Disturbed Jalopy

A tired old car died suddenly Tuesday while stopped for the signal on Olympic Blvd. at Georgia St. It was first in line in the center lane with the blinkers flashing for a left turn. The driver tried to start it but the engine wouldn’t catch.

Meanwhile, those backed up behind were becoming impatient. Of course, the driver immediately behind made no offer of a shove. This simply isn’t done, except by drivers of other old cars. And so the disgusted driver got out and pushed the weary old bus to the
curb, miraculously avoiding being clobbered by cars approaching in the other lanes.

He let it get its breath and after a while, with considerable wear and tear on the battery, it started. It has been running since. Continue reading →

Of Men and Machines

Man’s dependence on mechanical devices was chaotically demonstrated again the other day in a huge market in San Fernando Valley.

A motorist rammed into a power pole outside the store, disrupting the electricity inside. Suddenly the customers were groping around in semidarkness, grabbing cabbages when they wanted lettuces.

Amid frantic phoning to get the power restored, a few crank handles were found to operate the registers manually. The rest of the cashiers had to get back to basic pencil-and-paper arithmetic.

All in all, it was a harrowing reminder that life without juice is not sweet.

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‘Lady’ and the Mails

As you may have read, “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” the controversial novel by David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930), is okay again. At least for the moment.

Postmaster General Arthur F. Summerfield banned it from the mails several months ago as “obscene and filthy.” Critics and writers protested. (Read Alfred Kazin’s blistering comments in the July Atlantic.) The book’s publishers invited the Post Office “into the 20th century.”

Last week Federal Judge Frederick Bryan of New York overruled Summerfield’s
order. He stated, “The postmaster general has no special competence which qualifies him to render an informal judgment” and held that Summerfield’s ban order violated the guarantee of speech and press in the First Amendment.

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