Fat America

 I just read the Dirk Johnson article , " People are snacking everywhere.. "
( New York Times,July 30 ).
    Fat Americans getting still fatter. What do I see on the bus
while I peruse this article? A plump young lady - who if slimmer could
be prettier - sucking on a green tootsie pop! Nerves? Real hunger ? Oppressed
by sexism ?
    Indeed everywhere I turn at the bus station, I observe the frightfully
fat. Do they even care ? Just declare that FAT IS BEAUTIFUL and forget about
self-restraint.
     With all due respect to our philanthropist, Mr. Feinstein, most of
the worthy poor are FAT ! The union leaders are forever demanding a
greater share of the pie. But working Americans have more than a fair
share of the pie. Just look at them !
    There is an epidemic of obesity in the United States. If all those
fat Americans were forced to work harder for less pay ( for munchies ),
then the country would begin to shape up again.
       I suspect that the grossly fat lost interest in sex about 50
pounds ago.Obesity should be grounds for divorce. Let's legalize
no-fat divorces !
      Oddly enough, the upper middle class person is rarely fat. Here
he or she wisely avoids conspicuous consumption.
       What a horrible life style it is that is centered on junk TV
and junk food. We idolize the athletes with great bodies but treat our
own bodies as disdainfully as we would treat broken down garbage trucks.
     And not even death will end our self-indulgence. According to
the Gallop polls, most Americans believe in Pie-in-the sky !
      I hope the next President is lean and mean- just to set a good
example.

Bob Whitcomb referral service

Good morning, Bob. You need not dignify this suggestion by publishing
the writer's name, but here it is : Why not refer The Rev.Lew Towler-who
thinks letter writer Christopher Machado needs to discuss his anti-Kennedy
opinions with a shrink- to a grief therapist ?
     It is arrogant of a newspaper editor to assume that a very public
event-like funeral services for JFK Jr. -is " open to public debate ".
       You published Mr. Machado's angry letter and deprived " his
therapist " ( we all have one! ) of badly needed lunch money ( $100 ? )
    I have no idea what grief therapists are charging nowadays. I
myself prefer to write all these letters !
            Have a  nice day  -ron

Einstein and Socrates - NOT atheists !

 I said I would do my homework on the question. I must conclude
that our village atheist, David Champagne -whom I can only respect - is
wrong about Einstein and Socrates being " atheists " ( Projo letter, July
28 )
      " I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly
harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate
and actions of human beings. " See Ronald W. Clark's " Einstein: The
Life and Times  " , page 502 .
       The 1996 Encyclopedia Americana says this about Socrates :
 " Socrates did claim supernatural guidance from a ' divine sign ' -
a kind of voice ... "  ( see Socrates, page 166 ).
       Today the most militant atheists are the Chinese communists.
  But I still suspect that they believe in the divinity of Central
  Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

" Uh, who ? Patinkin ? "

    In a July 27 column , Mark Patinkin -after a phone encounter with an
" uh , duh " teenager - suggests that these kids be taught phone manners.
    But I wonder if they have been taught simple English communication
skills. I love the lyrics from " My Fair Lady " :
        " It's Uh and Duh that keep her in her place
         Not her wretched clothes and dirty face."
 ( a variation ) . When I hear teens listening to that savage,senseless,
   and violent rap music, I feel a threat to good, old fashioned CIVILIZATION
in my gut.
   A generation ago a half bright kid read the newspaper. He or she
would not have greeted a popular Providence Journal columnist like
Mark Patinkin with a witless " Uh " .
      Good luck with your own kids, Mark . I myself am a proud non-
parent of the New Age.

Literary solace for Kennedy tragedy

Not long after the JFK assassination in 1963, I
   recall reading Thornton Wilder's " The Bridge of
   San Luis Rey " :
       On a Friday in July in the year 1714 a famous
   bridge in Peru collapses. Five people-who become
   major characters in the novel-fall to their deaths
   in the deep gorge below.
       A certain thoughtful friar, Brother Juniper,
   who witnessed the tragedy, is determined to investigate
   the victims' lives, to make sense of it all, to uncover
   a pattern that would reveal the divine wisdom in the
   disaster.
      When his book is finished, the pious man is astonished
   to learn that it is condemned by the Church authorities:
      " He had gone too far in explaining God's ways to
        humanity. "
      Brother Juniper is to be burned at the stake. He
   meekly sees his own death as part of the divine plan.
      But another more skeptical character concludes :
   " There is a land of the living and a land of the
     dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the
     only meaning. "

        " All those impulses of love return to the love
          that made them. "

" Good Friday " in July ?

  Reflecting on the tragic death of JFK Jr. , the Rev. Stephen Lynch of
St. Francis Chapel in Providence, gets downright lugubrious :
   " What happened in in the waters off Martha's Vineyard on this
painful ' Good Friday ' in July is drawing a new generation to the
Kennedy saga " ( Providence Journal, July 24 , page D5 )
     There is overwhelming evidence that JFK Jr. was a good man. And
perhaps some of the religiosity of grandmother Rose rubbed off on
him. Rose had to be a saint to put up with the philandering family
patriarch, Joe.
     But the Kennedys are not to be confused with the original
Holy Family - founded by another Joe.
     President Kennedy probably was a lot more " irreverent " than
he is given credit for. He was furious that Cardinal Spelman of
New York was actually a supporter of Richard Nixon in 1960. JFK
observed that the Church " powerhouse " had spent most of his
clerical career kissing the asses of the rich and famous.
     The good cardinal simply could not suffer JFK replacing
HIM as the number one Catholic in America.
     Also JFK sincerely believed in the separation of Church and
State. Cardinal Spelman was an incorrigible reactionary. And an
enemy of the poor. The equally influential Fulton Sheen accused
him -before the Pope ! -of stealing funds from the poor. Sheen
was later proven to have been telling the truth.
       One practical conclusion from the Kennedy family
tragedies: " Life is worth living ! "

The joys of trolley travel !

 Good morning, Dave. I'm already in love with those beautiful

    RIPTA trolleys. Yesterday I caught one to Federal Hill -where my

    father's family lived for 50 years.

           And yes, I will find the service indispensable. Great way to

    go in a city that is REALLY going somewhere -besides Hell !

          For me rude bus drivers are less of a problem than rude passengers.

    Riding the bus should be mandatory for all sociology majors.

                  Have a nice day, Dr. Downtown !

Hazan not a " racist jingoist "

              Earl Hazan concluded that brutality to women was part

    of Muslim culture and that this is alien to our democracy. Brown

    professor, Eleanor Doumato, is furious with this jingoist spewing

    " racist garbage ".

          How does rejecting Muslim culture make a man a jingoist ? Is

    telling the truth about a culture nothing but brainless hostility ?

         Is this Brown battle-ax an exponent of CULTURAL RELATIVISM ? T

    To  understand THEM is to love them ?

           Kosovo teaches the whole world that we MUST get along. But

    that does not mean that we cease to take  the values of Western

    Civilization seriously ?

           Is self-hatred politically correct ?

" All men are mortal "

Good morning, Froma. I believe there have been whole books
written on this observation of yours today: " In America ,death is
a stranger. "
     How true! It explains a certain shallowness in the " national
character". The silly slogan of the late 60s , " Don't trust anybody
over 30 ", was really just a variation on the death rejection
theme.
     The proposition " All men are mortal " was at least taken
seriously in my high school geometry class. For me it is also
a keynote in the logic of life.
   JFK himself felt its truth in his very bones. That explains
HIS lust for life.
    Sorry to say it but JFK Jr. is best described -with affection
but also disappointment -as Jackie O's kid. Pierre Salinger saw
a future president in him. But the ex-press secretary's  judgment
right now is less astute than Ronald Reagan's.
     JFK JR. -no more that Ron Reagan Jr. -was not the stuff of
greatness !
              Have a nice day, Froma    ron

On saving face -with a facelift

There is an article in the newspaper today about middle-aged men-feeling
pressure to project youthful energy and zeal in the
corporate rat-race world -having expensive and surgically risky
face lifts.
      Some of these men are quite pleased with the result. Now
they got that job,now they feel in with the younger shocks, now
they have a better sex life.
    But you can't lie to LIFE !  A 50 year old is still 50 years
old. Who can be fooled by a facelift anyway ? The flamboyant 70
year old editor of Cosmopolitan, Helen Gurley Brown, obviously
had a face lift. Do you think Playboy magazine is interested in
her ? No chance that a man with a facelift will be judged " the
sexiest middle-aged guy in the world . " No,not even Viagra will
fool them !
    Just about EVERYBODY looks their age. The trick is to look
HEALTHY and have energy the natural way -by taking good care of
yourself. What can be more hilarious than a fat alcoholic with
a facelift ?
      What the worried middle aged corporate man needs is an
uplift -not a facelift. He needs to see new possibilities in
life; he needs to revive his sense of wonder and his curiosity
about the journey that must come to an end.

    When we turn 30 we sense that life has it in for us. At 50
we know that life is now gunning for us. We pay more attention
to the daily casuality list -the newspaper obituary.
     Now we realize that the average life expectancy is just
a statistic, not a divine promise.
     I am at 51 amazed by the number of my friends that never
made it this far. Perhaps it was their fault for checking out
early. But it was not their fault that they were just mortal.
     I particularly remember Ed. He called just a week before
he died of heart attack at age 39: The 90s would be his decade,
he told me. Then he scolded me for " never moving an inch ".

A vote for Bluto

Good morning, Bob. I read The Sunday Journal article by Mike
        Stanton -and pondered the "sparkling details ".
        So " Bluto Blutarsky" Cianci was not good enough in terms of
    " accomplishment and connection " to get through the tastefully
      worn doors of the venerable University Club ? To sample their
      vintage wine and socialize with vintage people ?
         I am reminded of the wise-crack : "  How can I respect a
      club that would have me for a member ? "
          I'm not sure that I would want " Bluto " in my living room
      to share a Miller-Lowlife with me !
            But my contempt for snobby,exclusive clubs is even greater.
       FDR and old Joe Kennedy were excluded from elite clubs in their
       university days. They got REVENGE on their " betters " , to be
       sure.
            Let the University publish a list of ALL its members. We
      shall see, I'll bet, that " connection " is a bigger factor
      than accomplishment. And the truly accomplished amongst us
      are secure enough -unlike Mayor Cianci - not to seek membership
      in high-flying, exclusive clubs.
            Most people,you know, come from the same OLD FAMILY -
      the Monkey Family. Let the exceptions form a club of their
      own !

                   Have a nice day, Bob    -ron

Oh what a circus ! Oh what a show !

 The media sensationalism of the latest Kennedy
   tragedy recalls the unforgettable " Evita " lyrics.
      And didn't John-John date Maddonna ?

           " Oh what a circus! Oh what a show !   
             Oh what an exit! That's how to go!

            " We've all gone crazy
              Mourning all day and mourning all night
              Falling over ourselves to get all
              the misery right. "

         For me there is the real grief which the Kennedy
         family feels and the soap opera " grief " of
         news media.

                " He had his moments - he had some style.

                  But as soon as the smoke from the funeral
                  clears,

                  We're all going to see and how he did
                  nothing for years ! "

No " inexplicable " curse on Kennedys

Now " John-John " Kennedy -all but certain-
   is gone. Yes, another very sad Kennedy family
   tragedy. But it is senseless to sensationalize
   and mystify it.
         Newspaper headline: " Inexplicable curse of
   Kennedys". ( London's The Sunday Telegraph )
        The buzz around here was that John Kennedy Jr.
   was taking a big risk as inexperienced pilot -with
  an injured leg.
        Just a week ago the gossip columns reported
  that his wife was publicly describing him as a
  " mouse ".
        One can imagine him seething : " I'll show
   YOU who's a mouse ! "

        And who is more macho than a private pilot-
   taking charge in a dangerous situation, his dear
   wife -and sister-in-law -depending on him for
   their very lives. ?
        We can all feel compassion for our royal
   family -all too human !
       But the laws of physics, of nature , are
   completely indifferent to WHO we are.
       A stone, an airplane part, a dear wife, a
   sister -in-law , a baby, a Kennedy will plummet
   toward the earth at an acceleration -allowing
   for friction - of 32 ft. per sec/per sec .
        Nature is both brutally FAIR and horribly
  UNJUST.
      Fairwell America's Rose - John John .

- - - - - - - -
response:

      Hi gang. Yesterday I was informed by an editor
   of the Dallas Morning News that this Texas size
   newspaper wanted to publish my letter " No Inexplicable
   Curse of Kennedys " on their web site.
        I've just read my letter there - it was letter
   numero uno, the first one to click on.
        Today the Providence Journal also published that
   same letter.
         Ron Marshall, I feel a little like the Texas
   kid James Dean in " Giant " .
          " I'm rich, Bick. I'm rich. " Of course we
   know how it all ended for the Dean character 

Bush vs. Gore - a clean campaign ?

Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and disappointment, but

    it seems right now that the American voters will be choosing  George

    W. Bush or Al Gore for their next president.

             Given the qualities of BOTH candidates it could be a remarkably

    CLEAN campaign -free from sex scandals and personal abuse . A campaign

    worthy of the FUTURE , focused on ideas and national values.

              There is still much validity  in the CONSERVATIVE vs, LIBERAL

    categorizing of political controversies. But what is at stake in the

    long run is a practical program for making a complex society -seething

    with inner contradictions - more livable for EVERYBODY.

             Let's face this truth : Neither liberal nor conservative ideas

    descend from the ABSOLUTE ONE above. There are periods in history when

    liberalism is more progressive than stubborn conservatism. And there

    are and will be times when conservatives have a stronger grip on reality.

             Right now, for example, liberals are more rational on this burning

    issue of gun control than conservatives. But to me the conservatives

    are often keener on educational issues.

          I am not interested in  draft dodging  accusations against Bush

    anymore than I am interested in Al Gore's sex life.

               Perhaps reporters should not even LOOK for dirt on them for

    a change.  A clean presidential campaign in 2000 ?

Friendly's logic of laziness

I often have breakfast at the nearby Friendly's restaurant.

    I often order their " egg melt " special. With the coffee it usually

    costs me $3.83.

                Lately I'm watching my fat intake. So I ordered the

    breakfast melt  " without the bacon ". I noticed right away that

    there was no change in the bill.

              I do not like to be a stinker in a restaurant. But neither

    will I be a sap. I questioned the legitimacy of the bill. I was

    told that the  cash register  could only recognize " breakfast melt ".

           Stupidly the kid told me : " There is no button to push " for

    my order.

              A little disgusted with the mental laziness, I did not

    leave a tip. And then matter was settled fairly.


          " Friendly's " is also not friendly enough to ban smoking in

    the restaurant.

                   Things could be worse for me, I suppose. I could be

    a  Kosovo refugee . Or a Republican in Providence.

Empathy for R.I. Pride Committee

  I can empathize today with the workers at the Rhode Island

    Pride Committee 's office . Their computer was stolen recently.

    Hundreds of hours of information -some of it perhaps quite

    sensitive -was stored in its memory disk.

           Just yesterday I absent mindedly left a black travel

    bag containing nothing more valuable than tediously obtained

    information , on a RIPTA bus . I think, I hope it is at their

    " lost and found " .  What chance was there that an honest person

    picked it up ? My very phone number is on a dozen papers.

            It never ceases to amaze me that common hoodlums -who could

    not do much good in the world, even if " reformed - can almost

    never make up for the harm they do  .

           Our society pays an awful price for its vast numbers of

    ethically challenged. I guess , as the line in West Side Story

    goes, they are depraved because they were deprived.

           Or is that excuse just liberal soft headedness ?

Accident Room Manners

The failure of President Clinton's national
   health care plan - now almost contemptuously forgotten-
   was a tragedy for blue collar and middle class America.
       The Republican elite, it seems, simply cannot
   understand the everyday problems of people not 100% like
   themselves. I doubt if " compassionate conservativism "
   will ever be more than a deceitful slogan.
          The Florida governor's wife, Columba Bush, thinks
   she can hide a $ 19,000 shopping spree in Europe from
   Jeb. But the average American wife could not hide a
   $75.00 accident room bill from her husband.
       And speaking about those outrageous accident room
    bills, most hospitals in the United States - no doubt
    controlled by " compassionate conservative " bean
    counters - lack common courtesy in treating accident
    room patients.
          Injured people -anybody needing emergency medical
    care -should not be harassed about their financial
    plans while awaiting treatment.     
          What inhuman rudeness !
          Treat the accident room patients FIRST, then
    ask those obnoxious questions about health plans.
         Regardless of ability to pay for it, health
    care should be considered a basic human right.

The roots of incivility -" rotten lady "

A 68 year old  woman with cerebral palsy -who struggles
   to be independent - was not fast enough at the check out
   counter of a small department store for the nasty woman
   behind her - who even shouted obscenities at the 68 year
   old woman in a wheel chair.( " Have a rotten day ! " -
   letter to the editor, July 12 )
       Adrienne Daniels - the abused woman - asks: " What
   do you say to someone like that ? "
       You can't say much to a person with the brain of a
   reptile, I suppose.
         The crowded , noisy, ugly, unfriendly urban
   environment awakens the reptilian brain that lurks
   in all of us.The crowd is too alien to relate to. More
   and more there are only tribal loyalities. Respect is
   reserved for recognized members of the tribe.
       At some point civilization itself will certainly
   break down.
         Can intelligent people continue to ignore
    the nightmarish population explosion ?
        Can human dignity survive in world of wretched
    billions - doubling in population every few decades ?
       And horror of horrors , poverty is far more reproductive
    than affluence .
         The everyday meanness - such as Adrienne Daniels
    encountered in the department store - will not disappear
    in the ever more crowded world of the bleak future.

         " Be fruitful and multiply ", saith the Lord.

          But when will He say : " Enough is enough ! "  ?

Billboard Lord not the answer

   A story from the Washington Post ( July 11 ) warns us about

    an evangelical tactic worthy of the gin-soaked mind of the fictional

    preacher Elmer Gantry : " God Speaks - from some 10,000 billboards

    nation wide.

            The billboards will remind us -for example- that God exists

    and if we take his name in vain He will "make rush hour even longer ".

            For the soberly religious ( I don't smoke, thank you ! ) this

    outdoor advertising is a striking example of taking HIS NAME in vain.

    Imagine treating God as the Marlboro Man - with an attitude.

            What if heaven is no more real than Marlboro Country ? What

    a disappointment for hordes of religious junkies !

           Seriously , the world would be a better place if more people

    accepted the social wisdom of the Ten Commandments. But vulgar,silly

    billboards are not the place to remind the masses of the sacred. Give

    me that real old time religion . Give me the  elegant and inspiring

    cathedral of  Middle Age Europe to remind me of  lost divinity.

            The delirious masses of the new millennium seem no more worthy

    of immortality than the lowly cockroaches . But let us pray !

A fishy view of zoology !

           In trying to explain the bizarre behavior of teen killers and

    mass murderers, Herbert Rakatansky, M.D. , gives Projo readers a

    fishy view of zoology ( " Origins of 'evil' behavior " - July 10 ) .

             Evolution , it seems, has not caught up with SOME members

    of the human race: " The tendency toward violence and aggressive

    behavior was probably an important survival tool in prehistoric

    times. "

            But the good thinks there is hope for them if just do the

    right thing.

             Is the military composed of atavistic individuals? Are

    pacifists the most advanced product of the ongoing evolutionary

    process ?

              I accept the insights of Charles Darwin but even he realized

    that his great discovery  was almost useless in explaining social

    phenomena .

             The " natural " aggressive instincts of  creatures is

    rarely IRRATIONAL . The creatures are invariably competing for food

    or mates - or defending themselves from equally aggressive enemies.

            Does a " sane " monkey ever kill his very companions and then

    himself ? Would a " philosopher "  monkey explain the  behavior of the

    EVIL ONE as " atavistic " - more suitable to an earlier age ?


              In this matter of teen killings there is no escape from

    abnormal psychology. And no escape from the social psychology fostered

    by a very competitive  capitalist society - which breeds a few WINNERS

    and many LOSERS .

             Our very society is in many ways INSANE !

" the psyches of misfits "

Good morning, Froma. I can't help trying to plumb
   the depths of young misfits,admitting that my credentials
   here would not compel public attention.
       But almost all of the violent crackups have this in
   common - a long wretched time in an obsessive state,their
   minds focusing on some real or imaginary EVIL.
       The mental health system stinks, but still even
    a better system could not deliver a legion of shrinks
    to deal with the budding psychopaths.
       Prevention is the answer.The obsessive state can
    be cured by the art of meditation. I know I sound a
    bit like a quack here.
        But how many horrific deeds would have been stopped
    by an hour of monkish meditation - with Gregorian chant
    soothing the disturbed person's soul ?
        Any person can find his own depths in the solitude
    of the meditative state.
        Kids need time just to be alone with themselves.
     Medititation can break the hold of GROUP THINK.
         The individual must not let the social rat
    race define him or her.
         In his book " The Sane Society " Erich Fromm
    made the case that a highly competitive capitalist
    society nurtures individual insanity.
         The WINNER and LOSER categories we have for
     human beings -especially in the sensitive early
     years -does not promote mental health.
        Think about it: Most of us are necessarily
      LOSERS by this society's  materialistic definition
      of SUCCESS.
           Older people can be philosophical about
      " failure " but the young can be devastated
      when they first begin to perceive the unreality
      of their dreams.
          A 30 year old woman wrote in her Open Diary :
       " I died when my dream died ".

                     Have a nice day- ron

NPR appreciated here !

 I am right now listening to NPR. How much I missed QUALITY

    radio! The news, the music, the announcers - everything about you

    suggests CLASS in the nice sense of the word.

                 Commercial radio has gone completely to hell. Strictly

    for the brainless.That TALK RADIO is a threat to our national sanity.

           Good luck raising the funds to stay on the air.

Judging Murray by his looks

There is a picture of the banking bigshot Terrence
   Murray on page 1 of today's Business section.
     He was reported to be absent from a meeting of
   community activists who accuse his bank of" abandoning
   minority and low-income borrowers ... "
      To be sure, poverty is not profitable and banks in
   general are not in the charity business.
       Nevertheless, banks operating with a sense of decency
    can improve the lives of nearly desperate people.
       Let me ask a naive question: Is a sense of decency
     written on a man's face ?
         If so, then Terrence Murray has a major public
    relations problem.
       Not a few people I know have mentioned his remarkable
     resemblence to a barn yard PIG !
         Anyway pigs have a reputation for being SMART.
     In George Orwell's " Animal Farm " they took over
     after the REVOLUTION:
         " All animals are equal but some animals are more
     equal than others. "

         Does Murray ever read a book that challenges
       the sacred principle of capitalist profit ?

Dr. Paolino's Palooka

 Dr. Thomas J. Paolino Jr. in a July 7
    letter to the editor -sycophantic in
    tone- suggests that URI's celebrity
    basket ball player, Lamar Odom, has
    been treated unfairly by the ever insensitive
    press.

       He may even be amazingly wise - indeed
    in Hamlet's league- for pondering such
    intangibles as education vs.big bucks at
    the tender age of 19.

        If his URI English professor were to
     request that he write a short essay on
     his TO BE OR NOT TO BE decision, the
     result would never be required reading
     - not even at URI's Multicultural Center.

         Unlike the scholarly Malcolm X, Lamar
     Odom can -with a minimum of temptation-
     be led astray from "intangible " academic
     pursuits.

          The truly great amongst us have no
      need to know anything. On the contrary,
      they must enlighten and instruct their
      society.

          Perhaps in the distant future Dr.
     Paolino will recommend a washed up
     Lamar Odom as our next embassador to
     Malta.

Internet is bringing the family together !

In my " Open Diary " entrance ( I've just changed
   the anonymous " name " ) I made the point that the
   Internet - not the babbling of "family values " political
   phonies -is really reconstructing the old fashioned
   FAMILY of beloved memory.
       I immediately received notes from Open Diary readers:

      " You are so right about the computer. I have gotten
    to know my sons so much better since we have been on
    line.They are more open in writing than in person. And
    I can talk back to my grandkids everyday!!! "

        " I'm one of the 'older crowd' who is learning to
     use the computer. My teachers have been my daughter and
     my students in school.It sure does come easy for them,
     doesn't it ? "

        " I also wish more older folks would get computers.
      It sure would be easier to keep in touch. I don't
      know why so many people are afraid of computers. "

         Let me add that the web site -Myfamily.com - is
      also a boon to " family values ".

           I wrote : " For years people are a big part of
       your life. Then one day you have the melancholy
       reflexion that they have faded into the irrevocable
       past"

           " After a certain age, EVERYBODY believes in
        ghosts, believe me ! "

            The Internet is great for ghost hunting .

Dave Brussat sings " Downtown "

 Good morning Dave. While reading your zestful column
   this morning I could hear in my mind's ear the popular
   Petula Clark hit song " Downtown ".
      So charged with enthusiasm was it for life( " this
   is living " ) in the NEW downtown Providence.
       No quarrel with gentleman Norm Jagolinzer, but you
   might enjoy the NPR station WGBH 89.7 fm even more.
      I hope NPR raises the money they need to stay on
  the air waves. I have not heard from " Fernando " in
  months.
      Downtown Providence also deserves a bigger and better
  library. And perhaps a new police station.
     I say this politely: Downtown deserves YOU !

     Warwick is the perfect example of a suburban ghetto.In
  due time I will move back to good,old Providence. All I
 need is an apartment for the " upwardly mobile " renting
 at cheap lowlife rates!

        Have a nice day, Dave   -ron


- - - - - - - - -
response from Dave Brussat:

Ron - Thanks for your swell note. My column has been so grumpy in
recent weeks that I felt I had to pull out all the stops and not allow
any nabobs of negativity to splash the placid equanimity of my optimism,
such as it is. Meanwhile, I think I'll hire one of the homeless to carry
behind me, at a discreet distance, a boom box playing Petula Clark's
masterpiece, which I also adore. Then I can walk around town feeling the
lightness of being that comes from having one's own theme song (as if I
were living in the opening segment of my own TV series).
     Again, many thanks.
     - Dave

Scientific illiteracy at N.Y. Times !

  In a New York Times article on the " surprising
   discovery of two new elements " -published in my
   Projo,June 10 - you missstated the atomic numbers
   of krypton and lead. There was a correction soon
   enough in the New York Times.
       However, then you blundered again in this
   "correction " :
        " The nucleus of the most common isotope of
    lead contains 82 protons, not 208. "
         Disgraceful scientific illiteracy ! The
     number of protons in the nucleus identifies -
     even defines - an element. Any isotope of an
     element will have the same number of protons
     as the more ordinary form. There will be a
     different neutron number.
         I am certain a bright 12 year old could
     have corrected you pompous ass , snotty,
     New York Times editors here.

A Mickey Mouse Heart !

   Another fine column Bob. Perhaps it is not fair to the
   character to say that Michael Eisner has a Mickey Mouse
   heart. A law suit is surely called for in the case of
   the Geoffroy family injured on a Disney shuttle bus.
      However I cannot commend their " lighthearted " tribute
   to Disney World: " There should be a law that everyone
   has to go there. "
     The cultural bankruptcy of millions made Eisner's billions!
   " See Rome and die? "  Yes!  "  See Paris and die ? " Yes!

      " See Rhode Island and die" ? Yes !
    But for an effete cultural snob like myself, Disney World
    can wait.       Take care  -ron


- - - - - - -
response from Bob Kerr:
ron:  me too.  give me an old, dusty place with some history every time.
bob