Gray Lady Goes Topless
Front Page center bottom—
a bare breasted breast-less woman
doubly Amazonian, proudly tattooed
— wild curly hair brushed into asymmetrical
wings from the back of her head.
Where tits had been now large tats,
a bare breasted breast-less woman
doubly Amazonian, proudly tattooed
— wild curly hair brushed into asymmetrical
wings from the back of her head.
Where tits had been now large tats,
asymmetrical. A graceful moth on the right
drawn toward the full-petalled rose
on the left, reminders of asymmetrical
“tumor burden”, buckshot-size cell colonies
excised before growing into scatter bombs
that could have destroyed breasts, bodies,
bones, brains. Her chin proudly lifted, long neck
a column supporting a beautiful face,
eyes calmly self-assured, very like four
other “flat chested” women on page A14.
drawn toward the full-petalled rose
on the left, reminders of asymmetrical
“tumor burden”, buckshot-size cell colonies
excised before growing into scatter bombs
that could have destroyed breasts, bodies,
bones, brains. Her chin proudly lifted, long neck
a column supporting a beautiful face,
eyes calmly self-assured, very like four
other “flat chested” women on page A14.
Also front page, the red-suited candidate
holds a black man’s hand resting inert,
a bit afraid, as men are, of such women.
Her opponent, in King-of-the-Mountain
stance hides fears and failures behind
a matador’s red cape of angry arrogance.
His groping hands would recoil from imaginary
rose thorns where he expected yielding
tissue and tense nipples to pinch.
holds a black man’s hand resting inert,
a bit afraid, as men are, of such women.
Her opponent, in King-of-the-Mountain
stance hides fears and failures behind
a matador’s red cape of angry arrogance.
His groping hands would recoil from imaginary
rose thorns where he expected yielding
tissue and tense nipples to pinch.
“The New York Times” has been nicknamed “the Gray Lady.” Sometimes this has been ascribed to its stylistic appearance, with many words and few pictures. In 1951 “Life” reported on the newspaper’s centenary with the remark that the cognomen was derived from an acknowledgement of “its traditional special marks: starch conservatism and circumspection.” It was founded as the “New-York Daily Times” in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond (at the tine a Whig but later the 2nd chairman of the new Republican Party National Committee; in 1856 he was the 1st director of the Associated Press ) and former banker George Jones. The inaugural issue proclaimed, “We shall be Conservative, in all cases where we think Conservatism essential to the public good; — and we shall be Radical in everything which may seem to us to require radical treatment and radical reform. We do not believe that everything in Society is either exactly right or exactly wrong; — what is good we desire to preserve and improve; — what is evil, to exterminate, or reform.” When Jones died in 1891 Charles Ransom Miller and other editors at the paper bought it, but by 1896 it was losing $1,000 a day before Adolph Ochs, publisher of the “Chattanooga Times,” bought a controlling interest, who dropped the hyphen and coined the slogan, "All The News That's Fit To Print," a jibe at the “yellow journalism” (lurid, sensationalist, and often inaccurate reporting) practiced by the more successful competitors Joseph Pulitzer's “New York World” and William Randolph Hearst's “New York Journal.” Under Ochs' guidance, “The New York Times” achieved international scope, circulation, and reputation. The Ochs-Sulzberger family still owns the publication, with Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., of the 4th generation, currently serving as Publisher and Chairman of The New York Times Company. As of September 2016, it had the largest combined print-and-digital circulation of any daily newspaper in the US and is ranked 18th in the world by circulation. But it has moved away from its conservative roots and has had one of the nation’s most liberal editorial boards for decades, prompted Joseph Epstein to remark in a 2010 issue of “The Weekly Standard,” that it “used to be called the Gray Lady of American newspapers. The sobriquet implied a certain stateliness, a sense of responsibility, the possession of high virtue. But the Gray Lady is far from the grande dame she once was. For years now she has been going heavy on the rouge, lipstick, and eyeliner, using a push-up bra, and gadding about in stiletto heels. She’s become a bit—perhaps more than a bit—of a slut, whoring after youth through pretending to be with-it.”
ReplyDeleteKing of the Mountain (or King of the Hill) is a children's game in which one player tries to stay on top of some elevated place while others try to knock him off and replace him. Ordinarily pushing is the most common way of removing the king, but sometimes rougher activities are employed. The name of the game has become a common metaphor for any sort of competitive zero-sum game or social activity in which a single winner is chosen from among multiple competitors and a hierarchy is devised by the heights the competitors achieve.
Strong, strong, strong! What imagery! What observational powers! What an ability and talent to interpret the day's and the days' actualites in verse. Strong, strong, strong!
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