Word: ping-pong
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...California, Durrell was staying at the Pacific Palisades home of Novelist Henry Miller, an old friend and compulsive pen pal. Pursuing his investigations of Western culture, he played ping-pong with Miller and visited Disneyland, where he made three trips on the Mark Twain paddlewheeler and took the "Submarine Voyage." It may be that these adventures will find their way into Durrell's next novel: as a man and a writer, he has learned how to enjoy civilization and its discontents. Perhaps this is what Durrell suggested when he had his Felix Charlock declare: "We should tackle reality...
...salesman. Says he: "I'm good and I know I'm good." Son of an unsuccessful Missouri farmer who later did poorly selling insurance, Kauffman was a youthful moneymaker while selling fish and eggs door to door. He increased his income by such exploits as a Ping-Pong game in which he spotted an opponent 19 points but won the game-and the other boy's automobile. After four years of Navy service in World War II, in the course of which he won $78,000 playing poker, Kauffman went back to Kansas City and began selling...
...being away from family and on his own ("The silver cord has just now been replaced by the telephone wire"), Buswell likes the "frantic balance" that college has imposed on his life. "Harvard," he says, "is the kind of place where you feel guilty every time you play ping-pong." It is hectic, but when things get tight, he is renowned in the dorm for his ability to "wonk" (know spelled backward), or cram, for exams. Last week, preparing for back-to-back concerts in Hackensack, N.J., and Akron, James Oliver Buswell IV sighed sagely: "It will be refreshing...
Although Parker gave PT-credit for the freshman ping-pong tournament, he refused the Gargoyle tiddly-wink team similar recognition. He also balked when a freshman expressed interest in a 100-mile run sponsored by the YMCA...
However, Tom LaFarge's articles are clever and sometimes touching. He has an eye for the incisive detail that can paint an instant picture--a "jade-rimmed pince-nez," an "ivory ping-pong table" -- but sometimes he starts cataloguing trivia. With sparser details and stronger endings, his stories will be gems. Conn Nugent's revelation that Harvard football victories depress the economy is off-beat and has an angle--the sort of amusing fact-twisting that the Yale Record is more inclined to do, but very welcome in the Lampoon...