Salient
Points
Bryant Gumbel Quote of the Week
"In light of the new welfare reform bill, do you think the children need more prayers than ever before?"
-Bryant Gumbel to Children's Defense Fund leader Marian Wright Edelman, Today, September 23, quoted in the October 7 Notable Quotables.
We Wonder
"Why do you suppose it is that one year after [O.J. Simpson's] acquittal, most white Americans at least, cannot accept the idea that he's out walking around free, refuse to let him live his life?"
-Bryant Gumbel to O.J. Simpson defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, Today, September 30, quoted in the October 7 Notable Quotables.
Bryant Gumbel's Next Job?
"The city of Belvedere, California, has paid $90,000 to three workers who were offended by O.J. Simpson jokes posted by the town's police chief. The three complained that the jokes created a 'pervasive and hostile work environment.'"
-Reason, October 1996.
Disobey Me or I'll Sue You
"Thomas Passmore thought his right hand was possessed by the devil. Taking to heart the biblical command, 'If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off,' the Norfolk, Virginia, native removed his hand with a circular saw. When he was rushed to the hospital, he refused to give doctors consent to try to reattach the hand. He told them he feared he would go to hell if it were put back. Now Passmore doesn't know how that nutty idea got into his head. He says the hospital should have ignored his commands and reattached the hand anyway. Since they didn't, he's suing them for $3.35 million."
-Reason, October 1996.
Time for a New Babysitter
"Slain Teenager's Kin: We Trusted That Snake!"
-headline in the October 11 New York Post, over a story about a child who was strangled by his pet python.
Pro-Life, Pro-Rape
"Why don't you recognize some of the hypocrisy on the part of the Republicans?.... Well, for starters, a rape victim up on the podium [at the Republican Convention] in San Diego when the Republicans oppose abortion."
-PBS To the Contrary host Bonnie Erbe responding to conservative criticism on Westwood One's Jim Bohannon Show, August 30, quoted in the October 7 Notable Quotables.
Unclear on the Concept
"Governor, a recent study of household income by the Census Bureau confirms that there has been, the gap between rich and poor in America is wider than it has ever been and it is continuing to grow [sic]. You are a great believer in the benefit of the free market economy, but doesn't something have to be done to change this picture? And what specific steps would you take as Senator to make sure the nation's poor and wealthy are more equitable?"
-Question from Boston Globe reporter Adrian Walker to Gov. Bill Weld during the July 2 Senate debate, quoted in the July 29 Notable Quotables.
Selective Amnesia
"When they discovered Republican leaders passing out campaign checks from a tobacco [political action committee] on the House floor, Democrats were incensed. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and Minority Whip David Bonior called a press conference to denounce the practice of distributing special interest money on the floor. But when reporters repeatedly asked Gephardt and Bonior whether they'd ever given such money to their members on the House floor, the duo wasn't so dynamic. At first they refused to answer the questions. Then they grabbed a couple of freshman Democrats to tell the press they'd never taken money under such circumstances, while Gephardt and Bonior left the room."
-Reason, October 1996.
Somebody's Tax Dollars At Work. We Think.
"The Internal Revenue Service has spent more than $3 billion upgrading its computer system. The results, according to a government audit: The IRS can't substantiate what it claims to have collected in taxes, and it can't verify a significant portion of its own payroll."
-Reason, October 1996.
Tenure That Man
"Scott Snyder, a psychiatrist and professor at the University of Georgia, watched six daytime soap operas for 10 days and diagnosed the minds of 100 characters on the shows. His findings: 'The incidence of personality disorders is vastly higher than in real people.'"
-Reason, October 1996.
Next Time, Buy a Paperweight
"While in police custody in Exeter, England, for stealing seven bottles of liquor, Paul Carthy stole the letters spelling his name off a board that he held up while posing for his mug shot. He told the cops, 'I took them as a souvenir.'"
-Boston Sunday Herald, October 6.
Innuendo of the Week
"Virgin's interest boosts 'super jumbo' prospects"
-Financial Times, May 6.
Above the Law
"ACORN, the tax-subsidized anti-poverty advocacy group, is lobbying a dozen cities and states, demanding a hike in the minimum wage - unless you work for ACORN. The group sue[d] California, asking to have its employees exempted from a minimum-wage increase that's on the November ballot initiative. '[T]he more that ACORN must pay each individual outreach worker,' argues the group's legal brief, 'the fewer outreach workers it will be able to hire.'"
-Reason, October 1996.
The Blackguard
"H. Douglas Anderson, a Seattle-area psychologist, has been fined $1,500 by a state examining board, put on one year's probation, and ordered to take a series of ethics courses for a 'breach of ethics' that 'fell below professional standards.' The crime? A patient had asked him what he thought about her impending abortion. He told her it would be wrong."
-National Review, June 17.
Now the Media Gets Hyper-Ethical?
"In her Wednesday Commentary page column, Linda Bowles stated that President Clinton and his former campaign adviser Dick Morris both were 'guilty of callous unfaithfulness to their wives and children.' Neither man has admitted to being or been proven to have been unfaithful. The Tribune regrets the error."
-Chicago Tribune, September 5, quoted in the October 14 Weekly Standard.
I'll Get His Clubs, You Get His Wallet
"As five men were about to tee off at a golf club in Fife, Scotland, one of them - Jimmy Hogg, 77 - dropped dead. After ... the time it took for an ambulance to remove the body, the four survivors played 18 holes. 'Jimmy would have wanted us to do that,' one of them said."
-Boston Sunday Herald, October 6.
Correction
In the October 7 Salient, the following information was inadvertently omitted due to a production error: Cover photos courtesy of the White House and Mercury Records; cover artwork by Douglas Gordon. The Salient regrets the omission.
Attribution
Commencement photo courtesy of the Harvard News Office; cover artwork by Douglas Gordon.