The Michigan Daily-Sun

Page 2-Sunday, March 26, 1978-The Michigan Daily

RAMRLINGS/ ken parsigian

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I HAD stayed up all night in order to
pass an exam at 9:00, turn in a 15-
page paper at 10:00, and stumble
through another mid-term at 11:00. I
was enervated, but with coffee having
replaced the blood in my veins, there
was little chance of getting my much-
needed sleep. I decided to go out to lun-
ch, and after what I'd just been through
I deserved the best, so I made my way
to that gastronomic paradise - Steve's
Lunch, a tiny diner squeezed into a
storefront on S. University.
I sat down, and my favorite waitress
promptly came over and said
knowingly, "The usual?" I nodded, and
only then did I realize that something
was very wrong here. I had been there
over five minutes, and I hadn't been
subjected to a single quip from my
favorite Korean restauranteur - Mr.
Lee, alias Steve. -
I looked around, but neither Steve nor
his wife was there. I was worried that
one or both of them might be ill, so
when the waitress returned with my
coke, I asked her about the Lees' con-
spicuous absence. My worst fears were
realized when she informed me that the
Lees hadsold the place.
It is difficult to explain my im-
mediate reaction. There I was waiting
for a bowl of the finest chili in town,

topped with handfuls of onions and
smothered in Tabasco sauce, and now
there was an excellent chance that the
chili would be totally unsatisfactory to
a connoisseur like myself. This was a,
crushing blow indeed, although there
was always the chance that Steve had
left his recipe with the new owners. But
still, it would never be the same without
Steve himself there to taunt and tease.
I CAN STILL recall vividly the first
time I met Steve. It was the first
Sunday of my freshman year, and a
fatherly junior who lived on my floor
told me to tag along with him, and he'd
"show me the best restaurant in town."
When we arrived I was unimpressed,
but my friend assured me that the
omelettes and the chili were of the
highest quality. Those being two of my
favorite foods, I forged ahead and or-
dered a bean sprout and cheese omelet-
te and a bowl of chili. The food was
nearly perfect. I've had chili
everywhere worth having it, and the
only place that tops Steve's was a
sleazy little spot in Cincinnati, but
that's another story. -Anyway, I finished
my meal, and after having been infor-
med that instead of getting a check one
simply tells the cashier what one had, I
headed for the cash register and my fir-
st encounter with Steve.

"A bean sprout and cheese, and
chili," I said.
"What? You didn't have anything to
drink?" asked the Korean gent who had
cooked the food.
"Just water," I replied.
"One glass or two?" he queried, his
fingers poised over the keys.
"Uh, two, I guess," I answered.
"So you were trying to get away
without telling me about not one, but
two glasses of water, eh? Honey," he
said, calling to his wife who was now
doing the cooking, "we've got to watch
this one, he tried to get away without
paying for water."
I started to speak in my defense, but
then he interrupted me.
"You believed all that?" he said, guf-
fawing loudly by this time. "You're
more gullible than I thought." And I
looked around, and all the Steve's Lun-
ch veterans were in hysterics too.
T HEN THERE was the time I
brought some friends in and infor-
med Steve that this was their first visit.
He promptly sat down next to us, and
strung my friends on for half an hour
about how he was a member of the
Korean CIA who had defected to the
U.S., and he had been set up in this
restaurant to keep his identity secret. It
took quite a while to convince my frien-

ds that this was total fabrication.
And I'll never forget when I went
there with only $1.00 to my name, and
ordered just a bowl of chili. "No cheesy-
burger today?" he asked. And I told
him of my financial restrictions.
Without further ado he made me a
cheesy-burger, and told me to pay him
next time I came in.
I was jolted out of memory land by
the arrival of my chili. The first thing I
noticed was that the waitress had
brought me Frank's hot sauce instead
of Tabasco. That did not portend good.
The only hot sauce that can compare to
Tabasco is Bruce's, and you can't get it
around here. I sat there looking at the
bowl, knowing that one taste would tell
the story, but I was afraid of the likely
answer. Finally I dipped my spoon and
took the plunge . . . it was perfectly
mediocre. It had too many beans, and it
was too milky - the same kind of chili
you could get anywhere else in town. I
told the waitress, and she nodded un-
derstandingly. Then she shrugged her
shoulders and went back to work.
To her it's just a job, but I feel as if
I've lost a friend. I probably won't go
back there anymore, even though it
may be a fine restaurant in its own
right, but it just couldn't ever be the
same.

'Rabbi's Wife': realstic dih

By Anne Ricks
RACHEL, THE RABBI'S WIFE
By Silvia Tennenbaum
William Morrow and Co., 395 pp.
$9.95
S ILVIA TENNENBAUM shares
with me an undying revulsion for'
the upper-middle class New York
suburbs where we both grew up. Her
descriptions of the insularity, arro-
gance, and complacency of the subur-
ban character are vivid, concise and
irrefutable. Rachel, The Rabbi's Wife,
chronicles a year of Rachel Sonnshein's
life, of changing addresses, her hus-
band's infidelity, her sons' growing
up, a hysterectomy, trips to the Cat-
skills,the Cape and Omaha. What holds
all this together is Rachel's recognition
of her untenable situation and her con-
sequent struggles for a resolution.
Rachel's husband serves a "conser-
vative, bigoted, and culturally
deprived" congregation. The women
are either catty or stupid, the men ma-
terialistic and boorish. Rachel's close
relationship with her son is dissolving
as he contemplates colleges, finds a
girlfriend, loses his virginity, and
loosens the ties of childhood. She be
comes increasingly alienated from
her husband. He, in the meantime, is
enmeshed in congregational politics to
keep his appointment, and increasingly
involved in an affair with a congregant.
The tension and loneliness of
Rachel's life are relieved only by her
painting and frequent visits to the city.
Like all of us raised in the shadov of
"The City," Rachel associates with it
excitement, culture, and intellectual
stimulation.
The City is far more than just a place
Anne Ricks is a junior in the Lit-
erary College.


TENNENBAUM

'Tennenbaurn's de-
scriptions of the insu-
larity, arrogance and
cornplacency of the
sub urban character are
vivid, concise and irre-
futable.'

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200

BY
S TEPHEN J.
POZSGAI
Copyright 1978
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.

to visit; it represents the opportunity
for Rachel to become her own person.
In suburban Gateshead, she is an ap-
pendage to the Rabbi w-ithout an iden-
tity of her own. Her husband's vocation
permeates every action of her life. All
of her activities are scrutinized by the
local populace-how she dresses, what
she eats, with whom she speaks--every
action is a topic for the local gossips.
She loves the City where she can be
anonymous if she wishes, where she
can pursue her painting, where she can
be recognized as something other than
the wife of a rabbi.
With "belligerant truculance" she
rebels against the suburbs like an
adolescent ("I'm tired of hushing up
my passion for treif junk food. I want to
have a Big Mac with cheese and a pep-
peroni pizza.") She dresses as she
pleases, from bright African print
dresses at a formal wedding to grungy
paint-splattered jeans on Main Street.
She reads Kafka to the religious

women's groups. She "forgets" lun-
cheons she is scheduled to attend. Her
frustration makes her alternately
hostile, condescending, and apologetic
to the community. Rachel knows that
she fails in the role of Rabbi's wife, but
she can find delight in it: "She was ac-
cused of being incomprehensible, dif-
ficult, cold and snobbish. She was cited
for being lax in her ritual observances,
a Jewish illiterate. Because she knew
there was some truth to all the charges,
she took them to heart, suffered, and
became more incomprehensible still."'
RACHEL IS intently, joyously,
courageously Jewish, but she is
unable to reconcile her concept of
Judaism with suburban Judaism. She
veers from Phillip Roth to Jewish
responsibility during a talk to the
community women's group:
"The most moving, most touching,
most glorious thing about the Jews has
always been that we cared so
desperately. We showed concern for


A. Second worst cause of deatA
during the building of the
Panama Canal
8. Greatest natural obstacle to the
building of the Panama Canal
(2 words)
C. One who is born justtothe
west of Panama
(2 words)
D. Discernment; insight


N. "--, brown cow?"-nursery jingle

(2 words)

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20 37 57 113 126 146 158 164 172 186 196 206
22 41 58 65 72 97 114 199 207 215
- - 48 - - - - - - - - - 
80 2 48 61 89 94 131 101 112 171 185 201

139

E. French engineer, Ferdinand de__,
who built the Suez Canal, but
failed at Panampa
F. Shot worth two points in
horseshoes
G. Celebration; incident
H. Homogeneousness; consistency
I. Doctor who eliminated yellow fever
peril from the construction
of the Canal
J. Most bulky; mightiest
K. Oldest white settlement on the
Pacific coast of the Americas
(2 wards)
L. Year of Our Lord (Latin)
(2 words)
M. "--,anyone?"-Bogart's first
movie line

28 84 39 68 111 202 181
73 107 141 152 161 229
10 50 83 93 153 16 173 221
213 19 25 45 66 118 128 137 149 230
70 192 144 122 148 77
4 63 13 40 51 81 165 208
24 59 64 88195 10422419209 12
18 33 71 75 92 96 46 109 135 163
3 117 127 136 154 180

O. Storm trooper
P. 1882 natural disaster at Panama
which set back the
French effort
Q. First name of the President mast
associated with the building-
of the Canal
R. Residents of the Canal Zone
underrepresented on the work
force building the canal
S. French engineer hired to build the
locks at Panama'
T. Sleeping sickness, like yellow
fever, spread by a
mosquito
U. Fine: swell: keen
V. Occupant; dweller
W. Recognizing; accepting;
praising
X. Impressive; striking
Y. Fastest; quickest
Z. Testimony; indication
AA. Making critical notes
or comment
B8. River in NW Ontario: site of
Hudson Bay trading post

6 15 204 115 216 223
142 11 44 156 82 108 189 29 197 212
5 27 42 55 210 79 228 194 90 222
9 219 78 99 102 143 168 182
56 203 87 211 120
21 49 162 193 205 133
36 52 74 91 132 160 169 140 150 184 198 188
17 7 217 34 43
26 125 138 179 110 227
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8 191 38 67 86 98 174 218
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30 129 103 220 145 60

Answer to previous puzzle
Many of the mistakes and
omissions had been re-
played in miniature. Two
Presidents had misled Con-
gress, the Ambassador had
overdrawn the prospects for.
success, and our proteges in
Saigon had been tolerated
in their most self-defeating
policies.
Frank Snepp
Decent IntervaI

gIlda
(Continued from Page 5)
believe that everything she does is
strictly pretend.
Take her popular juvenile roles. for
instance. How much does Radner have
to pretend when she herself frequently
talks like a kid and putters around NBC
with black and white Oxfords and a lit-
tle green piece of yarn keeping her pony
tail in place?
"I find them (juvenile roles) closer
now to the child in me than anytime else
in my life," she says. "I think there's a
time when you can get back to it.. . and
have no inhibitions about it.
"I don't know whether it has
something to do with the work ethic or
about being secure of myself as a
woman, but I can take a child role.
Maybe since I'm having a career and
making a success it's all right for me to
be a kid. I don't know. I love it. I can sit
... and play all day."
Her Roseanne Rosannadana can't be
strictly pretend, either. Roseanne (the
name is a take-off on a New York
newswoman) is a raucous, befuddled,
frizzy-haired consumer reporter who
appears on the show's Weekend Update -
spoof and does gross things like pick

imaginary food particles from her teeth
and talks about everything except con-
sumer affairs. Just like Roseanne,
Radner claims she "has her filthy
side." She proved it by attributing her
low college board scored to her ill-
timed menstrual cramps-a funny tid-,
bit, but gross nonetheless.
Radner's most recent character is
Lisa Leubner, who, like her creator in
earlier days, is a nerd. Unlike her
creator, Lisa suffers from chronic
asthma and other respiratory disorders.
"I'm a little bit like her today," says
Radner, muffling her voice. looking off
into space and snorting back imaginary
mucus. "Cranky."
"You know when you have a cold,
your world gets so insulated?" Rad-
ner/Leubner asks, sounding sick.
"Well, she always has a cold and asth-
ma, and she says things like, "Salu-
tations from the United Nations."
Lisa Leubner recently appeared on
an interview show spoof to discuss her
new book, "The Class of '77," an ac-
count of what her high school class-
mates did during summer vacation.
Then there's Rhonda Weiss, the JAP.
Despite Radner's Jewish upbringing,
she says she avoided becoming the
typical Jewish American Princess,
probably because she attended a non-

Jewish high school in Detroit.
But Radner becomes a pretty
believable Princess when she lays on
her Borscht-Belt brogue.
Using hand motions and sounding
catty, "New Yawkish," and nasal,
Gilda gives a sampling of Rhonda;
"You're talking cramps? I get them
two weeks before, one week during and
three days after. We're talking an en-
tire month of cramps."
* * * * *
Her characters set aside, the woman
who says "I am that girl who was funny

sunddv flmat
Co-editors
Patty Montemurri T
Books Editor
Brian Blanchard
Cover photo of Gild
by Joan Ade

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Gilda
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