IF CHARLIE HADN’T EXISTED, SOMEONE WOULD HAVE HAD TO INVENT HIM

The secret words are Healter and Skelter

"We could still be out there, old but dangerous, lurking in the darkest shadow."

UISCE BEATHA – THE WATER OF LIFE

One approach to healthcare...

“MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian soccer fans have been told to drink whisky on their trip to Wales for next month's World Cup qualifier to ward off the H1N1 swine flu virus, the head of the country's supporter association (VOB) said on Monday.
"We urge our fans to drink a lot of Welsh whisky as a form of disinfection," VOB head Alexander Shprygin told Reuters. "That should cure all symptoms of the disease."
Russia's Health Ministry has issued a public warning against travelling to Britain because of the spread of the H1N1 virus but Shprygin said he expected at least several hundred fans would go to Wales for the September 9 qualifier in Cardiff.
"Health officials say this virus is very dangerous but being a fan myself I can tell you that for a real fan nothing is more important than the well-being of the team," said Shprygin, who also sits on the executive board of the Russian FA.
"Russian fans don't fear anything or anybody so this virus will not stand in our way of supporting our team."

WILLY DE VILLE -- RIP

I’d like to say that the news of Willy’s death came as a surprise. But it didn’t. There was that oh-shit moment of pain to know another of the Old Guard was down, but I can’t pretend we aren’t going thick and fast. The crapshoot is a dead pool, and those who survive are made increasingly to feel like the last men standing. I hung out with Willy and the late-crazy Toots in London when Willy was stealing his suits from Bernado of West Side Story, and we wrote a couple of songs, and then, a little while later, the two of them were good friends who made me welcome when I first moved to Manhattan – around the time the video below was shot – reminding me how, on 10th Street, there was no time off for good behavior.

Click here for Spanish Stroll

The secret word is Lamentation

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 59

"Oh yes. Reefer brawls."

“ALL ACROSS THE TELEGRAPH HIS NAME IT DID RESOUND…”

HCB sent this over and, although I’m not sure I wholly agree, I post it for the public consideration at a time when the accents of Southern California mall-youth already resemble speech impediments…

"By 1848, the new electric telegraph was already being hailed as a modern marvel that would revolutionize commerce, journalism, and warfare. In that year, a prominent New York attorney and editor named Conrad Swackhamer wrote an article predicting that it would transform the language as well. After all, he noted, the telegraph required above all else that its users be brief and direct. As people got used to sending and receiving telegrams and reading the telegraphed dispatches in the newspapers, they would inevitably cast off the verbosity and complexity of the prevalent English style. The 'telegraphic style,' as Swackhamer called it, would be 'terse, condensed, expressive, sparing of expletives, and utterly ignorant of synonyms' and would propel the English language toward a new standard of perfection.

"That was the first time anybody used the word telegraphic to describe a style of writing, with the implication that a new communications technology would naturally leave its mark on the language itself. It's an idea that has resurfaced with the appearance of every writing tool from the typewriter to the word processor. And now there's a resurgence of Swackhamerism as the keypad is passed to a new generation, and commentators ponder the deeper linguistic significance of the codes and shortcuts that have evolved around instant messaging and cell-phone texting. The topic got a lot of media play last month with the release of a study on teens and writing technology sponsored by the College Board and the Pew Research Center. According to the report, more than half of teens say they've sometimes used texting shortcuts in their school writing. The story was a natural for journalists. It combined three themes that have been a staple of feature writing for 150 years: 'the language is going to hell in a handbasket'; 'you'll never get me onto one of those newfangled things'; and 'kids today, I'm here to tell you ...'

"It wasn't hard to find critics who warned of apocalyptic consequences for the language. James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, said that IM and texting were bringing about 'the slow destruction of the basic unit of human thought, the sentence.' ..."I've got a little prediction to make myself a generation from now all this stuff is going to sound awfully silly. Did people really imagine that rules of written English sentence structure that go back to the Renaissance would suddenly crumble because teenagers took to texting each other over their cell phones instead of passing notes under their desks in class?"In fact, apart from contributing some slang and jargon, new writing technologies rarely have much of an effect on the language. They can give rise to specialized codes, but those tend to flow alongside the broad channel of standard English without ever mixing with it. As Conrad Swackhamer predicted, the Victorians developed a breathlessly compressed style for sending telegrams, like the message Henry James had one of his characters cable in Portrait of a Lady: 'Tired America, hot weather awful, return England with niece, first steamer decent cabin.' But that telegraphic style didn't leave any traces on Victorian prose - when you think of James's own writing, terse and condensed are not the words that come to mind. The linguistic features of the new media are sure to follow the same pattern. ...

"What happens in email stays in email. Kids catch on to this quickly. They may sometimes let texting shortcuts slip into their schoolwork, but they know there are different rules for formal writing, and that you ignore them at your peril."
Geoffrey Nunberg, The Years of Talking Dangerously, Copyright 2009

The secret word is Crypt

...is one way to describe this video – descriptively titled Frankenstein Master-Race Radio Control – that I lifted from Adam Gorightly. So click here for b&w madness.

And while we’re doing moving pictures, click here for the video trailer for the new Thomas Pynchon novel.

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Parthenon and Calpurnia Frozdick could turn a run to the store into a major production.

WAR IS HECK #2

BIG DRUG HORROR

While the US mulls the unique concept of bringing its healthcare system out of the 19th century and not leaving millions of its poorest citizens to die untended, our pal Bernard sends us this piece from The Independent that illustrates the ugly logic and corporate brutality of big pharma.

"This is the story of one of the great unspoken scandals of our times. Today, the people across the world who most need life-saving medicine are being prevented from producing it. Here's the latest example: factories across the poor world are desperate to start producing their own cheaper Tamiflu to protect their populations – but they are being sternly told not to. Why? So rich drug companies can protect their patents – and profits. There is an alternative to this sick system, but we are choosing to ignore it.
To understand this tale, we have to start with an apparent mystery. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been correctly warning for months that if swine flu spreads to the poorest parts of the world, it could cull hundreds of thousands of people – or more. Yet they have also been telling the governments of the poor world not to go ahead and produce as much Tamiflu – the only drug we have to reduce the symptoms, and potentially save lives – as they possibly can." (Click here for the rest)

The secret word is Sick

SEX TIPS FOR GIRLS* #1

From What Every Girl Should Know by Margaret Sanger, 1920.

* With acknowledgements to the lovely Cynthia Heimel.

SEX TIPS FOR GIRLS #2

The first generation of self-programming sex toys were, by definition, cumbersome.

WAR IS HECK #1

THE LONE BILL

Yeah, yeah, I know. Bill Clinton is really a terrible person and I shouldn’t have any sneaking liking for him or respect him for bringing this nation almost a decade of peace, prosperity, budget surplus, and bad tenor playing. It was so long ago – and is so obscured by the mist of 21st century stupidity – that now it’s hard to remember how it felt. I’m well aware that his dashing Lone-Ranger rescue of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korea was a wholly orchestrated production in the fantasy world where international nuclear diplomacy meets global public relations. But compare Ol’ Bill’s excellent adventure to the corporate-sponsored sound-bite healthcare mini-riots, the hired thuglife-stormbands of baying goons being bused in by insurance and pharm lobbyists to disrupt any Democrat public meeting, or the horny rich-boy megalomaniacs in that house on C Street, and Clinton looks positively John Wayne, pilgrim, so cue the Rossini.

The secret word is William

And talking of guys named Bill…

OUR WHACKY UNCLE BILL

Uncle Bill does not feel his suit is appropriate for a punk rock dressing room. But he does want you to click here to watch his moving pictures. (Contributed by Munz.)

SPACE OPERA

OIL – IT’S LATER THAN WE THINK

If this report is only partially true, we are in one whole lotta of fucking trouble…

“The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned.
Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation, or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course, said Dr Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which is charged with the task of assessing future energy supplies by OECD countries.
In an interview with The Independent, Dr Birol said that the public and many governments appeared to be oblivious to the fact that the oil on which modern civilisation depends is running out far faster than previously predicted and that global production is likely to peak in about 10 years - at least a decade earlier than most governments had estimated.” Click here for more.

The secret word is Doom

Simon Vinkenoog -- RIP

EGO

Some of you may recall how, back in April, Andy Colquhoun and I both took part in a Hawkwind tribute at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Now Valerie has sent us this report from Blacklight Basement with pictures and audio clips. Click here. Meanwhile the Modadelic website as nice things to say about the album Mona. Click here.

THERE ARE FASHION STATEMENTS AND FASHION STATEMENTS

The late lamented Lester Bangs always equated fashion with fascism. But, then again, he was a scruffy bastard at the best of times.

HAPPY, HAPPY HIPPO

Here at Doc40 we have quite a predilection for animal tales and we are also very fond of cocaine stories, so you can imagine how exceedingly pleased we are when the two are combined. The story of Matilda the hippo, the former pet of Colombian drug overlord Pablo Escobar was brought to our attention by the UK Edition of The Week. It would seem that, after Escobar was murdered by what was supposedly an unholy alliance of the Colombian government, the Cali Cartel and the CIA, his private zoo, that housed Matilda and her mate Pepe, along with other exotic animals, was allowed to fall into chronic disrepair. Unhappy with their lot, Pepe and Matilda broke out and settled in the wild, but the same Colombian authorities, who had killed their previous owner, deemed the pair a health hazard and government hunters killed Pepe. Photographs of his death, however, so outraged public opinion that the government was forced to back down and a reprieved Matilda will be resettled to live out her days in an animal sanctuary.

REPUBLICAN SOCCER MOMS FOR DOPE

Our pal Joly sent over this link to this a quite amazing opinion piece by a lady called Jessica Peck Corry...

“BOULDER, Colo. — As a Republican mother committed to legalizing marijuana, political life can be lonely. But while many in my party whisper about the Drug War’s insanity, we should shout it from the rooftop: the time to legalize is now.
Calling for a new approach doesn’t make me a pothead. In fact, while I freely admit to having previously smoked marijuana — as do more than 95 million other Americans, including our last three presidents — I choose not to be an active marijuana user today.
While opponents may argue that legalization is all about a bunch of twentysomethings wanting to get high, the debate deserves a more respectful and truthful analysis.” (Click here for more)

The secret word is Inevitable

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 58

We recently came across a whole cache of this kind of thing, and Doc40 hates to let such a vivid reflection of family values go to waste. (Or maybe this is what happens when Republican housewives smoke dope.)

IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT AND I GOT A GIG, BUT…

…I had to mention how the banana came with a carrying case (courtesy of Valerie)…
And talking of bananas, click here to check out this wonderment. But if you value your sanity, don’t reflect on how 14 million people have already watched it.

AND TALKING OF FOOD…

The secret word is Yummy

LIVE FROM EAGLE ROCK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!

Tomorrow (Saturday) I will doing a live reading at the book/mag launch of Penny-Ante 3. Click here for a wealth more detail.


The secret word is Art

(And now I have to go and figure out how I can best decorate the time, so I leave you with a retro episode of the always visual…)

SPACE OPERA

REV IKE – RIP

I was always a big fan of the Rev. Ike, and when I lived in Manhattan I was on his mailing list. He seemed to think I was an old black lady. I never knew his full name was Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, but his mohair suits were always so sharp and his consecration of material acquisition was so totally outrageous, but, at the same time, so bizarrely logical. His pulpit shtick was also so delightfully innocent when compared with the Christo-fascist, advanced capitalist totalitarianism that lurks beneath the agendas of Sarah Palin and the nasty little Hitler-loving rich-boy Republicans who have formed the quasi-religious power cult know as The Family on Washington’s C Street. (But more of them in the days to come.)
In the meantime, check out The New York Times surprisingly long obituary on Ike. (Sent by Elizabeth.)

“The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, the flamboyant minister better known as the Reverend Ike, who preached the blessings of material prosperity to a large congregation in New York and to television and radio audiences nationwide, died Tuesday in Los Angeles, where he had lived since 2007. He was 74. His death was confirmed Wednesday by E. Bernard Jordan, a family spokesman. Reverend Ike had suffered a stroke in 2007 and never fully recovered, Mr. Jordan said.
“Close your eyes and see green,” Reverend Ike would tell his 5,000 parishioners from a red-carpeted stage at the former Loew’s film palace on 175th Street in Washington Heights, the headquarters of his United Church Science of Living Institute. “Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool.” His exhortation, as quoted by The New York Times in 1972, was a vivid sampling of Reverend Ike’s philosophy, which he variously called “Prosperity Now,” “positive self-image psychology” or just plain “Thinkonomics.”
The philosophy held that St. Paul was wrong; that the root of all evil is not the love of money, but rather the lack of it. It was a message that challenged traditional Christian messages about finding salvation through love and the intercession of the divine. The way to prosper and be well, Reverend Ike preached, was to forget about pie in the sky by and by and to look instead within oneself for divine power.” (Click here for more.)

ORANGUTANS EVEN MORE ENDANGERED

And check out this bad news about some of our nearest relatives from Martin Hickman writing in The Independent/UK

“Hope of Freedom for Orangutans Dashed
248 endangered primates left in cages after mining company pulls out of rescue.

A world-renowned programme to return hundreds of orang-utans threatened with extinction to the wild has been thrown into disarray by the withdrawal of Britain's biggest mining company from Borneo.
Conservationist Lone Dröscher Nielsen interacts with a baby orang-utan (AP)
Dozens of orang-utans that had been due to be released this month have been left locked in cages after BHP-Billiton warned it could no longer guarantee the safety of the animals on forests it had been surveying for coal.
With BHP's support over the past two years, orang-utans from a rehabilitation centre - made famous by the BBC TV series Orang-utan Diary - have been released onto BHP's land in Kalimantan. But last month the world's largest mining company told investors it was withdrawing from the area for "strategic reasons" which it declined to explain.
A planned airlift of 48 adult orang-utans scheduled to take place on 20 July was cancelled a week before it had been due to take place.
Lone Dröscher-Nielsen, the former air stewardess who cares for 650 orang-utans at the Nyaru Menteng Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre, said BHP had warned that the Indonesian government was likely to hand its coal concessions to other companies who would not match its environmental stewardship of the land.
She added that it now seemed unlikely the Anglo-Australia mining giant would fund a plan to a create a 250,000-hectare wildlife reserve in central Borneo that could have sited 1,000 orang-utans, a genetically viable long-term population.
Some conservationists fear that orang-utans could be wiped out in the wild in little more than a decade due to the destruction of their habitat for logging, mining and palm oil plantations.” (Click here for more.)

The secret word is Shame

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

People would constantly tell Crayola Frozdick that she looked like Greta Garbo, but she would never respond to the comparison.

FULL AUTO STUNGUN

We seem to be in a meme of danger-tech. The following comes from Tim via Facebook, as the whole question of police power is raised in the US.

“Leading stun gun manufacturer Taser International Inc. unveiled on Monday a device that is capable of deploying three shocks without having to be recharged — a move that comes just days after a British Columbia inquiry urged stricter limits on the use of the weapons.
Typically, law enforcement officers using stun guns — also known as conducted energy weapons — have to reload after each deployment. Officers using the weapons no longer have to wait to deploy the weapons again, and now can deliver multiple shocks in quick succession.
This capacity could help officers who have missed a target or have more than one suspect to subdue. Whether or not law enforcement officers should be given the ability to shock people multiple times has been a contentious issue in Canada. One of the recommendations of a report on stun gun use released Thursday by former B.C. Appeal Court justice Thomas Braidwood suggests such use is unwarranted and potentially deadly.” Click here for more

THE FEAR OF THE MAN-EATING ROBOT

The following comes from our good pal Valerie (who also sent the Superman cover below.)

“When Robotic Technology, Inc., and Cyclone Power Technologies announced earlier this month they had completed the first phase of their project to build a robotic vehicle that could scavenge sticks, grass, leaves and other biomass to fuel itself, the companies had no idea that their proposed machine would set off one of humanity's worst fears: the dawn of an artificially intelligent race of self-sufficient mechanical devices with a hunger for organic meals (including people). The companies quelled last week's clamor that their Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) was being developed as a carnivore by pointing out that it will, in fact, be a vegetarian.” (Click here for more)

The secret word is Snack

“Open the goddamned pod door yourself, smartass.”

SUPERMAN’S ANTICS COULD BE A LITTLE STRANGE

WHEN MEXICO HATED ELVIS

The following was sent by HCB, reminding us in the process that Elvis Death Day is a little over two weeks away.

"May 1959: While Elvis Presley’s popularity in the U.S. was arguably at its all-time peak, Mexico was in the midst of a huge anti-Elvis backlash. Tijuana tabloids called him a racist and homosexual, after the singer reportedly told gossip columnist Federico de León "I'd rather kiss three black girls than a Mexican." A Mexican woman in the same column was quoted saying "I'd rather kiss three dogs than one Elvis Presley.” Mexican Radio Exitos read de León's column over the air and spearheaded a boycott of the "insolent artist," while the powerful student group Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU) held public record burnings. When Elvis’ movie King Creole screened in May 1959 at the Américas Cinema in Mexico City, newspapers who’d advertised the film under the title Melodía Siniestra (Sinister Melody) reported a “riot” occurring. Mexican counterculture novelist Parménides García Saldaña wrote a short story, "El rey criollo," about the screening where several hundred gatecrashers reportedly shredded the seats and threw lit papers onto patrons from the balcony. “Before the film began,” wrote Saldaña, “it was pure chaos, a f-ing riot as they say more vulgarly. The different gangs shouted ‘Here the Guerrero [neighborhood],’ ‘Here the Roma’ ...And then some chicks come in with leather jackets with swastikas painted on them, pony tails and bobby socks, real rock and roller like…a group of guys gang up around them [and shout] “Dance!’ Mexican reporters suggested Elvis’ hip-wiggling and mannerisms proved he was either maricón (homosexual) or actually a woman in reverse-drag." (Click here for more.)

Merce Cunningham – RIP

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 57

A modest suggestion in these economic hard times.



The secret word is Initiative

OH NO!

Doc40 is having having technical problems due to corporate failure. Normal service will be resumed in 12 to 24 hours.

THE ADVENTURES OF MARILYN (Part 0000a)

In which Marilyn, after several weeks in hiding, finally meets with The Controller in the back of a Buenos Aires taxi. The Controller is out of focus and Marilyn is far from happy. “I don’t know how long I can keep on doing this?”
The Controller is motionless and grim. “Keep doing what exactly?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
The Controller remains out of focus and refuses to offer her a way out. “No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about ducking the Apollonian gestapo. I’m talking about making nice with Dionysian assholes. I’m talking about running through the sewers of Vienna, following the neuron trail of Harry Lime and the Vril, and avoiding the wrath of the Mole Men and the lesbian advances of Spider Women who want to go out and die after they’ve had me. And living on gin and Nembutal, and…"
The Controller interrupts her. “You’ve always lived on gin and Nembutal.”
“That’s not the point.”
“So what is?”
“I never know if my destination is a womb or a tomb.”
“You’re just tired.”
“I’m tired in two hundred different realties.”

(THE ADVENTURES OF MARILYN NOW HAS IT’S OWN PAGE SO THE WHOLE THING CAN BE READ WITHOUT SCROLLING. CLICK HERE)

SATURDAY PICTURE SHOW – BOB AND JOHN ON HEROIN IN A LIMO.

Click here for the notorious clip from Eat The Document which is probably about as inspiring as a hamster on a piano eating popcorn.

I'M YOUNGER THAN THAT NOW...

The secret word is Jones

WE’RE ALIVE!

Seemingly the world has survived the total eclipse over Asia. The Wheel of the Dharma did not grind to a halt. The axis did not tilt. The poles did not hop to a reversal. The tectonic plates are still where they were yesterday. The Reptile Men did not emerge from their caves in Tibet. The Vril did not manifest. Children did not act in paranormal unison. The Yangtze did not run red with blood, and as far as I know, the Earth is not hurling towards the black hole at the epicenter of the Milky Way. Pretty good. Pretty neat, as Jim Morrison once remarked. On the other hand, the bloody red sun in fantastic LA proved relentless. The heat was unabated. I have email to address about Victor Renquist and other topics, and I continue to work on the Five Year Plan, but I am hot and exhausted and must, perforce, cease.

The secret word is Bed

“Where is George Harrison now that we need him?”

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Aunt Periphery and her followers were more inclined to trust the dead than the living.

THE REVOLUTION WILL BE PUBLISHED IN PAPERBACK

Can't write tonight. I'm working on The Five Year Plan.

(I also learned that there are more than 200 commercial fart noise applications for the iPhone, and it kinda depressed me.)

The secret word is Overcome

THE ALASKAN BLOB THING

Stories surfaced about the huge carnivorous slimy blob floating in the sea off Sarah Palin country just like the start of some classic monster movie. Indeed, it was such a familiar scenario that I was reminded of Hedorah – the extraterrestrial kaiju formed from pollution – who was the bad guy in Godzilla v The Smog Monster.

“A group of hunters aboard a small boat out of the tiny Alaska village of Wainwright were the first to spot what would eventually be called "the blob." It was a dark, floating mass stretching for miles through the Chukchi Sea, a frigid and relatively shallow expanse of Arctic Ocean water between Alaska's northwest coast and the Russian Far East. The goo was fibrous, hairy. When it touched floating ice, it looked almost black.
But what was it? An oil slick? Some sort of immense, amorphous organism adrift in some of the planet's most remote waters? Maybe a worrisome sign of global climate change? Or, as folks who followed the blob via the Internet wondered, was it something insidious and perhaps even carnivorous like the man-eating jello from the old Steve McQueen movie.” (Click for more. And click here for a trailer of Godzilla v The Smog Monster.)

The secret word is Mutant

KEYSTONE NARCS

The ever-alert Munz sent us this tale that would seem just one more reason to legalize marijuana. Whatever it might do to stoners, it makes cops terminally stupid.

“An undercover Iredell County Sheriff's Office deputy recently purchased drugs from undercover Statesville police officers, raising questions about communications between the two agencies. Statesville Police Chief Tom Anderson said undercover officers from his department were working a week-long case when they met with someone interested in selling a small amount of marijuana. The undercover SPD officers met with the individual in the parking lot of a local store to make the deal, Anderson said.
But the officers became suspicious that the seller was, in fact, an undercover deputy, Anderson said. SPD officers placed a call to Capt. David Ramsey, who heads the sheriff's office narcotics unit, and were told the seller was not a deputy, Anderson said.
"At that point we proceeded like we normally do and placed him under arrest," the chief said. After the arrest, investigators from the sheriff's office arrived and confirmed the seller was an undercover deputy and he was released.” (Click here for more.)

EGO

As Stu recently pointed out in a comment, a lovely review of the ancient Deviants album Ptooff! (originally sent by the excellent Joly) just made me irrationally happy. (Click here to read it, and click here for a sample track.)

IT HAPPENED

Forty years ago today human beings walked around on the goddamned moon and it was a wonder to behold, until the inset of Richard Nixon came up in the top right hand corner and then we threw things at the TV screen. Humans had flown all the way through space in a tin can powered by hundreds of tons of exploding explosive, and controlled by hardly more RAM than it takes to run a printer. It was a recklessly absurd dream and we, humanity, pulled it off. It was awe inspiring. By 2001, we’d be in orbit off Jupiter with HAL 9000. But along the way, we wised up. We don’t have dreams any more. We traded them for new aps on the iPhone. Now we bleat and twitter. Infinitely more sensible, and so easy when we have neither aspirations or shame. Look where dreaming and voyaging across the void really got us. For a moment we questioned the nature of our position in the cosmos, and entertained the brief concept that all things were possible. And that could not be allowed to continue. But it happened, and a few will remember.

So be warned. Don’t come round here with all that crap about how all of Apollo 11 was faked in a movie set in Arizona. Don’t bother me. Tell it to the Flat-Earthers. I don’t want to hear it. The moon landing was too big, too complex, too grand, there was too much telemetry, and too many people. It was too breathless and too complete. Don’t diminish what we did manage to achieve before we surrendered or gave up. (If you want to read the argument, click here.)

The secret word is Slave