Word: dust
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...from the same kind of exploitation suffered in the pits by their fathers and grandfathers. Dressed in blue jeans and plaid wool shirts, many of the miners spend lots of time these days in the Cabin Creek Coffee House. It is a warm and welcome refuge from the coal-dust-blackened slush outside and the dispiriting sight of the empty coal hoppers-as idle as the miners-on the railroad tracks across the road. The men pass the hours playing pool, drinking RC Cola and strong black coffee (35? a cup with a refill on the house) and talking about...
...drinking alone in the office one night when this dame wanders in. Real sweet, she was, with coal dust in her long blonde hair and a crumpled bus ticket in her fist. "Scranton," she sighed by way of explanation, in a voice that trailed off like the Doppler effect of a passing 18-wheeler on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I poured her a stiff one, and she poured me her story: "I have this terrific manuscript, but please don't ask how I got it, and I just have to get into the newspapers before they do." "They?" "The syndicate...
...they begin plucking young, impressionable lads from off the street and from the upstairs billiards room, and decking them out in wigs, cute tights and mirrors. They begin to parcel out the puns--"One to a customer, for starters"--and an amazing chain reaction begins. By the time the dust settles, the proliferating puns have assembled themselves into a SHOW, and forthwith commence forming a kickline. Someone pulls out a flute. Someone else pulls out an oboe. Someone else pulls out a drum set. OF THEIR OWN VOLITION, as if they had lives of their own, the puns arrange themselves...
...other manufacturing process is quite like it. Only a single speck of dust can ruin a chip, so work must be done in "clean rooms," where the air is constantly filtered and workers are swathed in surgical-type garb...
...sounds like an unabashed promo for E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful, and it is annoying and irrelevant. Gnomes is fun to glance through in a bookstore, and has great pictures, but the story itself is short on substance. In fact, Poortvliet's wonderful illustrations (the dust-jacket informs us that he is Holland's most popular illustrator) dwarf the text. Gnomes might be a great gift book when Easter rolls around, but unless you have $15 to burn, sit tight and wait for the paperback version. Gnomes has great promise, but simply comes up short...