Random Shots: The Spirits of the Season

R.F. Kampfer

GORBACHEV MUST BE FEELING, these days, like a passenger who got bumped off the Titanic.

If Clinton is so middle-of-the-road, why doesn’t somebody just run him over?

What’s the difference between Ronald Reagan and orgami? Orgami is fold art

Post-Modernist Cinema: Mini-review

THE PIANO LEAVES so many unanswered questions that each viewer has to provide her/his own interpretation. Does this indicate that director Jane Campion is a genius, or just lazy?

It tells you something about the movie that Harvey Keitel is one of the “normal” characters.

Kampfer went mainly to check out the Maori tattooing.

Joy of Parenting

OUR CHILDREN MAY be the first American generation to grow up less prosperous than their parents, which is no more than what they deserve when you remember how they used to roll up their eyes at our stories of childhood poverty.

One of life’s little annoyances is to have the children whine about some gourmet dinner you’ve worked on all day. Just keep a twenty-pound bag of Purina Brat Chow under the sink You and the spouse can enjoy the Beef Wellington while the kids scoop their own meals.

Teenagers today must wonder about old references to the back seats of cars. You can’t even get your shoes off in most of them.

The Virtues of Charity

CHILDREN’S WISH FOUNDATION International, which allegedly grants wishes to dying children, has been charged with fraud. They claimed to have donated $800,000 worth of books (in English) to Romanian childrens’ hospitals, including 3375 copies of Principles of Accounting, 1825 copies of Bulbs for Summer and 220 copies of Broadcasting in America.

The wealthy claim that their consumption of luxuries serves to provide jobs for the less affluent If they’d spread it around, we could enjoy providing jobs too.

Odds and Sods

CLINTON COMPLAINED THAT the labor movement was playing too rough in its opposition to NAFTA. He’s obviously never heard of the Minneapolis Teamsters strike.

Never forget that the air bag in your car was made by the low bidder.

One of Detroit’s oldest gay bars is now known as “Bubba’s Place.”

For only $250, Tiffany will sell you a solid gold paper clip. (Shades of the Pentagon?) To be even more ostentatious, you can break it in half and shoot it with a rubber band.

If you want to save money, never read ads unless you have independently decided that you need something. Then you can look for the best price.

January-February 1994, ATC 48