Word: fixes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...began to use heroin to unlock the doors of creativity the way Coleridge used opium and Schiller inhaled rotten apples. Finally he lost the trick of living off the top. "Do as I say and not as I do," he admonished Trumpeter Red Rodney as he gave himself a fix. He went into a steady decline. Though his records made millions, his last years were a hell of scrounging for drugs. He had a nervous breakdown, recovered, attempted suicide. In the end his body proved less durable than his music. Afflicted by cirrhosis of the liver, stomach ulcers and pneumonia...
...unlikeable schlemihl, except for his occasional self-denigrating humor. The problem Van Buren gives him is a variation on a dusty science fiction device-he finds he can stop time at will for everyone in the world but himself. As far as the chapter goes, the time-fix is more a pivot for the neuroses of a neatly conceived anti-hero than any kind of crucial element itself, and the combination works well in an unpretentious way-well-enough that it seems too bad you can't start reading the second chapter when this one ends...
...battle what Chandler called "the shadow line," his adversaries the people who walk it. In his present incarnation (Elliott Gould), Marlowe becomes a chain-smoking shlemiel. Gould looks less like a private eye than like a junkie half on the nod slouching along Sunset Strip looking for a fix. The only dope here is Marlowe himself. He stumbles into a job of playing wet nurse to an alcoholic fount of bestsellers (Sterling Hayden) whose ice-maiden wife (Nina Van Pallandt, late of the Clifford Irving/Howard Hughes headlines) plays at being concerned about his welfare...
Price and his newest customer have plenty of company. With more than 96 million cars on American roads, with queues and prices growing at conventional service stations, with competent and honest mechanics scarcer than ever, the fix-it-yourself garage is a popular new feature in several cities. Saving money is the prime attraction. Stalls rent for $2 to $3.50 an hour, a full line of tools and equipment is available free or at nominal charge, and parts are sold at a discount...
...when most regular service centers do no major repair work. Know-how, of course, is a problem. While a few centers have staff mechanics on hand to help when serious difficulties crop up, insurance laws in some states prohibit such assistance. Some garages offer expert advice and collections of fix-it literature. They also attract car buffs who are willing to share their knowledge with beginners. Baltex is even organizing a five-session course for customers-tuition: $25. At the Van Nuys, Calif., Auto Hobby Center, Actor Bob Purvey recently rebuilt the engine of his 1959 Jaguar. That intricate operation...