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fl trip tl By Lehman Stiles Pull i . ? ? ? ? ? oy wiuiam Safira; Batlentlne; $2 50 It may sound cynical, but Full Disclosure, by William Safire, is just the sort of thing one would expect from a former Nixon speechwriter. And unfortunately, Safire knows about as much about writing as Nixon knew about being president, in one fell swoop, he manages to make sex, assassination attempts and toplevel power struggles dull and lifeless. SafireV previous book was Before the Fall, yet another Nixonian post-mortem "Written Vpnm fVin Tnci/lnl " nn fkn r 1VU1 UIV/ llioiuv. as U1C tuvci proudly claimed. Obviously lost in a maze of moral dilemmas and golden opportunities, Safire seems to think that his experience with the trashy derring-do of his former bosses gives him an instant irrefutable gift for literary (iruwesa. Often losing itself in sadomasochistic - Dadaesque Guide tc 15y jim Baum Sneakers by Samuel Amerlcanus Walker; Workman Publishing; $3.95 Did you know that sneakers are 110 years old? Well, you would have known that if you had read Sneakers. Samuel Amerirus WnlL-or published a picture book, Sneakers, that is very informative. The value of this information, however, is subject for debate. Some pertinent information can be found. For example, Walker explains the process that Charles r* i ? ' 1 ^jroouyear ana iNamamei Hayword developed, called vulcanization. Vulcanization marked the beginning of the sneaker's history. Il tiii 8 ?>17iMai M f P [moto j ">1 I rni od t\/ I V AIRCONI CASUAL I FULL MENU I WITH EXCEL EVERY MONDAY! Five Ma|or Cre< -f "*A L/A7' CORNER OF M/ , a trough mythology, his story is a study in , dirty politics that, after 625 pages | of hashing around, remains j nothing more or less than dirty politics. mil? ?>nu\n in ?????*'-11-- il * ihej omn w cwcuutuiy Ulttl of a U.S. President who loses his sight during an assassination attempt and the insidious headknocking for power that follows. President Sven Ericson comes off as a curious mix between worldly incisiveness and goggling naive innocence. Even on this weak foundation, Ericson is the novel's best-developed character. A host of incidental glory grabbers ana stereotypes une sexy young Presidential bedmate, the triedand-true old-timer adviser, the ambitious up-and-coming power seeker) never get past mere words on the page. BUT SOME of the novel's major faults lie in the use of the very words themselves. Phrases like "It was a lie, but it was in the parking lot of the batt park of truth" belie a sort of arbitrary style lifted > informal f THE MOST interesting portion of Walker's book, Sneakers, is his detailed description, both graphically and technically, the way in which sneaxers are massproduced. Illustrations show the different phases of the production line. Perhaps the most important part of the book is the explanation of what these shoes can and cannot do to your feet. Walker instructs in different sole designs and tells how you can learn how to safeguard your achilles tendons, arches and other parts of the foot. Walker also gives out other interesting information, such as telling the reader that the average person walks more than 65,000 miles in his or her lifetime, which is equivalent to 10 round trips from California to New York. I R 9NNJ ?POOL? 3ITIONED .OUNGE RESTAURANT LENT BUFFET 3 NOON. I rO FRIDAY Jit Cards Accepted 7790 MN & LADY STS. our Blocks From USC Campus) ? * seedy{ straight out of a hundred "How To Write Fiction" books. Buffie Masterson, the official photographer who conducts a strangely meaningless affair with Ericson, cutely calls him "Potus,? a disgusting acronym of his full official title. This is prose inspired by absolutely nothing, and that is the exact response it invokes in the reader: 625 pages of emptiness. THAT EMPTINESS is possibly the biggest flaw: the fact that Safire apparently wrote the book for the sole reason of clearing a tidy royalty. Of course, that has been done before; in fact, it is almost the raison d'etre for the modern book trade. But this particular story has been told too many times before. Safire should know that by now the American public is far too familiar with the stumbling illegitimacy of the men who think they run this country, with the seeming pathological devotion of every 1 A. n If * ?? gooa posi-r reucuan 10 sex as DOdliy function (or, as Tom Wolfe calls it, the Boiler Room Theory), with the Dodiatry The author divulges other curious facts about sneakers: who wears them, who makes them, who buys them and what they wear ? r? uieiu iur. Pictures of Jimmy Carter, Chris Evert, Andy Warhol, and Woody Allen, all decked out in their favorite sneakers, are included. Sneakers is a great piece of literature if you are either illiterate, or want to find out things like where the arch of your foot is. I BUD RJ 1 911 ? upsnr 200 I ' politics f fact that there's a little good in the worst of us, etc. SAF1RE DOES seem to come to | q nnnnlnci An tuaolr 00 if t a A 0 > u WilVlUOAVll| TT VU1\ MO IV *? rUJ > Ericson is finally leaving the White j House for good, his sight returning | and everyone living happily ever j after, he says, "Life is not the pure \ amalgam of thought and action I J used to think it was," about as j vague a tidbit of chic philosophy \ one is likely to find. One cannot help but pity Ericson j if that is all he has learned from being a blind President. But it is at least more than the reader learns from the events of the novel. The reader learns that nower onrmnts sex is fun, and life is hard ? concepts which cannot come as a tremendous surprise to the average American. Perhaps the pure nothingness of Full Disclosure signals the end of the "Drunk on Power" genre of popular novels. Perhaps when the true nature of humanity is examined in a political context, novelists will write stories about average middle-class taxoavers p0jmwi u iHanaBnnBmamBBBMBiHnnMnMWHM Puns to g< By Barr PUNIshment by Har Punster's Press; t2: PUNishment is the kind of book tl like puns. Indeed, the subtitle of th How to Lose Friends and Agonize F an enormous collection of puns v Chicago lawyer and writer. A few The most vulnerable animal in th you touch it. it will croak. m nines my wne can De a consti up with her incessant grumbling an The craziness goes on. The book - largest part is a collection of puns from puns about foreign countries second section is a humorous "p structions on timing and procedui So place your bets and take youi k love the book. If not, don't even botJ nfcJEDL wNOTPC m THE \Jmfm We h III ceramic and vm \ 52 TR V YOURC TOWARDS ^Supply Limi /1PT1VI1 vuui 1/U BECOfU iumter St. Arrn? from i icr* - _ WW a > VI V<V/Vd AIRS At Meeting St. West Columbia ?WM"*^tettWW^^rtfftYTtm]l>^ii I'^I'IYI'I Yi'iViViV.^j " ^' VII^iiii MJIAM |L A i ft'i : :" jHg : If.' :iHl?-j who have learned too much from iu. u:wi ? ?A ?v- _i uic uigiici guvci iiiuciii txiiciuns, and the government will be seen as merely the least efficient form of the faults that permeate the American fabric. But all Full Disclosure does is point a finger and say, "You naughty boys!" And maybe that is part of the problem. ?t sick by v J. Glenn vey C. Gordon; The 95 iat can make you sick if you don't ie book is "The Art of Punning or 'eople." The 91-page paperbook is written by Harvey C. Gordon, a r examples: e world has to be a frog because if int complainer. One day I get fed id sent her home to mutter, is divided into two sections. The divided into 22 sections, ranging to puns about fish and fowl. Hie mister's guide," which gives inre. r pick. If you are into puns you'll ier picking it up. . JES ARE 3REVER, Y WEAR. ave a wide selection of magnetic cartridges in stock. AHF-IN FHR iLDNEEDLE A NEW ONE ted to needles in stock. PES J3 JDK)