FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92  
93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   >>   >|  
inging doom and so depreciating the value of their properties, complained to the Federal Communications Commission; Sundayschools voted him the Man of the Year and hundreds of motherly ladies stored the studio with cakes baked by their own hands. Brother Paul's answer to indorser and detractor alike was to buy up more radiotime. No one doubted the government would at length awaken from its apathy and counter the menace swiftly and efficiently, as always before in crises when the country was threatened. The nation with the highest rate of production per manhour, the greatest efficiency per machine, the greatest wealth per capita, and the greatest vision per mindseye was not going to be defeated by a mere weed, however overgrown. While waiting the inevitable action and equally inevitable solution the public had all the excitement of war without suffering the accompanying privations and bereavements. The grass was a nuisance, but a nuisance with titillating compensations; most people felt like children whose schoolhouse had burned down; they were sorry, they knew there'd be a new one, they were quite ready to help build it--but in the meantime it was fun. The _Daily Intelligencer_ was gorged with letters from its readers on the subject of the grass. Many of them wanted to know what a newspaper of its standing meant by devoting so much space to an ephemeral happening, while many more asked indignantly why more space wasnt given to something affecting their very lives and fortunes. Communist partymembers, using improbable pennames, asked passionately if this was not a direct result of the country's failure to come to a thorough understanding with the Soviet Union? Terrified propertyholders irately demanded that something, SOMETHING be done before realestate became as valueless in Southern California as it already was in Red Russia. Technocrats demanded the government be immediately turned over to a committee of engineers and competent agronomists who would deal with the situation as it deserved after harnessing the wasted energy of the populace. Nationalists hinted darkly that the whole thing was the result of a plot by the Elders of Zion and that Kaplan's Delicatessen--in conspiracy with A Cohen, Notions--was at the bottom of the grass. Brother Paul wrote--and his letter was printed, for he now advertised his radioprograms in the columns of the _Intelligencer_--that Caesar--presumably the state of California--had been
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92  
93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
greatest
 

demanded

 

government

 

California

 

result

 
country
 
nuisance
 

inevitable

 
Intelligencer
 

Brother


failure

 

passionately

 
pennames
 

direct

 
understanding
 

realestate

 
valueless
 
Southern
 

SOMETHING

 

depreciating


improbable

 

Terrified

 

propertyholders

 

irately

 

Soviet

 

partymembers

 

ephemeral

 

happening

 

Federal

 

newspaper


standing

 
devoting
 

complained

 

indignantly

 

fortunes

 
Communist
 

affecting

 
properties
 

Notions

 
bottom

inging
 

conspiracy

 
Elders
 
Kaplan
 

Delicatessen

 

letter

 
printed
 

Caesar

 
columns
 

radioprograms