NEW REVIEWS
The Vagabond's Breakfast
"He quotes a Spanish encyclopedia
that says that the plant
'grows freely in most areas,
especially scrubland, backyards and
at roadsides, and is easily found,
except by those who are
specifically looking for it.'"

Hidden Seminoles
"Like all American Indians,
the Seminoles of Florida
had it bad once the foreigners came to town.
The colonialists gave them
three important presents:
Christianity, a surprising variety
of social diseases, and, ultimately,
The Removal."

William Faulkner
Short Stories
"He tells us that
there are two,
'the homemade corn whisky he drank'
and 'that town whisky' called Scotch
that smelled like it come
out of a old bucket of roof paint."

The Plots against the President
"There was nothing ---
not so much as the twitching of a muscle,
the mopping of a brow or even
the hint of a false gaiety ---
to indicate that it wasn't
any other evening in any other place."

The FSG Book of 20th Century
Latin American Poetry
"I found a couple of
mildly interesting poems ---
one by Cecilia Merireles stands out ---
but in general, most of the rest
left me wondering
what the fuss was all about."

Asylum on the Hill
"They listed sixty-nine
possible causes of madness, including
'lactation, pregnancy, syphilis,
masturbation, intemperance, inhalation of
nitrous oxide, opium eating' and
'bathing while overheated.'"

1222
"The man's beard
was long and dark,
with stripes of gray
in an upturned V running
downwards from his mouth.
The eyes that were
staring into my binoculars
without being aware of it
were dark, with long
lashes and a
gentle, sorrowful expression."

Building On Fire
"Considering the fairly vile treatment
the Cherokees got from
the 18th and 19th Century
Tea Party regulars ---
the 'Trail of Tears' being
a good example ---
you would expect more bitter
representations of their fate."

Joining the Resistance
"At one point,
she told Freud that she
was paying for her psychoanalysis,
that he was wasting their time
with his irrelevant rambles,
and that if he would just
shut up and listen her, her treatment
would go along just fine."

God Breaketh Not All Men's Hearts Alike
"Dreams of mass murder have only begun:
daydreams and wet dreams.
But where is the pastry?
Where are the poems?
Coming, coming, the children sing.
Coming, coming."

Great Reviews of the Past
An Old Wife's Tale
"We figure she might volunteer with
the American Friends Service Committee.
They send volunteers down to Nicaragua
to work with poor peasants for
six months or a year."

LETTERS
The Mythic Death of
Carlos Amantea

MORE LETTERS
Multiple Personality Disorder
Married but Looking
Dan Libman

EVEN MORE LETTERS
Cryptic Letters of the Month
Windmills and Birds
Attendant Beds

YET EVEN MORE LETTERS
Letters We Never Finished Reading
a rainfall of information

ARTICLES
Classic K
Jan Ladislav Dussek and
François-Joseph Gossec
"The management of Classic K
viewed its listeners as analogous to
18th century Hapsburg aristocrats
with wigs on their empty heads."

Great Articles of the Past
New Land Giveaway
"'American big cities
imitating a Third World City?
I suspect this bizarre idea
will cause apoplexy among
those $150,000 a year top bureaucrats,
those Planning Directors and Housing Officials
who so lavishly run our City Halls. "

READINGS
Jimson Weed
"'I told it I had work to do,
and unless it wanted to
help me shift crates of tomatoes,
make itself useful,
it had best be on its way.
I was Captain Sensible:
it was the Unearthly Pook."

Great Readings of the Past
The Fiction of Oil Pollution
"The interesting thing is
how little irreversible damage
caused by our pollution of the oceans
we have been able to detect. Remove the source
and the sea recovers."

POETRY
The Dead Horse
"White and green the dead horse
in the enormous field without recourse
--- and slowly the world between
his eyelashes revolved, all blurred
as in red mirror moons.
Sun shone on the teeth of the dead horse."

Nursing Home Doctor
"I say good morning and he studies me
in my white coat, like a skin lesion
he has seen only once in a textbook.
And I lead him to the door with a shingle
posted outside, his old oak desk
laid out with a blotter, fountain pen,
and a spoon for applesauce he eats."

THE OFFICIAL RALPH
Paradox-of-the-Month

GENERAL INDEX
All the back-issues of RALPH,
including titles of books under review,
along with author, subject, and publisher,
plus links to readings, articles, and poems
that have appeared on-line
since 1994.

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

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ELECTRIFYING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
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is a book that will contain
the 200 best reviews, poems,
readings, and articles from
the first eighteen years of RALPH.
It will be published this year.
If you are interested, please click here:

and you will find more than enough information
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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 Behind the Scenes The Faces of Those Who Make Up the Face of RALPH Copyright Notice The Reginald A. Fessenden Educational Fund, Inc. Hits 10,000 - 20,000 Daily Hits 200,000+ Original Page Views each Month

Lolita Lark, Editor-In-Chief
Post Office Box 16719
San Diego CA 92176
lolitalark@yahoo.com

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