Mindless Oppression In The USA

The Work Ethic


Can * nois * seur ( kan' us sur' ), n. one competent to render critical judgement on the qualities and merits of cannabis

"The most amazing property of cannabis is its ability to fog the minds of those who do not use it."

Heads Up: Melinda Haag, US attorney for Northern California, who is conducting the inquisition and suppression of Medical Cannabis, refuses to address the issue of lost jobs, lost advertising revenue and lost taxes. Rather, she parrots the Reefer Madness party line, stating that her office received "many phone calls, letters and e-mails from people who are deeply troubled by the tremendous growth of the marijuana industry and its influence on their communities."
As we all know this is pure horse hockey. What about the influence of the alcohol industry?
What about those lost jobs at Christmas time? What about the community services that the marijuana industry supports? And dammit, what about all those sick patients Melinda? Its time to phone, write and e-mail Melinda Haag and tell her how deeply troubled we all are by her uninformed, insensitive, and downright unAmerican actions.
Meddling Melinda has already caused three fine clinics to close their doors. One of them,
Medithrive, wisely shifted to a home delivery service. Check their menu online then call 415-562-6334. You'll find they're both prompt and polite and serve up the same high quality boo that made them a San Francisco favorite.

The Work Ethic

From my first day at Bantam Books i morphed from grasshopper to worker ant. i assiduously read all the books scheduled for jacket copy, as well as novels in the slush pile ( unsolicited manuscripts ). i've been blessed with the ability to read quickly which served me in good stead. At my peak i was reading 3 books a day and one at night after work. My writing skills were getting stronger thanks to HB's generous tutelage, and i was receiving accolades and pay raises regularly. i was also discovering that my hippy-influenced, out-of-the-box ideas were solid moneymakers in the real marketplace. Around that time i worked up enough confidence to tackle my first novel. i had absorbed enough raw manuscripts to know what one should look like. And so, every night after work, i would write three to five pages of Doctor Orient, a novel about a character i'd been contemplating since my voyages to Baalbek. Dr O was a telepath and occult adept who embodied the spiritual and cultural values of the psychedelic era. In this new wave thriller i could expound philosophical theories that would otherwise prompt people to signal for the check. i told no one about the project and the secret seemed to feed my efforts. At the time i was casting about for an agent and contacted Owen Laster at William Morris who had seen, and liked, some of my earlier cabaret sketches. Owen told me the psychic investigator concept would never work. Motivated, i named my character Dr. Owen Orient and went on. My first draft was a tad skimpy but Mark Jaffe, editor in chief at Bantam, thought i might be "on to something". It was all the encouragement i needed. Still keeping mum about the book i went about a rewrite--and found it surprisingly rewarding. About that time i had an idea for a an original Bantam book that would stimulate younger readers to appreciate poetry. Titled The Poetry of Rock it would be a collection of 60's rock lyrics, which had evolved way beyond the June, moon, spoon, school of croon. HB was right there with it and we made our pitch to Mark who gave it the green light. We decided to contact Richard Goldstein a fledgling rock music critic (there were very few in '68 ) who ran a column called Pop Eye in the Village Voice. Richard would write the introduction and choose the lyrics. Later his introduction was featured in Life magazine. Unfortunately it fell on HB alone to actually acquire the lyrics from the maze of music publishers and distributors who held the rights. However that book i thought up and HB worked so hard on, The Poetry of Rock. is still in print forty years later.
Oh yeah... the reason HB had to carry the load alone was that an advertising agency made me an offer i couldn't refuse...





Recommended Reading: The Poetry of Rock edited by Richard Goldstein
Recommended Listening: Lostintheunderground. com