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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 1981)
SOCIAL STUDIES by Fran Lebowitz (Random House, $9.95) After the success of Me tropolitan Life — Fran Lebowitz's first collection of essays that pokes fun at New York City's denizens — the author's Literary Agent thought he had unearthed a hot potato Consequently, Literary Agent apparently negotiated a deal for Ms Lebowitz's second book before a single word had been written At all Not one page That was a mistake Her second collection of twenty-six essays, Social Studies, indicates that either Ms Lebowitz — Greenwich Village s Erma Bombeck — ran out of targets in New York City, or she waited until the night before her manuscript was due to plug in her typewriter Or maybe she should move Social Studies also indicates that a book should never be judged by its back cover — where all the critic's laudatory remarks are etched in stone A Los Angeles Times critic described her writing as brim ming with "fresh and arresting observations about the most exhausted topics " But it appears that Ms Lebowitz has exhausted her arsenal of me tropolitan jibes Another critic from the San Diego Union hailed Ms Lebowitz as, An original voice (who) has just arrived from the East an advent for which I am immoderatley grateful " I, for one, would be grateful if her voice would board the next Eastbound flight And the New York Times Book Review said of 147-page assortment of puns, There is character here as well as per sonality " Again, I must disa gree with the critics and assert that I was in search of neither character or personality, but laughs But why try to describe Ms Lebowitz's literary foibles when you can read the real thing? A few examples TIPS FOR TEENS Should your political opinions be at extreme variance with those of your parents, keep in mind that while it is indeed your constitutional right to ex press these sentiments verbally, it is unseemly to do so with your mouth full—particularly when it is fuli of the opressor's standing rib roast " POINTERS FOR PETS "Dogs who earn their living by appearing in television com mercials in which they constantly and aggressively demand meat should remember that in at least one Far Eastern country they are meat " TRAVEL HINTS "Under no circumstances order from room service an item entitled The Cheese Festival’ unless you are prepared to have your dream of colorfully cos tumed girls of all nations rolling enormous wheels of Gruyere and Jarlsberg replaced by three Kraft slices and a lot of tooth picks dressed in red cellophane hats." WAR STORIES "War is, undoubtedly, hell, but there is no earthly reason why it has to start so early in the morning Writers, on the whole, find it difficult to work during the day; it is far too distracting The writer is an artist, a creative person he needs time to think, to read, to ruminate Ruminat ing in particular is not compati ble with reveille Instead, next to each (double) bed in the Writers' Barracks should be a night table minimally equipped with an ashtray a refreshing drink, a good reading lamp and a telephone Promptly at 1 30 p m the phone may ring and a pleasant person with a soft voice may transmit the wake-up call " After reading this cross-sec Fran Lebowltz ion of Ms Lebowitz biting social commentary, the selec ive reader should be able to Jiscern between spending his time reading Social Studies or sinking his teeth into something worthwhile. by gabriel boehmer Albert s Hosiery... IfiVftl m ‘Guide’strange,but funny THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Douglas Adams (Pocket Books, S2.50) Arthur Dent had the "worst Thursday that ever happened" first, his house was in danger of being torn down to make room for a new freeway Second, the world was destroyed to make room for a new intergalactic hyperspatial express route Sound strange7 It is, but it's also incredibly funny The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the printed form of the radio series that took Britain by storm last year, and is now being heard in America (KWAX has it on Saturday evenings) It's totally absurd, absolutely silly in places, and merely witty in others The two main characters are Arthur Dent, a poor guy who's kind of shook up when his planet is destroyed, and Ford Prefect, a writer from Betelgeuse who got stuck on earth while researching a chapter of the real ' Hitchhiker's Guide ," a volume so large that is only sold in microcomputer form Prefect saves Dent from des truction. and the rest of the book documents their travels around the galaxy They are captured by Vogons, who tor ment their prisoners by reading their unmentionably horrible poetry to them After escaping, they bump into Zaphod Beeble brox, the President of the Im perial Galactic Government, who has just stolen .the brand new spacecraft which goes across the universe in a noth ingth of a second In the process, it often spontaneously creates sperm whales, huge masses of fried eggs, and occa sional groups of market analysts The book is fantastic if you're into science fiction and Monty Python, but could be pretty dismal if you're just looking for something to browse through while waiting for your nails to dry Adams is very witty, but almost too absurd at times for the story to make any sense He has a way of skipping around that is creative, but often distracting If you think you’d be bored by Marvin the depressed robot, the discovery that the Earth was created by mice as a complex experiment to determine the Ul timate Question (they'd already found the answer 42) and the reason why a towel is about the most useful thing you can have, don’t read the book But if you have a free evening and want to get into a totally silly mood, don't miss The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy complete line of Danskin leotards and tights. Albert's Hosiery - Valley River Center Weekdays 10-9:00 p.m. Saturday 10-6:00 Sunday 12-5:00 Duffy’s brings back the 50* glass of beer. At Duffy’s we remember the good ol’ days, and just to prove it we’ve brought back the 50c glass of beer. That’s right, a cold refreshing glass of Pabst is just 50c every day of the week. So drop in and raise a glass to the past at Duffy’s, where a little fun doesn’t cost a lot. Duffy’S Corner of 13th and Alder Dana 1 Cartian
