From: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Subject: Quayle Quarterly
Reply-To: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 15:07:10 GMT

[Quick question: did The Quayle Quarterly predate a.f.d-q?]

VOTERS DENY 2nd TERM TO QUAYLE QUARTERLY

by Evelyn Nieves (Special to the NY Times, 11/5/92, p.B26)

[reproduced for our reading pleasure w/o permission]

BRIDGEPORT, CT, Nov. 4 -- When the Bush-Quayle ticket lost the
election, Deborah Werksman and Jeffrey Yoder lost the publishing
venture that brought them considerable international attention.

The founders of The Quayle Quarterly say they are happy campers.

After three years of running the 20-page newsletter devoted to the
positions, gaffes, opinions and gaffes of "the man who could be the
next President," Ms. Werksman, 34 years old, and Mr. Yoder, 37 years
old, confessed that they are glad that they won't have Dan Quayle to
kick around anymore.

"What's good for satirists isn't necessarily good for the country,"
Mr. Yoder said.

Ms. Werksman added, "It really is the best way to go out of
business."

Yes, they support Gov. Bill Clinton.  But they say they didn't start
the journal to appeal to partisan politics.  They found that the
idea appealed "to the high level of civic anxiety about the man a
heartbeat away from the Presidency," Ms. Werksman said.

"We hit a nerve," she said.  "Our first issue, we printed 2,000
copies and worried that they wouldn't sell.  We ended up making four
printings."

Mr. Yoder added: "Republicans would pooh-pooh this, but we've tried
to be fair.  We haven't printed the late-night show jokes.  We let
Quayle speak for himself."

The Quarterly has strived for a matter-of-fact tone.  Its Press
Clips column prints statements the Vice President has made without
calling attention to the errors or contradictions.  ("This President
is not going to lead us out of the recovery," he said at a campaign
stop in California.  "It will happen."  Calling for the Japanese to
remove trade barriers for American rice, he said, "Japan has to put
some rice on the table.")

The journal has been taken seriously in corners that count.  When
the publishers appeared on "Donahue" in 1990, Roger Ailes, the
Republican media whiz, and David Beckworth, the Vice President's
spokesman, appeared on the same program to defend him.

We knew we were no to something," Ms. Werksman said.  "Here we were
two concerned citizens and they brought on these heavyweights.  But
there's no denying the magazine pokes fun.  From its alliterative
title to its ads -- commemorative Dan Quayle watches, Keep George
Healthy bumper stickers and the like -- the quarterly has baldly
appealed to the sport of Quayle bashing."

Thanks in part to late-night talk show hosts who smelled blood every
time Mr. Quayle stepped in front of an audience, The Quayle
Quarterly became more famous than its peak circulation of 16,000
would suggest.  Its title alone has become a one-liner.  "I was
reading The Quayle Quarterly the other day..." comedians say,
breaking up their audience.

Letters to the quarterly range from the giddy ("This is great!") to
the outraged ("You make me vomit.").  The publishers say they have
also received one death threat.

The couple, who are married and have a 19-month-old daughter, Kayla,
hardly seem the rabble-rousing rebels or nattering nabobs that some
irate Quayle defenders have scolded them for being.  Their rambling
house, in an old tree-lined neighborhood near Long Island Sound, is
filled with traditional furniture and strewn with Kayla's toys.  Mr.
Yoder designs computer software for corporate financial planning.
Ms. Werksman worked in Manhattan art galleries before starting her
own business relocating foreign executives in and around New York
City.

On Thursday they begin work on the 12th and last issue of the
journal, which will be devoted to finding Dan Quayle a job.  The
issue also includes a board game for readers to play.  Then Ms.
Werksman plans to start a women's humor magazine, "Hysteria."

"After Quayle I wanted to follow my heart," she said.

The Quayle Quarterly, published by desktop computer out of a spare
bedroom in their home, has spawned a book, "What a Waste to Lose
One's Mind," after Mr. Quayle's perhaps most infamous gaffe.  (The
book costs $6.95 and can be ordered through the Quarterly.)  The
couple also sell a 1993 calendar, "Politically Incorrect Government
Officials (PI-GOS)," for $7.95.

The publishers fully expect the magazine will become a collector's
item and are selling all 12 issues, usually sold at $3.95 each on
newsstands, in a package for $44.95.

Accused of being shameless mercenaries by vociferous critics, the
couple refuse to be bothered by the charge.  They coyly refuse to
reject singling out Vice President-elect Al Gore for a Gore Gazette.

"Gore has very big shoes to fill," Mr. Yoder said.  "He's not that
funny."

Not to mention that Mr. Yoder, an environmentalist, likes Mr. Gore's
politics.

In any case, the couple do not believe they have seen the last of
Mr. Quayle.  Mr. Yoder said he noticed that when the Vice President
was interrupted during his Tuesday night concession speech with
chants of "96, 96," "He smiled extra widely."

Will the Quayle Quarterly return in '96 if the Veep does?

"Yes," they said in chorus.  "Definitely."



And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speak
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.	   [Henry V, 4.3]