MEN in LADIES ROOM at public library ?

         I guess I'm old fashioned in even questioning this unisex use

    of Providence Public Library restrooms -distinctly labeled MEN...

    WOMEN. I observed two males being given keys to WOMEN restrooms because

    the MEN rooms were all occupied. I had just returned a key to a WOMEN

    restroom when I suddenly realized that I was not, after all, FEMALE

    and I did not want to cause a scandal ( being seen entering a WOMEN

    room might get a  decent guy tagged as a pervert -especially nowadays !)

              When I questioned a male employee about this unisex use

    of library restrooms, he snarled at me. Then I went to get my coat

    in the periodical room where three kids were at a READING table playing

    cards.

           On the way out a derelict friend of mine -known as Emo the Cat

    Man- said that my mind must be degenerating for even thinking in such

    narrow categories !

             My sister , a day care school supervisor, must be even more


    degenerate than me. She wondered why a LADIES ROOM in a local night club

    had a condom dispensing machine . I guess she was not as liberated as

    " Sally " .

                 How many female readers of this newspaper would use a

    public library LADIES room more frequently used by homeless male

    derelicts ?

              It use to be a nice place to read and study -many years ago

    -the Providence Public Library.

Jayson T. Blairs and newspaper letter writers

        I won't say that Jayson T. Blair of New York Times was stretching

    DIVERSITY  enthusiasm, but it does look like that whatever the editors

    of ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT  say about the scandal.

            One way to avoid these newspaper fraud scandals is - I suspect -

    to pay more attention to  your rather obscure and undistinguished letter

    writers , the literary hoi polloi who love to sniff out baloney just

    for the sport of it.  Were there such letter writers that at least

    TRIED to bring Blair's fictions to the attention of honest but

    supercilious editors - not to be distracted by humble letter writers?

            " We welcome mail " . Yes, like you welcome in laws on holidays !


             If the New York Times wants to publish a shocking best seller :

    Publish a book of just 1000 letters NOT FIT TO PRINT !  Unlike other

    major newspapers , the VOICE OF AMERICA is hard to hear on prestigious

    Commentary Page of the New York Times - where we find all the opinions

    of the respectable Country Club - where even an honest Jayson T. Blair

    would be liberally snubbed .

Empathy for over the edge cop

Story: a woman with empathy for doomed pit bulls infuriates

    an East Providence Police captain . He is caught seemingly threatening

    the woman with the crudest talk. Over and over again, we hear on TV :

    " I'm going to put it up her *** ! "   Horror mixed with vulgar

    entertainment for the TV audience - always on the side of virtue.

               A little irony here: many cops do indeed have pitbull

    personalities themselves. Can this woman empathize with THEM ?

               I guess at times it is nice to have a pit bull on

    YOUR side. Don't put this cop away. He needs a little more

    UNDERSTANDING. The stress of the job got to him. And you can

    hear ordinary drunken macho men talk like this to their wives

    or girl-friends all the time. For them some broads just need a

    smack , others more penetrating punishment. Soon they sober up

    and offer groveling apologies to THEIR woman.

                  This East Providence cop - I think - just needs a

    long  paid vacation.  And that pit bull lover woman a written

    apology - from this pit-bull like cop.

                   We must give our cops a rather long leash - in

    the interest of law and order. Tough job - being a cop !

" Cradle of Civilization " and THE EXORCIST

      For a baby boomer letter writer in the Boston Globe today the magic

    phrase " cradle of civilization " takes him back to an old school building

    in 1959. Yes, they did teach Ancient History back then and what pupil

    -even half awake in the dingy old school room - can forget the significance

    of " the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers -now modern  Iraq " ?

    I can almost SMELL the old textbook : " History of Western Civilization ".

    A copy of it is probably still around  gathering dust in some obscure

    section of the public library.

              There was nothing smug about that discredited course. In the

    spirit of the Greek Historian Herodotus it was lively, interesting,

    sympathetic and cosmopolitan -giving credit where it is due, finding

    VIRTUE even in the barbarian. A contagious thought : " Isn't the world

    an interesting place ? "

              But " modern Iraq " I also associate with the Peter Blatty

    horror story " The Exorcist " .The movie begins at an archaeological dig

    in Iraq. Father Merrin has just found a small , gargoyle-like statuette.

     " Suddenly an eerie wind begins to blow, and dogs begin fighting among

    themselves... a demonic force has been loosed upon the world "

            Once again " ancient evil manifests itself ". ( Magill's

    Survey of Cinema  )

              I'll bet that hideous gargoyle was recently stolen from

    the Museum of Iraq. Its new possessor - the next Saddam ?

                  What was the name of the ancient god of Darkness ? I'll

    check the old textbook on " Ancient History ".