Imperial Valley press., 1935-12-28
NEW YORK
DAY by DAY
By O. O. Mcintyre


NEW YORK, Dec. 28.-There are
times, presume, when almost every
dub of the writing clan longs for
stab at being serious, even ponder
Gus. To click for one of those fleet
ing moments as Wells, Kipling or
Bolitho. sat down at the typewrit-
er flirting with such fantasy.
But a few desultory taps of the
space bars, an aimleSs neatening OF
the desk, a stare out of the window
and the ballooning ego says into
wrinkled dilemma. So here I am,
rarin' to go but with nothing i'm
portant to say. A donkey, so to
speak, with the mental heaves.
From a tent in Arizona the other
day l received note from a lonely
valiant fighting back to health: II
once read in your column of a fell
low named Rocky WatterSon or
Raddy Wathacker. It's one or the
other. know, but which?" Well, it
is Waddy Rothacker to be precise.
1t strikes me that's about as near
ly right as anyone is about anything
I've yet to meet the 100 per cent cor
rect human. Indeed 1 would shrink
from meeting one who had reached
that perfectnesS. l have a definite
hunch he would be terrific bore.
I warm to people who accept few
things by faith, too. They are mott
vated by a feeling they cannot ex-
plain and despite high nosed shifts
of the self-anointed they get along,
packing a serenity the faithless nev-
er attain, to boot. Most drunks, hop
heads and assorted pervertS I've run
across have a jeer for the blessed
promises. Any crack-pot can make
a seriously religious fellow look
foolish in debate. Such emotions are
not debatable. But those with faith
have a happy conviction the doubt
er rarely attains.
New York journalism has carp
ing omniScient who frivols many
of his working hours beagling for
| the blunders of his fellow writer's
And his gurgle of ecstasy in finding
them reverberates in his writings
Every psycho-analyst knows that
Haunting such text book superior
ity is fixation with those who feel
inferior. 1t is the oldest of the rec
ognized compleXes.
| I would not care to write, even
if it were intellectually possible, a
column that was air tight gram
| 11ry oh
a fear of ones audience. A daily
column is not Sacredotal anthol-
ogy requiring great thought. 1t has
a hit and miss hurry that never at
tains formality In informality is
often its charm, if any. Readers like
to feel one up on split infinitive
mixed metaphor or prepoSitional
ending. I'm quite conscious, for in
stance, that beat should not be
used for defeat. But back in our
country we never inquired "Who
won?" a ball game. We asked: "WhC
beat?" I like and use it when the
copy reader isn't too nibby.
I get kick out of strange and Of
ten obsolete words, too. Not to ap-
pear mentally la-de-dah. ANY foo,
knows I wangle them out of a die
tionary at my desk side. I like them
for the way they roll off the tongue
their euphony. I cannot recall the
topic of single essay by the icono-
elastic Brann, but like the Tilt anC
pomp of his phraseology. He made
words march, lie down, and swing
on the flying trapeze. Much of writ
ing is sheer carpentry and there's 6
sizeable five-dollar Dodd-Mead bool
to show the most skeptical no ont
has written anything important thaf
has not been written before il
almost identical language.
Hemingway notched a place il
literature by shucking polished flub
dubbery and socking the reader will
what the finicky call viscera bu
which he called CUTS. His mile long