Ripe and ruthless Beltway satire by a former Presidential speechwriter. Peter Holmes Dickinson (of the Main Line Dickinsons), a former top speechwriter for President Tyler "Ty the Guy" Ferguson, is a charming snob, a part-time coke-head, full-time womanizer, and in big trouble. His Washington speechwriting firm is tanking, he owes money to Dean, a hillbilly drug dealer, and also to Jeb Hammerford, a northern Virginia construction executive. And, oh yes, Pete has been shtooping Marlie Rae Perkins, a veritable Valkyrie of a policewoman from rural Virginia, given to periodic fits of overpossessiveness. And then, across a crowded room (actually the foyer in The Kennedy Center), Pete sees Che Che Hart, his former lover. Che Che is beautiful, a Georgetown professor, a kickboxing student, and the daughter of Donna Hart Lyons. Donna is a former soap opera queen, dedicated left-wing activist (Time Magazine called her "The Godmother of the American Left"), and, since the death-by-orgasm of her billionaire octogenarian husband, rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Donna's latest scheme is to reform prostitutes through heavy doses of leftist dogma at The Ernesto "Che" Guevara School for Wayward Girls, located on her Montana ranch. Marrying Che Che would be one way of paying off Pete's debts, but first he has to make her forget what a rat he is. While he is thinking of creative ways to lie to Che Che, he gets a call from Harry Gottlieb, President Ferguson's long-suffering chief-of-staff. Would Pete like to resume doing speeches for Ty the Guy, on the side, but without Ty knowing it is Pete doing the writing? So begins this screamingly funny, page-turning, equal-opportunity-offending political satire.
For almost thirty years, William F. Gavin wrote speeches at the highest levels of government. Speechwright is his insider’s view of politics, a shrewd critique of presidential and congressional rhetoric, and a personal look at the political leaders for whom he wrote speeches. While serving President Richard Nixon and candidate Ronald Reagan, Gavin advocated for “working rhetoric”—well-crafted, clear, hard-hitting arguments that did not off er visions of the unattainable, but instead limited political discourse to achievable ends reached through practical means. Filled with hard-earned wisdom about politics and its discontents, Speechwright describes Gavin’s successes, his failures, and his call for political rhetoric built on strong argument rather than the mere search for eloquence.
William James (1842-1910) is a canonical figure of American pragmatism. Trained as a medical doctor, James was more engaged by psychology and philosophy and wrote a foundational text, Pragmatism, for this characteristically American way of thinking. Distilling the main currents of James's thought, William J. Gavin focuses on "latent" and "manifest" ideas in James to disclose the notion of "will to believe," which courses through his work. For students who may be approaching James for the first time and for specialists who may not know James as deeply as they wish, Gavin provides a clear path to understanding James's philosophy even as he embraces James's complications and hesitations.
One Hell of a Candidate traces the fate of Republican Congressman T. Claude "Buzzer" LeBrand who hails from the Sixth--an imaginary Southern district that has fallen on hard economic times. Poor Buzzer has barely survived his last election when videotape of him frolicking with bikini-clad bimbos in St. Kitts ends up on the evening news. And just as his political career lacks any sort of pulse, Buzzer has a heart attack in a D.C. Metro station, hits his head on the escalator, and falls into a coma. As Buzzer's life hangs in the balance, the machinations to fill his seat in Congress begin. A slew of politically hopeless characters emerge in the battle for Buzzer's seat. Among them are Bobby Diddie Ricky, a handsome black Democrat who is a former pro football star running on the largely inane "Team Concept." "Holy Joe" Wholey who believes the Ten Commandments should be amended into the Constitution. Bo Beaumont, owner/tyrant of Big Bo Stores and Republican kingpin. Susan Weinstein, a Jewish lebsian Marxist down from New York to teach the ignorant people of the Sixth what's best for them. And of course, Buzzer's wife Georgie, who if she can put down the bottle and remember the message, would make one hell of a candidate.
The papers presented in this volume of Advances in X-Ray Analysis were chosen from those presented at the Fourteenth Annual Conference on the Applications of X-Ray Analysis. This conference, sponsored by the Metallurgy Division of the Denver Research Institute, University of Denver, was held on August 24,25, and 26, 1965, at the Albany Hotel in Denver, Colorado. Of the 56 papers presented at the conference, 46 are included in this volume; also included is an open discussion held on the effects of chemical com bination on X-ray spectra. The subjects presented represent a broad scope of applications of X-rays to a variety of fields and disciplines. These included such fields as electron-probe microanalysis, the effect of chemical combination on X-ray spectra, and the uses of soft and ultrasoft X-rays in emission analysis. Also included were sessions on X-ray diffraction and fluor escence analysis. There were several papers on special topics, including X-ray topography and X-ray absorption fine-structure analysis. William L. Baun contributed considerable effort toward the conference by organizing the session on the effect of chemical combination on X-ray spectra fine structure. A special session was established through the excellent efforts of S. P. Ong on the uses and applica tions of soft X-rays in fluorescent analysis. We offer our sincere thanks to these men, for these two special sessions contributed greatly to the success of the conference.
Recently, the work of philosopher-psychologist William James has undergone something of a renaissance. In this contribution to the trend, William Gavin argues that James's plea for the "reinstatement of the vague" to its proper place in our experience should be regarded as a seminal metaphor for his thought in general. The concept of vagueness applies to areas of human experience not captured by facts that can be scientifically determined nor by ideas that can be formulated in words. In areas as seemingly diverse as psychology, religion, language, and metaphysics, James continually highlights the importance of the ambiguous, the contextual, the pluralistic, or the uncertain over the foundational. Indeed, observes the author, only in a vague unfinished world can the human self, fragile as it is, have the possibility of making a difference or exercising the will to believe. Taking James's plea seriously, Gavin traces the idea of the vague beyond the philosopher's own texts. In "conversations" with other philosophers--including Peirce, Marx, Dewey, and, to a lesser extent, Rorty and Derrida--the author shows that a version of James's position is central to their thought. Finally, Gavin looks for the pragmatic upshot of James's plea, reaffirming the importance of the vague in two concrete areas: the doctor-patient relationship in medicine and the creation and experiencing of modern art. In conclusion, Gavin argues that James's work is itself vague, in a positive sense, and that as such it functions as a "spur" to the reader.
All too often, studies of death are reduced to a series of legal or medical case studies, which ignore the need to provide a personal and a societal context. Cuttin' the Body Loose explores the practical and philosophical questions related to death and dying. Looking at death from the perspective of different cultures and different periods in history, William Joseph Gavin utilizes both Western and Eastern cases and examples from literature, history, philosophy, as well as the news. He argues that even so-called 'biological" definitions of death are socially constructed and that trying to determine a single correct definition masks the important issues of the process of dying. Gavin's accessible discussion centers on two approaches to death and dying: acceptance and rebellion. He argues that the more one emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual (the concept of self), the more one advocates a model of rebellion. In addition to the concept of self, which varies from culture to culture, Gavin also discusses the complicated integration of both approaches. He concludes that we need to preserve a multi-leveled context for death and dying, one in which each person can choose an appropriate standpoint. Author note: William Joseph Gavin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern Maine. His most recently published book is William James and the Reinstatement of the Vague (Temple).
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