Memo to: Our Readers
From: WFBThis is the tenth anniversary of our request to those of our readers who were willing to help NR out to take advantage of the NR credit card. What's most important to convey: It costs you nothing, nada. But a small percentage of the cost of your purchases goes to NR. In ten years this has amounted to a life-giving transfusion. So this request is directed to those who have such credit cards -- kindly keep using them. And to those who don't -- if you are so disposed, would you kindly sign on? I repeat, no cost, present or prospective. This is done by calling 800-523-7666 (code: HZH8); or by calling our publisher, Ed Capano, or associate publisher, Jack Fowler, who will happily give you the information on what to do -- a couple of minutes of your time.
To the Editor
The New York TimesDear Sir/Madam:
Your story (April 18, bylined Patricia Cohen) is headed, ``Leftist Scholars Look Right at Last, and Find a History.'' It devotes 1,827 words to the postwar American rightist movement and wonders that so little attention has been paid to it. What is remarkable is the author's own feat in surveying the question and the period without a single mention of the principal organ of the conservative movement during that period. Everyone and everything mentioned -- Richard Weaver, Russell Kirk, John A. Andrew, Mary Brennan, Lee Edwards, the Young Americans for Freedom -- had intimate, even institutional ties to NATIONAL REVIEW. The speaker at NR's 30th Anniversary celebration in 1985 was a charter subscriber. President Reagan put it this way: ``Ask any of the young leaders in the media, academia, or government here tonight to name the principal intellectual influence in their formative years, on this point I can assure you: NATIONAL REVIEW is to the offices of the West Wing of the White House what People magazine is to your dentist's waiting room.'' You might as well have published a survey of the constitutional movement two hundred years ago without mentioning the Federalist Papers. Are the instructions to the computer, ``Delete nationalreview*.*''?
Yours faithfully,Wm. F. Buckley Jr.
A note to all fans of Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn: Dr. Leddihn, a founding contributor to NATIONAL REVIEW, will travel once again to the United States next fall, arriving on October 10 and departing on November 22. He is a renowned lecturer whose encyclopedic knowledge is yours for the asking. He will address your meeting in whatever language you designate and he will address (and solve) any problem you bring to his attention. He is currently at work ``on a book defining 333 commonly held religious, political, historical, and sociological errors.'' Inquiries should be addressed to: Dr. Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, A-6072 Lans, Tyrol, Austria.
Dear Bill, I was dumbfounded by the words ``Lock and Load'' just below Mr. Buchanan's chin on NR's April 20 cover. As an ``old'' Army man, just as I am an ``old'' Navy man: Who reversed the two words? I don't know about the Army, but if we had followed this in the U.S.N., we would have been literally locked out.
How about a riddle, the answer to which is not the obvious? A man stands up but a woman sits down. All dogs lift their paws but never their hind legs. They are all doing the same thing, kind sir, but what is it?
Cordially, always,
Bob [Robertson G. Morrow]
Memphis, Tenn.Dear Bob: It rather stopped me. In the last issue the question was raised in the Letters section and the editor replied that that was exactly the phrase used by Mr. Buchanan in a speech, 1996, given to the Heritage Foundation. But the simple answer to your . . . question is: No slur was intended. Cordially,
Bill
—WFB
