The Madhouse of our Mailbox | Foreign Currencies | Charles Bukowski

Great Letters
RALPH receives emails each week
commenting on our reviews
(or on other letters),
offering things, asking things,
complaining about some
droll review or reading.
We try to post the best of them ---
but here are a few
from the past twelve months that,
we believe, deserve your
especial affection and attention.
Insults to Texas

TO: Idiots
FROM: A Texan
RE: Your Insults
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN ---
You might consider putting someone with brains in charge of your so-called reviews.
I read what you said about us in your mag (you might call a spade a spade --- its more like "a rag") namely
And certainly no justice, peace, nor order except for the belly-pooched, heavy-joweled, gallus-snapping crackers who run the whole steamy cracker-whipped show there in Bay City, Eldorado, San Saba, or Sweetwater. Justice and beauty not to be had there, certainly never in Pecos. You remember the law west of the Pecos?
You start out with the song, "If you ever go to Texas." You might pay attention to the words. I live in Sweetwater, and I'm proud of it. This is God's country which you obviously hate, typical California fruits-and-nuts crap. Be sure to let us know if you come to town. We want to put out the "welcome" mat for you...

--- Robert E. Elton
Sweetwater TEXAS

Go to the original
review
Go to a copy of the
correspondence
that resulted

Rockefeller the Titan

To: lolitalark@yahoo.com
Re: Titan
From: eliofchitown@xxx.com
I am sorry you reviewed this book in such a negative light. It seems that when someone is able to pick themselves up from the dirt to do something extraordinary, all the losers of the world feel left behind and inadequate. In order to elevate their status, they need to drag the winners down to their level.
Rockefeller just learned how to win at the game, through hard work, a strong intellect, and sound family values --- better than anyone else of his time. He gave his wealth to charities and has done more for medical advancement than any other American. I didn't see that mentioned in your review. We need more American visionaries like John D. Rockefeller who, when it was all said and done, found a way to turn oil into medicine and education for Americans. I suggest you read it again.

--- Moses Grayhorse

She Said That
You Are Death

From: Mr James Ude --- fedexcomipany@yahoo.co.uk
To: undisclosed recipients @
Subject: FROM ATM OFFICE
I want to know if you instructed Mrs Sandra William to claim your ATM Card, Because she said that you are death and she is next of kin to you, that is why i went to Fed-ex Company and registered it and the delivery will take off tomorrow morning based on my agreement with Fed-ex.Director Dr John Nnama,
If you still alive what you will do now is to reconfirm your current information to him,
Your account number===========
Name of bank==================
Bank address==================
Bank user name================
phone number==================
Contact email{fedexcomipany@yahoo.co.uk} i will be off till July 27th, 2013.
Your amount in the Card is US$100,000.00 hundred thousand usd, and the Pin code of your ATM CARD is: {0609}

--- Thanks
Mr James Ude

The Pink Motel
Robert Earle

From:raponikon@xxx.com

To: poo@cts.com

Subject: Nights in the Pink Motel

I just wanted to thank you for your generous review of my book, Nights in the Pink Motel and to ask if you would be willing to post it on the Amazon site where the book is sold. You may have a policy against this, but if not and you're comfortable with the idea, I would appreciate it. The Naval Institute Press is about to release this title in e-book format, so I'm looking for ways to help alert readers to it.

Again, my thanks.

Hi, Robert Earle:

And thanks for your kind words about our review of Nights in the Pink Motel. The book is --- as I hope you know by now --- a fine piece of writing, a very unlikely masterpiece on a very delicate subject. I will always remember how I pulled it out of our stack of books to be reviewed, started idly in on it, and suddenly there it was, three a.m. and I was not so sure that I could leave off reading. Nor that I should.

I think much of our affection for it was that you were able to take Alain Badiou and his Saint Paul and La fondation de l'universalisme and make it all understandable --- real, as it were, in such surreal surroundings.

As far as Amazon ... we'd be delighted to have our review or any parts of it you want posted there. The problem is that Amazon is supposed to be one of the most reader-friendly areas of the internet, and I am damned if any of us around here can figure out how to use it, except to buy electric blankets and used copies of Ulysses and marker pens in bulk. We have been trying for a year to get the reviews of RALPH's new anthology up somewhere at Amazon so that people can order it, and we have yet to make head or tail of the whole intergalactic mess. If you or your publishers can figure out how to get our words up there, please do so. Even more, if you could help us figure out how to get our baby cared for as well, please let us know.

In the meantime, if you have any more novels that are going to appear, please let us know. We are willing to give up many more nights of sleep if we can do so in your able company.

--- L Lark, Ed.

Alain Badiou
Saint Paul
La fondation de
l'universalisme

To: poo@cts.com

From: Ulrich Morgenthaler

Re: Evental - A question for Robert Earle

My name is Ulrich Morgenthaler, living in Stuttgart/Germany.

I googled across your piece "Looking for the Evental" when I was looking for help to translate the term "evental" into German. I --- also my friends --- found your piece very entertaining as well as insightful. May I ask you on what page in Badiou's book on St. Paul you found this term? I could then look it up in the German translation of that book.

In case it interests you: I am presently doing a translation into German of the book The Event in Science, History, Philosophy and Art by Dr. Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon. It was in this book that I first came across the term "evantal" which the author discusses under various aspects. For some information see:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Event-Science-History-Philosophy/dp/1602648816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366227237&sr=8-1&keywords=yeshayahu+ben-aharon

If you have any questions please let me know.

--- With best regards,
Ulrich Morgenthaler

Hi, Ulrich,

And thanks for your letter.

You are asking about a quote taken from a novel, Nights in the Pink Motel: An American Strategist's Pursuit of Peace in Iraq by Robert Earle.

It is a fascinating bit of writing from one who served with the Bush administration in Iraq ten years ago trying, somehow, he tells us, to come up with a plan for getting the U. S. unstuck. When asked by one of the grunt soldiers in the hospital why he was in Iraq, he says that his main task is "trying to figure out how to defeat the insurgency and get us out of here."

As you know from the reading, he defines Badiou's "Evental" as "The rhapsodic insistence that what they [spiritual teachers such as St. Paul] believe enters time and space as we know it and pushes it out of the way,"

I think he'd say miracles are time-bound and space-bound. The boy walks. The old woman sees. That's an occurrence that reverts to what we would call reality; reality is the continuous reference point. What he means is a permanent alternative; reality is displaced.

If you need more input on this, I suggest that you contact Robert Earle, Author, "The Pink Motel" --- %The Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis MD 21402 --- to discuss this matter further.

Me? I got lost later on in the book when Earle was eyeing the nurse with the "chocolate-drop moles" working behind the computer.

Go to the
reading
in question

Go to the original
book review

From: Paradox398

To: lolitalark@yahoo.com

RE: Gertrude Bell

I see you did a review on Gertrude Bell.

I am now reading a book about her called Desert Queen.

I thought I was an adventurer.

she was smart enough to bring servants

Go to the original
review
[third review down the page]

Frogs
$$$ in Afghanistan

FROM: Shannon
TO: You
RE: Do you knw frogs
I had found a red an green frog an i just want to knw if he poisiones or not please email me please

--- Mzz.Bynum09/12/09

Hi, Shannon:

We have to admit our experience with frogs is limited, although we are fond of eating them. Their legs, that is.

We also have to report to you that where we live --- in the deep south --- there are green/black frogs that perch near our front door and make a lot of noise.

They don't say "rivet" as a good frog should. No: these creatures honk, like geese. We are forever and a day shooing them away, meanwhile reminding them that they are not geese at all.

Go to a
review
that may have inspired this letter

To: undisclosed-recipients

From: major.alanedward01@admin.in.th

RE: Moving Funds

I am Major.Alan Edward in the military unit here in Afghanistan, we have some amount of funds that we want to move out of the country.My partners and I need a good partner someone we can trust. It is risk free and legal. Reply to this email

--- Sincerely
Major.Alan Edward

TO: lolitalark@yahoo.com
FROM: Patrick Phillips-Schrock
RE: La Maison Blanche
Thanks so much for taking a look at my book, THE WHITE HOUSE: AN ILLUSTRATED ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY. It was fun reading your thoughts and I found them right on target.
I'm afraid so many of my best bitchy lines about decor were watered down by the editors ... so I was delighted to see you picked up on the vibe and spoke from the heart ... eg: "Modern California Gauche." Perfect.
I'm afraid the White House Historical Association was NOT amused by my efforts. Tant pis! It will take a strong First Voice to overcome The Committee for the Preservation and get rid of the dreadful and pervasive Nixon era dismantling of Camelot.

--- Best regards,
Patrick Phillips-Schrock
Urbandale, Iowa

Go to the
review
in question

Pet Blowing Machine

RE: Quotation for PET blowing machine and PET preform
From: "David--Blowing Machine"
To: lolitalark@yahoo.com
Dear Purchasing manager
Thank you for you interesting of our products. My guest !
Taizhou Huangyan Baixing Plastic Machinery Factory is specialized in developing and manufacturing PET stretch blow moulding machines and blowing moulds and PET preform. our blow moulding machines have ISO, CE certification. Please visit our web.
We recommend model of machine to you.
semi automatic ï¼šBX-B1, BX-B2, BX-C, BX-CA, BX-D1, BX-D2
Hand feedingï¼š BX-600, BX-1500, BX-2500, BX-5000, BX-S1,
fully automatic ï¼šBX-1500A, BX-S2, BX-S4, BX-S6, BX-5000A
If you have any new project related blow moulding machines and blowing moulds and PET preform, please feel free contact me!
Your early reply will be highly appreciated!

--- David Sales Manager
Taizhou Huangyan Baixing Plastic Machinery Factory
Add: huangyan,Taizhou,Zhejiang,China

TO ORDER____________

From: mark_larry74@yahoo.com

To:lolitalark@yahoo.com

My name is Rev.mark larry i am with the Presbyterian Church of God and i will like to order a CRICK LEVELS below is the specification of my inquiry:

any types of CRICK LEVELS that you have let me know and any sizes that you have let me know.

Color: any color that you have

Quantity:200set

kindly email me with a total pick up price of 200 set .I will like you to send me an email response with the picked up price for this sizes and if you don't have this size or type available kindly email me with the sizes you have available. I will like to know the terms or forms of payment you accept Kindly respond to me as soon as possible for us to proceed further with the order.

--- Thank You
Rev.mark larry.
Presbyterian Church

§ § §

Hi, Larry

And thanks for your order.

You may be barking up the wrong tree. Here at RALPH we do levels, indeed: trying to level the playing field of books, getting those New York literary types to open their beady little eyes to the other great writings out of other parts of this country or the world.

As far as "cricks" go, we haven't seen many of them. For about six decades, anyway.

Back in the cow country we come from, there was a saying (I'm sure you will recognize it, being a man of the cloth): "I'll see you tomorrow (pron. 'tamari,' like the sauce) --- if the good Lord be willin' and the creeks don't rise." "Creeks" always came out as "cricks" but since we was raised up all speaking the same language, we always knew what we meant.

If it is that kind of "crick level" you are seeking, I assume you might more easily find it somewhere there in the pews of your own church, rather than through some fly-by-night literary magazine like ours.

--- Yours in the Spirit Level,
Lolita Lark,
Ed.

The Banner Joint

From: virtualvideoshow.com

To: postmaster@ralphmag.org

Subject: Banner Exchange Request

Dear Webmaster,

I am Carine the webmaster of www.virtualvideoshow.com which is a very good adult website and generates a high volume of qualified traffic.

Been into online marketing, I am taking care of link building campaigns for my website and am very impressed with it and would like to exchange banner with your website.

If you are interested in a mutual link exchange please insert in your page this code:

IMG height=60 alt="virtual Video Show"

Or insert the banner joint at this mail.

After we joint me and I insert your banner or your code, follow me this information.

Please get back to me for any other concerns. I look forward to your reply.

--- Carine
Webmaster

"Your favorite porn pay per view movies collection."

§ § §

Hi, Carine:

Blessed if we can figure out how we got on your list, much less rated an offer to exchange links. And we are even more buffaloed over the invitation "to insert the banner joint at this mail." What can this mean? Ought we know?

We are a book review magazine mostly dominated by geezers, most of whom are past the age of performing, much less contemplating, the acts apparently to be found at Virtual Video. "Banner-insertion." As the late Harold Ross would interject, "Who he?"

Still, we are honored that you have thoughts of sharing, say, Debbie Does Dallas with The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Although we must, with regret, as we have over the past twenty years, decline. And fall.

--- Carlos A. Amantea
Exchange Editor

Dada

To: lolitalark@yahoo.com

RE: dada

do you guys know what Dada is as i don't

So could you tell me

Also what you see below did Dada make this or did I

DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA DADA

--- Al & Sue Gersbach
asgersbach@bigpond.com

Go to the
review
that may have inspired this letter

100 Copies

RE: Order

To: lolitalark@yahoo.com

Dear Sales Manager

My name is Mr Terry Lord with the Terry & Sons Company and i am sending this email to your business in regards to the order some {twyford wc}And i will be needing 100 pieces of them so i will like you to email me back with the pickup price including tax on that 100 pieces and also let me know the forms ofpayment and credit cards that you do accept so that we can proceed with the order.

--- Mr Terry Lord
terry.noah_bussiness@yahoo.com

§ § §

Hi, Terry:

Thanks for your generous order. You say that you want to order "100 pieces." 100 pieces of what? Since our business is publishing reviews, readings, articles and poems, do you need 100 pieces of these; and, if so, which?

We have, for example, in the review department, tart reviews, admiring reviews, so-so reviews, reviews of books of especial merit, and occasionally, notices of real stinkers. Which would you like?

We could send you pieces of our poetry --- we have almost 500 online, dating back to 1994. Do you want pieces of sad poems, serious poems, jokey poems, funny poems, poems with or without rhyme or meter? And, do you only want snippets of these --- or the whole kit-and-kaboodle?

We are, we confess, pleased with your order --- it's our first --- but I must say it put our order lady (who is very disordered) in a tizzy and will continue to be so until you make your needs and desires a little more specific.

--- L. Lark
Ed

Pest Control

To: carlosamantea@yahoo.com

My name is Emma Edwards. I've just visited your website ralphmag.org and I was wondering if you'd be interested in exchanging links with my website. I can offer you a home page link back from my website which is

http://www.pestcontrolnowonline.com/

As mentioned, your link would be placed on the site home page, not on any "links" pages which may be buried in the site somewhere. I'm sure this exchange would be benefitial for both of our sites, helping towards increasing our visibility in search engines. If you are interested, please add the following information to your website and kindly let me know when it's ready. I'll do the same for you in less than 24 hours, otherwise you can delete my link from your site.

Title: Fly screens
URL: www.premier-env.co.uk
Description:
Fly screens for windows and doors.

I hope you have a nice day and thank you for your time.

Best regards

--- Emma Edwards
Web Marketing Consultant

Hi, Emma:

Thanks for your note, but we had better not bite, even though we are tempted.

Pest-control ... of course! We are more or less in the pest-control business ourselves. Trying to control the flood the waterfall the avalanche of annoying repetitive ear-buzzing soul-nipping heart-robbing bad books that seem to have taken over the world of publishing. If we could only put a screen up, one that would stop these pests...

If we only could!

--- L. Lark

Sailing
French Kisses

To: poo@cts.com
Subject: Your Review --- "Sailing To The Far Horizon"
Hi Carlos,
I'm curious. What sailing experiences have you had?
Jim Allen
jim@azbw.com
Publisher Arizona Boating &
Watersports News Magazine
§ § §

Hi, Jim:
When I was ten-years-old my brother took me sailing in his old leaky wooden ten-footer, "The Honorable Admiral T. Head." We were out there on the windless St. Johns River for eight hours, back and forth, back and forth, with all the shit and the water-hyacinths for eight hours (Jacksonville had not yet created a sewage system; the river was the sewage system.) I thought I would go bonkers, but my brother --- a stolid sort --- didn't seem to care.
That was the last time I went sailing unless you count as "sailing" the five days I spend on the old French Line Liberté in the fall of 1959 going from New York to Le Havre. Now that's sailing! (French beer! French food! French kisses!)
--- Carlos Amantea

Go to the
review
that may have inspired this letter

Falling Wings

RE: Me Is Friendly
TO: lolitalark@yahoo.com
Hello, my dear friend!
She said "I'm afraid of falling..." and he whispered "I have wings"
Me is friendly, sweet, love sports! I like someone who enjoys company, caring, kind. I like to relax as well as go out and have a good time. I am strong in my convictions and love for his family.
Do you like it? Tell me!
www.heartcombine.com/tearslove/

My partner is creative and entertaining, and serving others. He loves to travel to new places around the world and spending time outdoors. He has a good sense of humor and enjoys laughing and making others laugh.
--- Do svidaniya
Tani
chenjdd@snhd.com.cn

The Barnes Foundation and
Violette de Mazia
To: carlosamantea@yahoo.com
RE: The Barnes Foundation
Sirs:

In reference to your article, "Doing the Tarantella at the Barnes Foundation:" Violette De Mazia appears briefly in [the novel I am writing]. I have read magazine articles which stated she dressed in accordance to what she was teaching on any given day wearing flowered dresses when she was dealing with paintings of flowers etcetera.
My question concerns your reminiscence concerning Violette's French accent, her dress, her dancing, and the use of Beethoven's 5th. How much was truth and how much was fiction?
--- William Snyder
billsnyder@sbcglobal.net
Oakland, CA.

§ § §
Hi, Bill:
"Doing the Tarantella" was written forty years after I studied at the Barnes Foundation. In addition, I have a flowery imagination. It is likely that I have dolled up the facts in the article. As you know, fantasy has a habit of sneaking in the back door when a "factual account" pretends to come in the front.
My vision of Violette de Mazia is static. Except for her red tinted hair (I may have just made this up) she seemed gaunt and monochromatic. If she changed her voluminous skirts to accommodate the flowers painted before us, I never noticed.
I don't think I am wrong about the tinted glasses, nor the various original paintings that she had in her house, nor my brief flirtation with the ups-and-downs of grand larceny. And the layout of the foundation and the paintings remain severely etched in my memory, the result of some fifty to seventy-five classes I took at the foundation.
Her accent did not strike me as particularly French, even though it is said she was born in Paris; it might have been Slavic, and she could have made herself up much as I have.
Her dance before the canvas, the scratchy 78 RPM version of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, her swirling dress: these remain true, since this rather violent Violette came in such sharp contrast to her cool --- no, let's say cold --- presentations both before and after.
You ask, "How much was truth and how much was fiction?" Surely, Bill, you certainly must know, in your own experience in the craft of novels, not to say readings of such as Javier Marías, Vladimir Nabokov, Marcel Proust and the good Kinch himself that this dichotomy is one that lies as much as in the realm of myth as "reality." I can attest to the slam-bang wonder of my epiphany; as well as Violette de Mazia's kindness to me; and the hand-pushed lawnmowers (that may or may not have muttered as Joyce believed.) Beyond that, I am rendered blind, deaf and dumb by the years.
Furthermore, as you suspect in the phrasing of your inquiry, I may have fabricated the whole ball of wax and, who knows? ... maybe even myself.
--- C. A. Amantea
Go to the
article
that inspired this letter

Diamonds

To: lolitalark@yahoo.com
RE: Exchange
Hi :-)
I was checking out your website and saw you had good information about diamonds.
I'd like to place a few links on that page. I can send you over exactly what I'm looking for. If you decide it's a good fit we can work something out :-)
I am only interested a few words or maybe a simple words linked in your content( i don't like ads that are eyesores ).
I am sure we can work something out as far as financial compensation that will be fair.
Hope to Hear back from you!
All the best!
--- Kyra Winters
kyra@dimacc.org
Hi, Kyra:
Thanks for your e-mail, though we are hard-pressed to see what would be so attractive about a review which points out some of the foibles of the diamond: a scarcity that is made so by naked manipulation of the marketplace, not to say the manipulation by outsiders of the politics of certain countries unlucky enough to have diamond mines buried in their midst.
We get invitations for links all the time, from the most bizarre sources. One wanted to do dark glasses, another bathroom fixtures, and one we recall, was interested in clothing for dogs.
We apologize for not being able to help you. We are, alas, committed to being non-profit, and take pride in the fact that none of our pages are sponsored by anyone except our exasperating balance-sheet.
--- L. Lark
Ed
The Ethics of
News Photographers
To: poo@cts.com
Dear Sir:
Can you please tell me how to obtain permission to use the weeping man that appears on your website
https://www.krabarchive.com/ralphmag/CV/briefs.html
as part of an advertisement to be included in a newspaper?
It appears the photographer is unknown, but perhaps you would be able to tell me if copyright permission is necessary.
--- Kelly Price
Dublin, Ireland
kprice@pricewebdesigns.com
Hi, Kelly:
Years ago when the photograph first appeared, we read that it was a Frenchmen on the streets of Paris in June, 1940, the day the victorious Nazis marched through the Arc d'Triumphe. Other authorities claim it was taken on the streets of Marseilles as the French troops shipped out that month. One even has it that it is of a man viewing the French army abandoning Toulon.
Of all the photographs, drawings, and etchings that RALPH has placed on-line these last fourteen years, it is the one that continues to outdraw all the others.
We introduced the picture in our discussion of Carole Naggar's book on the photographer George Rodger. Our reviewer said,
I've often wondered about the photographer who took this astonishing shot. What did he think? What did he feel? Did he worry about invading a man's sacred space? Did he think that because he was behind a camera he had a right to extract, even gain from another man's grief? Was he weeping too? Did he excuse himself for intruding himself on the man's sorrow (capturing a sorrow that can --- even now --- capture the rest of us?)
Every time I look in the newspapers or magazines or on TV and see just such a picture --- a woman after her son has been murdered; the face of a man whose son has died in the military service; a granny who has been divested of her home by some charlatan --- I think of the photographer who suddenly appears on the scene and without permission envelops someone else's tragedy, stealing it for his own.
That you would want to use this astounding photograph as "part of an advertisement to be included in a newspaper" makes us feel uneasy. Would you not be using "someone else's tragedy" for your own purposes?
--- Lolita Lark
Editor
RALPH and
Sunglasses
<
To: carlosamantea@yahoo.com
Subject: Nice Website
Hello,
I recently found your website by simply browsing online for other good websites like yours. I run my own website called HiSunglasses.com, and I am trying to link to other sites I think my visitors might like to visit once they are done on my site.
Since my website is visited by 1,000's of online shoppers daily, I am positive many of my visitors would be interested in visiting your site once they leave mine. I figured you wouldn't mind if I link to your site since we are not competitors, and you would could have increased traffic. Please let me know if this is OK with you? Do you think you can link back to my website also? T
--- Murris
info@hisunglasses.com
Hi, Murris:
I couldn't think of an unlikelier pairing: a testy, geezer-filled, off-the-wall, sometimes otiose if not puerile on-line book review magazine ... and a purveyor of sunglasses.
Although sometimes, when I look back at some of the reviews we published in our infancy --- truly puerile --- then I think that many of our editors and writers ought to be wearing sunglasses: not to keep out the light, but to evade the literate public.
Yours in obscurity,
--- Carlos Amantea

Onanism
and
The Importance
of Time
[Cryptic Letters of the Month]
To: carlosamantea@yahoo.com
how iam doing the onanism and what is the denger about it?
--- Batbot Pooh

What Is RALPH
Promoting
????
To: carlosamantea@yahoo.com
Subject: WHAT BOOK ???
I am not signing up, at this point in time, as you and the purpose of your organization is unknown to me!!!
Please supply some information...what are you promoting??
--- John Edmonds
Adelaide, Australia
owenbrooks12@gmail.com

Hi, John:
Thanks for your puzzled letter.
What are we promoting? Damn if we can figure it out.
Many years ago, we read book reviews in magazines and newspapers that seemed to have no little pith and vitality.
They didn't come with the Sunday papers, certainly not with the Times or the Post or the Chronicle.
Mostly they appeared in the more lively magazines and newspapers of the day, from England, France and Canada: The New Statesman, The Guardian, the old Herald-Tribune of Paris, and Saturday Night magazine.
I'm guessing we are trying to promote an ancient idea: that book reviews (a more universal art form than most) should be funny and alert, remorseless to the very bad (no matter how famous), forgiving to the very new (no matter how experimental), more caring for the reader (no matter how blasé).
--- Yours in faith,
Ed

To: carlosamantea@yahoo.com

RE: To subscribe or unsubscribe, that...
No, the question is: What, no credit cards? I live in West Africa, and credit cards are not unknown here, of all places. I hesitate to mail the local currency...
--- David Levine
toubabdoc@gmail.com

Hi, David...
And thanks for your note.
We had a meeting of the board over this onerous question and came up with a possible solution.
We voted to accept subscriptions to our magazine in any currency associated with some place in the world that we've never heard of ... much less imagined. We also decided that we could accept currencies that carried names so strange that we couldn't pronounce them. Finally, we'll accept payments in monies that sounded demented, if not slightly debased.
Thus we will accept all payments that come in from Kiribati, Mayotte, Dronning Maud Land, Futuna, and the Endenbury Islands.
You can also pay for your subscription with ngultrums, kroons, rufiyaas, and ouguiyas.
We will also accept any and all dongs, pulas, birrs, leks and levs.
We must warn you however of certain exceptions to our generous rules. In its list of national currencies, the University of British Columbia shows a nation known as the "International Monetary Fund." Its currency is called "Special Drawing Rights."
This sounds altogether too flaky for us; so, regretfully, we must refuse any payments in that specie.

TO: poo@cts.com
Subject: people affected by the war
Dear Friend,
I thought that what the editor wrote [about the effects of war] didn't really answer your question.
There is a series of novels by Charles Todd set in England in the 1920's that addresses exactly the issues you raise. The aftereffects of World War I are essential to the mood, characters, relationships, social environment and plot.
The Chicago Tribune review said, "No mystery series I can think of captures the sadness and loss that swept England after World War I with the heart-breaking force of Charles Todd's books about Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge."
Another reviewer said, "In a novel full of complex and believable characters, perhaps the most complex of all is the Great War itself, which backlights this mystery with its monumental horrors."
Some of the titles are Search the Dark, Legacy of the Dead, A Cold Treachery.
I found them at my local library.
Good reading! Best wishes,

To: lolitalark@yahoo.com

Hello:

This is Abel Debritto, a scholar from Spain working on a couple of Bukowski projects.

I see in RALPH's history page that you reviewed Bukowski's work in the past. Is that so?

If you did, would it be possible to buy that issue? If it's unavailable, it would be great if you could send the me the bibliographical data: title of the essay, author, issue, and date.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

--- abel cirereta
cirereta@telefonica.net

§ § §

Hi, Abel Cirereta:

We have reviewed several of Charles Bukowski's writings, most notably, "The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship" at

www.ralphmag.org/indexM.html

and Ham on Rye at

www.ralphmag.org/AA/briefs.html

There is one, on his poetry, "The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps," at

www.ralphmag.org/CE/indexCE.html

and, at

www.ralphmag.org/AA/herbert-hoover.html

you'll find a patriotic reminiscence of the appearance of President Herbert Hoover in Los Angeles.

Finally you can find a disquisition on boils (boils!) at

www.ralphmag.org/AA/boils.html

--- Ed