds off: Jimmy Carter is through...
...So—may he rest in torment, for having inflicted upon us one of the most enervating and unnecessary political confrontations of this century—is Ronald Reagan...
...May 1976 PUBLIC DISCOURSE: The celebrated Wall Street Journal reports on an earnest exchange of views overheard at a recent Pittsburgh political confabulation: "I wouldn't vote for Ford if Mussolini were running against him," declares Mr...
...Louis Globe-Democrat asks a timeless and yet still provocative question: To this man who wrote into your paper about the stupid Republicans and the Concorde plane, I want to ask him about his stupid Democratic party...
...I lose patience quite regularly, and the house is more often than not a mess...
...corespondent limns a modern vision of hell, to wit, coming within shouting range of this repulsive crank: My brief writing career was thoroughly interrupted by the birth of my little girl...
...Martin, one of the Pittsburgh mailmen...
...But the mind is in the heart, and that is what psychologists do not know...
...George Meany who is wrecking the United States...
...If the 1950s were anything they were years of conformity, of people marching to the sound of social and political drums that others carried...
...For Dean was our hero in the early '50s precisely because he was the rebel, the kid who stood up to authority (East of Eden) and stood for non-conformity (Giant...
...Just blame it all on your stupid Democratic party and your Mr...
...I suspect that when the little one reaches nursery-school age, I will be more than ready for my own "ivory tower...
...Mussolini always receive a congenial hearing: ...the sun offers the ideal solution to the world's energy crisis...
...Time May 24, 1976 POLITICAL ECONOMY: A typically de'gagi moment at the worthy Progressive, where the economic vagaries of the late Mr...
...Why do they need so much money when they go out on strike and yet they get food stamps on top of it...
...Even now, I am writing this letter with her in my lap watching "Sesame Street" on TV...
...I can't tell you how much I miss and love that man...
...How come we all the time get into war under the Democratic party...
...Bloomington [Indiana] Herald-Telephone May 15, 1976 MORE PUBLIC DISCOURSE: An erudite reader of the St...
...Others think it is in the genitals...
...On the Maryland Campaign Trai May 1976 —The Progressive April 1976 POLITICAL ANALYSIS: May 301 and the prescient and courteous columnist, Mr...
...Is that right...
...Guru Sawa, as duly reported to the frenzied readders of Psychology Today: So psychology is craziness...
...Some think it is in the brain...
...Recently, however, I had to learn to cope with "the sweet background noises" of which Emecheta writes, for I resumed my studies at night school, where I am working toward a B.A...
...Hey," he says, "Mussolini was a heck of a good man till he got messed up with Hitler...
...For Mr...
...Creativity and raising children may not be mutually exclusive, but tell me, how many male artists have had to change diapers...
...And that is why Harry Truman—as Garry Wills pointed out in a recent Esquire article—is not the quaint, salty grandfather figure that James Whitmore (in Give 'Em Hell Harry) and Merle Miller (in Plain Speaking) make him out to be...
...A quarter of a century later we seem intent on canonizing the politician who helped start the Cold War we are still trying to end today...
...In point of fact, Truman was responsible for much of the McCarthy hysteria in the late '40s and early '50s and was personally accountable for thousands of people living out those years in fear for their jobs...
...And then they brag about what they do for the people...
...Reola, the very, very Italian mill worker, that's an unfair comment...
...We seem about to do to the '50s what we have already done —through countless films and TV shows —to the 1930s, and that is to turn a decade of national disaster and personal suffering into a nostalgic, fun-filled holiday trip back into our own history...
...That is why the figure of James Dean suddenly re-emerges, of course, almost as the antidote to Truman...
...To complete my weekly writing exercises, without losing any sleep, I am forced to write while my little girl plays, sings, dances, and climbs all over me...
...Psychologists don't know where the mind is...
...And if the recent TV movie about him is any indication—such a simplistic, one-sided portrait—he will not rise again...
...I talk to him all the time...
...How can people go to church and vote the Democratic ticket...
...No one, least of all myself, could understand why the only words of significance that I could write in the subsequent months were those which went onto a shopping list...
...We worshiped him as the rebel with a cause, and the cause was our personal identity in a period of smothering sameness...
...How come there are so many out of work...
...Psychology Today April 197 ORATORICAL GRANDEUR: California's illustrious Governor Brown at the height or his powers: It's time we get this country back to where it's been all along...
...LIBERATED MOTHERS: A Ms...
...OF PREPOSTEROSITIES: Another gripping moment with Professor Marlon Brando, Hollywood's pre-eminent theorist and world patriot: He [one Wally Cox] was my brother...
...How come we have such high prices...
...Wall Street Journal April 22, 1976 CHURCH NEWS: The spiritual event of the season, as reported by the distinguished Bloomington Herald-Telephone: Lowell Mason, the world's smallest gospel singer, will be heard at the Sherwood Oaks Christian Church Monday and Tuesday during a "Spring Crusade for Christ" that will begin at the church Sunday...
...Mason, only 46 inches tall, has been performing since he was 9. He was featured regularly on Revival Fires, a weekly television series, for 10 years...
...There I can research, write, and type without"Mommy, Mommy," "me want uppy," "don't write," "me got a boo-boo," ringing in my ears...
Vol. 9 • August 1976 • No. 10
