Word: longshoreman
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ERIC HOFFER, that relentlessly middlebrow longshoreman turned philosopher, applauds the Apollo program as "a triumph of the squares." The historic journey to the moon is infinitely more than that, of course, and Hoffer's phrase is mildly offensive. But he does have a point. The laconic Apollo 11 astronauts who returned to earth last week, and many of the people in science and industry who made the trip possible, epitomize the solid, perhaps old-fashioned American virtues. So do the thousands who came to see them off at the Cape and those who celebrated their return with flags...
...Eccentricity means, literally, to be off-center. But in the permissive society, where almost anything goes, eccentricity no longer stands out against any dominant "center." Since eccentricity is also relative to its place and time, rapid change now often turns it into conventional behavior. Only a few years ago, Longshoreman-Philosopher Eric Hoffer seemed eccentric indeed; now the young scorn him as an Establishmentarian. Conceivably, some current student radicals may go the same way-as some black leaders already have. In short, real eccentricity is probably harder to achieve than ever...
...fierce power and impish delight that captivated friend and foe alike. Tennessee Williams called her a cross between a tiger and a moth, and her performance offstage was the true measure of the actress. Lavish beyond redemption, garrulous beyond recall, Tallulah chain-smoked, talked and caroused like a longshoreman. She was known to romp around her apartment in the nude drinking planter's punch-and sometimes greeted friends at the door in the same state of undress. Tallulah refused to remember anyone's name (she once introduced a friend named Olive as "Martini"), liked to break up stuffy...
...Cold Beer. Janis followed this program for five years, working as a keypunch operator, singing occasionally, dropping in and out of three colleges, and drifting to New York and San Francisco. What did she get out of it all? Among other things, a longshoreman's vocabulary, a cheerful habit of drinking Southern Comfort by the bottle ("I may own that company some day"), and moods that she describes as "superhorrible downs." Then, after joining Big Brother two years ago, "I made feeling work for me through music...
...chemical engineer, finished the school's four-year chemistry curriculum before the end of his sophomore year. The couple plan to be married in September, then enter the University of Washington to begin their junior year. They have the complete approval of his father, an Alabama-born Seattle longshoreman, and her widowed mother, a Boeing Co. stenographer...