LETTERS
Henry Sidgwick
Sex, Lies, and Menopause
Great Letters of the Past
Dogs
Plus:
The Racism of H. L. Mencken
Drinking with Charles Lindbergh

ARTICLES
Great Articles from the Past
Hurricane
"You can hear the trees agonizing outside,
and one of the attic windows will
bust open, banging, against the walls.
The window pops open,
and the wind comes in,
stirring up the baconfat smell,
and the rat-droppings;
spitting rain and riverwater
all over the floor."
Hunting for Father
"This was the first time
I had seen him in fifty years,
since the early fall, in 1950,
in the Hotel St. Regis,
in New York,
and the doctor came
out of the bedroom,
and said, primly,
drying his hands,
He is expired."

READINGS
Continence
"The result of self-abuse
is always --- mind you, always ---
that the boy after a time
becomes weak and nervous and shy,
he gets headaches and probably
palpitation of the heart,
and if he still carries it on
too far he very often
goes out of his mind and becomes
an idiot."
Bedbugs in the Office
"A high school girl passed me
on her way out.
You're ugly, she hissed.
And you can tell your momma
I says so."

POETRY
The First Noble Truth
"I'm fed up with this noble truth.
It nauseates me and I'm nowhere near running out of friends,
running out of incest, epilepsy, rape, depression, longing."
Two from Flight Patterns
"One day Unmon said to his disciples ---
If you don't see a
man for three days do not
think he is the same man
How about you?
No one spoke so he said
One thousand"

THE OFFICIAL RALPH
Paradox-of-the-Month

GENERAL INDEX
A complete list of all books reviewed in RALPH,
arranged by title, including author, subject, and publisher,
plus a listing of all readings, articles and poems
that have appeared since 1994.

A PITHY SAMPLE
of our most notorious reviews
as collected in the hard-copy
"FOLIO"

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