R  A  L  P H
  The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities

Number 119

Late Late Summer 2004

TWENTY-TWO STARS
In our "General Index,"
we award stars to books that
the editors feel are of "especial merit."
Here are twenty-two of the most recent,
listed in order of appearance,
beginning with our 100th Issue.


NEW LISTINGS
Kaiserschlacht 1918
Spiritual Bathing
Ruining It for Everybody


REVIEWS
Buddha Da
"Several times we've bemoaned the fact
that we don't have stars hanging around RALPH
so we can pin them on a worthy writer.
Buddha Da would probably garner the full monty.
Big ones. Of gold. Shimmering there,
right at the top of the review,
right where they belong."

The Pearl Diver
"If one wanted to research
attitudes and treatment of lepers in Japan
one could do no better than
to make this your reference. However,
some of us have a thing
about novels that are,
for their author's own reasons,
unrelentingly bleak."

365 Positions and Activities
For a Year of Great Sex!

"'Early Bird Gets the Worm'
(Month 3, Day 25) enthuses,
'Ladies, get out your lip balm.
This is a fellatio position,
so your lips need to be
nice and soft!'"


Great Reviews of the Past
Desert Survivor
The Adventurer's Guide to Exploring
The Great American Desert

"After I got through with this one,
I had closed and locked the doors of my house.
I called up my travel agent
to tell her I wanted to go off to the desert
but a safe one. Like Algeria,
Iraq, or Afghanistan."


BRIEF REVIEWS
Churchill at War
Samuel Beckett
The Flying Follies


LETTERS
Animal Rights vs.
Hunters' Rights

Great Letters of the Past
RALPH and Lolita Lark
It's a wonderful site.
I'm intrigued by your name.
Me too. Larks are too.


ARTICLES
Hugh Gregory Gallagher
(1932 - 2004)
Part I

"In 1968,
he and Senator Bartlett cooked up
the Architectural Barriers Act
which stated that all federally-funded buildings
would be required to have ramps, curb-cuts and
access to all facilities.
It was their radical view that
accessibility was a basic civil right for all."

Part II
"'I'm going to go to St. Petersburg.'
'St. Petersburg, Florida?'
I always figured that as
the home of Nurse Ratched.
'No, no,' he said, 'St. Petersburg, Russia.
To the Hermitage Museum.
I've been meaning to go
for some time now.
And afterwards we're going
to have dinner
in a pre-Czarist restaurant.'"


READINGS
The Dalai Lama of Scotland
"Jimmy, get a grip, for godsake.
Whit on earth are these folk
gonnae think when you turn up
and tell them their wean's
the new Dalai Lama?
The best you can hope fur
is that they call the polls,
the worst is that you'll
get yer heid kicked in."


POETRY
Festival
"Artificer's artifice
Mixing a little grace with guts
Two flares
Rosy outbursts Like two breasts bared
Nipples insolently uplifted
HE COULD LOVE."

A Singing Bird
"Somewhere out there the war is a bluebird
Who loves me and I love a girl
More perfect than all roses
The poor war is alone."


THE OFFICIAL RALPH
Paradox-of-the-Month


GENERAL INDEX
A complete list of all books reviewed in RALPH,
arranged by title, including author, subject, and publisher,
plus a listing of all readings, articles and poems
that have appeared since 1994.


A PITHY SAMPLE
of our most notorious reviews
as collected in the hard-copy
"FOLIO"


SUBSCRIBE
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T H E  F A C T S
Submitting Books
The best way to get books to RALPH for review.
Submitting Reviews
Suggestions for would-be reviewers --- and payment schedule.
History
RALPH didn't spring full-blown from the brows of the gods:
     We've been around (in different guises) for over thirty years.     
The Fessenden Fund
Describing the good works of RALPH's official godparent

Lolita Lark, Editor-In-Chief
Post Office Box 16719
San Diego CA 92176

poo@cts.com


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