Word: alto
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Lars Bratt Palo Alto, Calif...
...night, retailers expect to see a holiday season sales gain of up to 15% over last year. This would make 1983 the strongest Yule since 1977, and even that could turn out to be a conservative prediction. Says Esther Brunswig, manager of the Emporium-Capwell department store in Palo Alto, Calif.: "We're going to have the biggest Christmas ever. Everything is selling." Merchants ranging from Gucci in Beverly Hills to the McRae's department store chain in Jackson, Miss., are ringing up their highest daily revenues on record. Last week the Commerce Department announced that retail sales...
Many shopkeepers feel exhausted from trying to keep up with their ravenous clientele. "It has been so fast we've had to bring people in as early as 5 a.m. to restock the shelves," groans E. Erick Gaither, manager of a Sears store in Tucker, Ga. At Palo Alto's Emporium-Capwell, employees are often so harried they forget to take their breaks. Said Heidi Thomas, a clerk in petite women's wear: "Last Saturday we were swamped. A lot of shoppers had clothes draped over their arms. I was so busy I couldn't handle...
...story opens, things do not look bright for May Alto. Harry, a second husband with the boyish charm and mental age of a 14-year-old, has just left her for "...this girl." Subsisting on codeine and Seconal, she is nursing an arm slashed in a mugging for $12 and a cheap tape recorder. She is the sole supporter of three children going through various phases of adolescent trauma. A ghostwriter, May writes books to order, bringing glory to a slew of semi-literate literary celebrities in return for modest cash rewards. To keep herself entertained, she intertwines the stories...
...victory for herself or for the other "little men" and, especially, little women, she has at least thrown a wrench into the workings of the Quayle machine; wrought a bit of anarchy worthy of Sonya's designs. Perhaps that is the best she could hope to do. In May Alto's world--one in which decency, even mere intelligence mark the losers and people like Quayle win the laurels--anarchy becomes a reasonable response. We cannot know whether a real alternative exists; whether Alto actually ever might have succeeded on her own. As it is, that seems about as probable...