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From: "D. Spencer Hines" <>
Subject: Re: American Dilemma
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 14:09:47 -1000


Gordon,

The terrific heat in New York has obviously fried what little remains
of your fragile brain tissues.

I smell them cooking now, like a fried egg, sunny-side up --- on the
hood of a stolen BMW --- no doubt your own.

You haven't been paying attention.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. is alive and well in the Hearts and Minds
of the American people. In fact he has assumed mythological
stature --- due in large part to the Herculean efforts --- burning the
midnight oil, and stoked with cheap Scotch --- of several gaggles of
geese and a vicious pack of hyena New-York-hack-writers, like
yourself.

Therefore I had no intention of writing about John-John as if he were
deceased.

QED.

Did you ever get yourself straightened out on Trinity Episcopal
Church, Wall Street? You just slunk off into the graveyard on that
one, with your tail between your legs --- but that's what packs of "no
count" yellow dogs do, isn't it?

I must candidly admit that I expected you, as a native New Yorker,
born and bred in Gotham City --- at the epicenter of the Known World
of Culture and Light --- would have had a better handle on that one.

Fondly,

Your Cousin,

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas
Fortem Posce Animum
--

D. Spencer Hines --- "Probitas Laudatur et Alget" [Honesty is praised
and starves.], Decimus Junius Juvenalis (Juvenal) [c. 50 A.D.-- c.130
A.D.], _Satires, I, line 74_

John Steele Gordon <> wrote in message
news:...

> "D. Spencer Hines" wrote, on Friday, July 23rd:
>
> > Fourth: Next time, take the _extra_ time to check the dictionary
first
> > _before_ you sound off.
>
> "D. Spenser Hines" wrote, on Saturday, July 23rd:
>
> > Caroline Kennedy is one of the brightest of the Kennedys. She is
much
> > brighter than her brother, the former "Crown Prince of America."
>
> The correct word is "late," not "former." The Columbia Guide to
Standard
> American English, by Kenneth G. Wilson, says (p. 180, under "ex-"):
"It
> [the word "former"] normally suggests not that the person is dead,
but
> that he or she no longer is playing that role or is engaged in that
> activity. . . . _Late_ . . . indicates that the person is dead . . .
."
>
> Someone steal your dictionary, Hines, or is this National Display
Your
> Hypocrisy Day?
>
> JSG

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