Word: talking
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Since Arok was born, Skora's life has been a nonstop marathon of local television talk-show appearances (about 30, he figures) and visits from would-be agents, manufacturers and licensees (Skora recently signed a deal to license foot-high Arok toys in Japan). Arok has become a favorite on the convention and industrial-show circuit and wows 'em at bank branch openings by incinerating the ceremonial ribbon with his laser gun. His top appearance...
...around the country is hard work; Arok must be carefully packed in his custom-built, veneered sarcophagus with the plywood bas-relief of him on the lid. And once on the job site, things go bump in the day. Like the time on a Chicago talk show when Arok impolitely dumped a glass of water into the laps of fellow Guests Bill Bixby, John Travolta and Barbara Eden. Or the time onstage in St. Louis when he was taking a little boy for a ride on the tops of his size 60 quadruple E tin shoes, got out of Skora...
...nearly bald veteran of 39 years in the Soviet diplomatic service, has been the chief of his delegation since the beginning of SALT in 1969. Among Americans who have dealt with him over the years, Semyonov has the reputation of being a stubborn bargainer who, if necessary, can talk any adversary under the table. He also seems to be the uncontested commissar of his own colleagues in Geneva. "We have a democratic delegation," he once remarked. Paraphrasing the famous ending of George Orwell's Animal Farm, he added: "We are all equal. But I am more equal...
Though the plot is fairly standard stuff--a dash of Moliere, add Congreve and Sheridan to taste--Wycherly's potent satire makes this play rather interesting. Even now, the crudeness with which Wycherly has Horner deflate all the talk of honor and the false morality tossed off pro forma by the other characters is a bit shocking, and in 1675 it must have been downright obscene. Through Horner, Wycherly punctures the veneer of London society and shows that the underlying motivations of all these "noble" people are sex and greed, made vulga by the artificial gentility which tries to hide...
Everywhere the cult of personality prevails. Some stiff-necked resistance comes from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who argues for the public's right not to know, "not to have their divine souls stuffed with gossip, nonsense, vain talk." His own American experience illustrates the difference between gossip and "personality" journalism: though an authentic personality, Solzhenitsyn is allowed his right to privacy. There is less of journalistic prying now, even though gossip and gossip columning are still around. Gossip flourishes particularly in Washington, where political hypocrisy still lends savor to misbehavior. More familiar nowadays are volunteered surrenders of privacy. Celebrityhood lives...