Notes & Asides

Dear Priscilla:

I’m dying for word on what you thought of my article, “Going Courting in Washington.” But then, I can imagine the scenario. You’ll send it up to Bill in the dumbwaiter. He’ll carry it around for several weeks unaware that he has it in one of his stuffed briefcases. Months will pass, after which time, you’ll ask in a note what he thought of it. “Of what?” he’ll ask. You’ll explain and he’ll swear that he never saw it. He’ll be right. It will have been left in a hotel room in China*. An officious Chinese will have forwarded it to New York, by which time Bill will be somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. A kindly Coast Guard cutter will pull alongside to deliver the missing briefcase, but just as the captain is reaching across the bow the catches on the case will pop open and my manuscript will float lazily out to sea.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

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National Review

Dear Priscilla:

I’m dying for word on what you thought of my article, “Going Courting in Washington.” But then, I can imagine the scenario. You’ll send it up to Bill in the dumbwaiter. He’ll carry it around for several weeks unaware that he has it in one of his stuffed briefcases. Months will pass, after which time, you’ll ask in a note what he thought of it. “Of what?” he’ll ask. You’ll explain and he’ll swear that he never saw it. He’ll be right. It will have been left in a hotel room in China*. An officious Chinese will have forwarded it to New York, by which time Bill will be somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. A kindly Coast Guard cutter will pull alongside to deliver the missing briefcase, but just as the captain is reaching across the bow the catches on the case will pop open and my manuscript will float lazily out to sea.