100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

March 19, 1978 - Image 12

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1978-03-19
Note:
This is a tabloid page

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.



The Michigan Daily-Sunday,

Page 2-Sunday, March 19, 1978-The Michigan Daily

RAMRLINGS/ keith rich bu

7,",LY

a 1

- -----

Lk--qqy

REMEMBER vividly my first day
of school, when the teacher, a very
imposing lady who had taken charm
lessons from the Hermann Goering
School of Etiquette, was calling roll for
the first time. "Keith Richburg," she
said, looking at everyone in the room
except for me.
"Here," I responded, much to the
teacher's dismay.
"You're Keith Richburg?" she
demanded, with a tone of sinister
inquisition. 'You're Keith BERNARD
Richburg?"
"That's me!" I responded, still un-
sure at this young age about why there
would be so much doubt as to my iden-
tity.
Finally the teacher revealed the true
nature of her inquiry, when she asked
quite pointedly, "Keith, are you, uh ...
Jewish?"
"Who, me?" I said, astonished. "No,
I have enough trouble just being
Black."
Thus began for me, at a very early
stage of my school career, what would
eventually evolve into an encyclopedia
of barbs and witticisms about my
Jewish-sounding name which, being
Black and from the near West side of
Detroit, would be a godsend were I

planning on entering a career of stand-
up comedy.
Or I suppose I could have been a suc-
cessful doctor, had I not realized-the
limits of my scientific competence in a
chemistry class in high school.4 can see
the plaque on my office door now -
"KEITH BERNARD RICHBURG:
GYNECOLOGIST" - and I can even
see the expressions on the faces of the
little old Jewish ladies when they come
in expecting to be greeted by the nice
Jewish doctor, and there I am, all
decked out in white, saying "and what
seems to be the problem, madam?"
BUT NO, I chose the profession of
journalism instead, perhaps out
of an ironic egotistical need to see that
kosher monicker of mine in print. And
then it's always worth a laugh to won-
der how many people who read that
classically Hebrew byline know about
the reality of the permanent suntan that
lies hidden beneath.
I know for a fact that Hillel, the
Jewish organization on campus, still
has no idea that the Keith Bernard
Richburg they continuously mail
literature to is, lo and behold, the same
one you wouldn't want your daughter to
marry.
I remember my first day on campus,

moving all my earthly belongings into
my West Quad dormitory, and visiting
my mailbox for the first time. There,
amidst my collection of movie guides
and free coupon booklets, was the first
of what would become a two-year-long,
one-way correspondence with Hillel.
Come to our Yom Kippur service, come
celebrate Chanukah with us, Keith
Bernard Richburg, have some candy
from us for Purim.
I often sit back, when the history lec-
ture gets boring, and imagine the
scenario should I ever decide to take
the generous Rabbi up on his offer. I
would show up at the door of Chabad
House and say in the thickest, most
stereotyped Black accent I can muster:
"Well Shalom to yo' ass! Whereas the
fried chicken, brother?"
Once last term I was walking through
the fishbowl on my way to nowhere in
particular when I saw a girl under a
blue-and-white Israeli flag, selectively
handing out literature to passers-by.
"Can I have one?" I asked with all
the politeness I knew how.
"You have to be Jewish," she told
me, without the slightest hint of
apology.
"But you don't understand," I
protested. "I'm Keith Bernard Rich-

burg. I'm the one you've been sending
all that literature to in the mail. You in-
vited me to Chabbad for Chanukah," I
said, pronouncing my "CH"s in classic
Hebrew scratchy-throat.
Well, she didn't buy it, and I didn't get
a copy of whatever it was she was han-
ding out, but I had the last laugh
anyway. The next day there was a copy
of the very same leaflet in my mailbox,
addressed to Keith Bernard Richburg,
U of M's wayward Jew.
At any rate, my years of quasi-Jewish
status have perfected my list of come-
backs to that most inevitable of all
questions. "Are you Jewish?" they ask
me. "Yes, I'm from the Southern bran-
ch of the tribe of Abraham Jones."
"Are you Jewish?" "Yes, couldn't you
tell? I've been in Miami for a week."
Don't get me wrong. There are
inherent advantages in being Black
with a Jewish name. 'On job ap-
plications, you are automatically
placed in the slots of two minorities,
where one can reap all the benefits of
affirmative action quotas and goals.
Besides that,you getqaucertain sense of
superiority from knowing that you and
Sammy Davis Jr. are both members of
one of the most exclusive clubs in the
country.
Oy vay! It's all in a name.

Stallone' s prose
lacks punch but
shows promise
By Richard Heritage

PARADISE ALLEY
By Sylvester Stallone
G. P. Putman's Sons, 217 p., $8.95
A S WITH most work of art, Rocky's
appeal is difficult to articulate. It
has to do with the film's small-time-
loser-gets-a-shot-at-the-crown theme,
the maudlin love story, the phenomenal
editing of the fight sequences. In any
case, Rocky's strengths are visceral,
emotional, even sentimental - but defi-
nitely not literary.
Predictably, then, Syslvester
Stallone's first novel does not amount to
much as literature. It is poorly written,
full of hackneyed slang and annoying
Richard Heritage is a graduate
student in library science.

stylistic quirks. Yet it is not without its
muscular charm.
Set in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, in
1946, Paradise Alley is the story of Vic-
tor Carboni, a dumb but gentle iceman
who is "as strong as Charles Atlas "
and his brothers: Cosmo, an unpleasant
little con-man (he poses as a blind,
legless veteran to pick up spending
money), and Lenny, a mortician's
assistant, alcoholic and moody since he
came home wounded from the war.
There is also the malignant Nickels
Mahon and his equally nasty gang,
iceman Victor's woman Rosie, and An-
nie O'Sherlock, a pretty dancer, for
whom brothers Lenny and Cosmo con-
tend.
The first half of Stallone's first effort
See STALLONE, Page 8

i~ddY rnagazine &CHJSTdF PUZZLE

11

P 1 C 2 D 3
JG 21 H 22 M 23 E 24 C 2
o 68 A 67c 70R 71
:1 90 91 L 923$ 93F 94

H4fu
K0 6

S 41F 2 LJ 713 1
N 34T 3

L 161
0 38

Y1 K 2(

D 1

H 41

C 42

p 43 R

C - . I - I~ - I

i8

4 59
F881

D6

Hu,1

L 821

H 62 63
S09F lIC

,T 65 1
' 88
H 111

E 66 c 61

P

K

1041 1 1051W 1061P 1071H1

108

i # I -1- 4 -I -I I-

i i i i i i

J 114
M 136 I 132
U 158 F 15
S 181

Qv 11 a311
0 13
J 16 V 161
H 18 L 1:

6 M 11 0

V

1271X 1281B 1291M 13010 1311K

]132 L 133 B 155 w 156

S

13 S

D;

K 14 B 14 J 148 149
L 16 0 16 H 17 F 171 J 172
D 19 X 191 W 19 J 193 3 194

s 150 tH 1511

V

S 173 J 1741D 175

A

152R 15310

184 U 18A Q 181 N 189

19S 1196

E 176 F 177 A 178:
M 199 N 200 A 201 T 202

P 19 L 198

I i1- I-

A. Comphrehended; probed
B. Horatio Alger theme
(3 words)
C. One skilled in the examination
of a complex. its elements
and their relatiQns
D. Bristol Channel
(2 words)
E. Secretary of Sfrte, at the time
of Saigon's collapse
F. Secretary of Defense
inApril 1975
G. Unwholesomeness:
offensiveness
H.Saigon employees with low
priority for evacuation
in April 1975
(2 words)
. Principal policy making and
executive committee of
North Vietnam in April 1975
J. First Southeast Asion capital
to be evacuated in April
1975 (2 words)
K. Trouble: misfortune
L. Shoot forth: . ,
give fofth"

6 31 52 69 124 178 201 186
37 51 81 93 111 116 125 147 129 155 165
180
2 46 70 184 42 25 67
3 21 60 162 87 17 175 190
15 50 24 85 176 66 194 119 140
12 120 30 75 83 94 171 110 144 159 177
19 27 48 68 79 72 88 134 145 122 126
9 22 33 41 62 74 4 90 108 151 170
182
39 58 164 73 121 91 137 105 196
59 8 148 102 47 114 160 193 174
20 26 84 86 98 104 132 146
- S16 8292 9J'% 33 168183 '

M. CIA intelligence
specialists and spy
handlers
(2 words)
N. Small whirlpools
0. Site of the Civil War battle
between the Monitor and
the Merrimac (2 words)
P. Warm: hot
Q. Apprise; notify
R. Bobbed: dipped
S. Brazilian rabbit
T. Lyric poems
U. Return of a portion
of payment
V. North Vietnamese general in
charge of the final
offensive of the Vietnam War
(Full name)
W. Traditional Vietnamese
tunic (2 words)
X. North Vietnames who refused,
to accept 1973 Nobel Peace
Prze (Pult.6ame)#:

78 89 117 130 136 123 185 23 199 143 166
149
34 135 157 200 189 29
28 38 57 118 97 138 142 154 169 109 131
7 112 43 107 1 95 197
45 172 188 5 115 10
36 153 32 44 55 71
181 100 139 150 173 11
35 195 163 77 65 202
54 61 158 167 13 187

BY
STEPHEN J.
POZSGAI
Copyright 197X
INSTRUCTIONS
Guess the words defined at the
left and write them in over
their numbered dashes. Then,
transfer each letter to the cor-
responding numbered square
in the grid above. The letters
printed in the upper-right-hand
corners of the squares indi-
cate from what clue-word a
particular square's letter
comes from. The grid, when
filled in, should read as a
quotation from a published
work. The darkened squares
are the spaces between words.
Some words may carry over
to the next line. Meanwhile,
the first letter of each guessed
word at the left, reading down,
forms an acrostic, giving the
author's name and the title of
the work from which the quote
is extracted. As words and
phrases begin to form in the
grid, you can work back and
forth from clues to grid until
the puzzle is complete.
Answer to Last Week's Puzzle
"True stories about the
real world may provide
some interesting and often
useful information but the
way these stories unfold is
as alien to the way the
prepubertal child's mind
functions as the super-
natural events of the fairy.
tale are to the way the
mature intellect com-
prehends the world. "
(Brus o)B ettchm
.Tbe) Useso Enchantment

Vin tage journal and fresh v

I

By Anne Sharp
JOURNALS: EARLY FIFTIES
EARLY SIXTIES
By Allen Ginsberg
edited by Gordon Bell
Grove Press, 302 pp. $10.00
MIND BREATHS: POEMS 1972-1977
By Allen Ginsberg
City Lights Books, 123 pp. $3.00
ADD NOW TO poet Allen Ginsberg's
vast literary output two recently
released books: a volume of his collec-
ted journals, dated 1952 to 1962, and
Mind Breaths, a compilation of poems
and music written between 1972 and
1977.
In preparing Journals: Early Fifties
Early Sixties, editor Gordon Bell
worked closely with Ginsberg, selecting
and footnoting the most interesting en-
tries. Ginsberg used his diaries as
poetry workbooks, as well as running
accounts of dreams, conversations,
daily incidents and records of images
scribbled down for further use, all writ-
ten in his characteristically flowing,
impulsive style. He also used them for
catharsis, a way to work out his per-
sonal crises. At about the time these
journals were developing, Ginsberg
went through a period of
psychoanalysis, and once spent several
months in a mental hospital. As a
result, he is a. man in close touch with
Atriute , Sr u 1< a lre~l/iet &6i
trihulor toryhj?,1Paily art~s Page',

"From the not-so-
callow youth of the
Journals to the blissed-
out author of Mind
Breaths, Allen Gins-
berg has undergone
many transform a-

tions,

"Rocky" reflects on his wri

remaining

throughout a con-
troversial, intensely
generative artist. "

The Beat 1
1950s, in wh
dynamic roli
Buddhism,
Pythonesque
typical Zen
unable to ar
clever quest
slugging him
sberg has fo
tation with Z
new antholo
his involvem
serene litany
while medit
scends his p
impossibly o
trol, an i
meditation,
ted in the tro
of air fro
Washington
out of a moul
"M UGG
quie
Ginsberg wa
thugs, starts
rush of noun
Ah, torn
block NY C
sk v Hallow
thinking
Learv join
season?
"Contest
confrontatio
and a pret
although it
author. "Dc
See,.1

I

his own subconscious; one consequence
of this is that he never complains of
creative blocks. Ginsberg is also an ex-
pert dream analyst. "The most impor-
tant thing-about dreams," he observed
in an entry dated May 1959, "is the
existence in them of magical emotions,
to which waking Consciousness is not
ordinarily sentient. Awe of vast con-
structions; familiar eternal halls of
buildings; sexual intensity in rapport;
deathly music; grief awakenings, per-
fected lodgings."
INSBERG'S mother Naomi suf-
fered from paranoid
schizojphrenia, and the young poet often
pistake the curiosity Which leads hiimn

to aimless world travels and ex-
perimentation with peyote for mad-
ness. He muses, "I must abandon again
this whole metaphysical urge that leads
me further each month back to an un-
created world of bliss of my own
making.. . while the real world passes
me by." And later, "What will I make
happen to my life?"
Occasionally we glimpse the
passionate, creative Ginsberg's ultra-
cool "beatnik" exterior. One evening
the famed British poet Dylan Thomas
and a friend approach Ginsberg in a
bar. "Do you know who this is?" asks
Thomas' friend, to which Ginsberg
bree aly replies. "Of course, man it is
obvious.

103 18 49 56 63 76 80
14 141 106 156 192

96 127 161 152

40 113164 53 1,28 191 99 179
1 a

t .

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan