Harping on Reading

The latest issue of Harper's Magazine, I highly recommend for its cover story, "The Great American Pork Barrel," which chronicles the ways our budget process is used and abused by special interests and lobbyists. Taxpayers for Common Sense, my beloved workplace, provided much of the data that underscores the story's revelations. It's an excellent, if somewhat dispiriting read.

The issue, and I'm referring to the July issue, contains more than that, though. I'm not a regular reader, so I was pleasantly surprised to find more than just editorials and investigative journalism. An excerpt of some of the more creative writing below.


I am glad the bombing has been stopped and the peace feelers are out, and for reasons beyond the basic humanitarian ones. I hope the bombing will not be necessary again, but will you offer my suggestion that if bombs are indicated we should throw everything we can into one colossal strike and then stop again? You see, I was in the Blitz in London. People can get used to anything except what they don't expect. Daily or nightly attacks can be taken in stride; it's when the pattern is broken that they get uneasy. A big strike, a puase for talk, and then if necessary another, but at irregular intervals, has a devastating effect. And after each one -- the question -- will you talk now?

The excerpt is taken from "Travels with Charlie," a short piece that bears the following introduction:

From a January 14, 1966, memor from Jack Valenti, then special assistant to Lyndon B. Johnson, to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara regarding the Vietnam War. The memor was unearthed in January by David Vine in the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, in Austin, Texas.

The funny thing, though, is the words are not Valenti's. Rather the memo consists almost entirely of the recommendations of John Steinbeck, the noted author. Among his other suggestions are a scatter gun and the use of napalm and phosphorus grenades for psych/anti-personnel warfare.

It's a fascinating little tidbit, one of many. Among other snippets I would commend to the discriminating reader are "The Blue of Distance," (despite the sometimes snotty tone) and "Young H Saved From Infamy."

On the whole, a very satisfying Metro read, enough to satisfy the wannabe analyst, wishful creative writer, and generally curious mind (read: me).