R  A  L  P  H    The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities  Volume XII, Number 2 --- Summer, 1996

THE NEWEST RALPHThis will lead you to the latest, and most wondrous, issue of
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REVIEWS The Key to Understanding Business Cycles"Australia and Bolivia have the least population density,
the former having two people per square mile,
some of whom have not actually backpacked around the globe."Touched By Fire: A Photographic Picture of the Civil War"Everyone has his favorite war. For classicists, it's the Trojan War;
for neo-classicists, it's The War of the Roses.
Those into insensate slaughter find it a toss-up between WWI and WWII." San Diego: A Pictorial History"Some of San Diego's contributions to the universe have been
the KGB Chicken and the first annual American flea infestation."

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BRIEF REVIEWSTravel in Mexico, Vinegar, 16th Century English Drama

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THE WEEKLY RALPHFavorites from the past.

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ARTICLES A Letter To Jesse Helms"I've heard that there are special subsidy programs
for tobacco growers, and I understand that you
help fund these programs, which means
I can have a crop coming along by next fall."To Orgasm or Not To Orgasm"In short, Mr. Editor, you have taken a lovely noun
--- and made it into an obscene verb. Viz, 'to orgasm.'"

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READINGS The Ghost Writer
"I turn sentences around. That's my life.
I write a sentence and then I turn it around.
Then I look at it and I turn it around again.
Then I have lunch." Mother Tongue
"By variously pursing our lips and flapping our tongue
around in our mouth rather in the manner of a freshly landed fish,
we shape each passing puff of air into a series of
loosely differentiated plosives, fricatives, gutturals,
and other minor atmospheric disturbances."

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POETRY Credo"I believe in Charlie Chaplin
Son of violets and mice
Who was crucified, died, and laid in the grave by his era,
but who each day is revived in the hearts of men" Song of the Forget-Me-Not "The word 'cystic' has a garden of meanings.
Can you smell the peppermint, the basil, the marjoram?"  

T H E  F A C T SSubmitting BooksThe best way to get books to RALPH for review.Submitting ReviewsSuggestions for would-be reviewers --- and payment schedule. HistoryRALPH didn't spring full-blown from the brows of the gods: We've been around (in different guises) for over twenty-five years. The Fessenden FundOther activities of RALPH's godparents, includingMho & Mho Works

Ralph R. Doister, Editor-In-ChiefPost Office Box 16719
San Diego CA 92176poo@cts.com

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THE OFFICIAL RALPH
PARADOX-OF-THE-MONTH

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