tangents

news & views

EVER ALERT

To foreigners who claim that they have freedom in sexual matters which Americans don't have, we would like to report that in Japan the topless bathing suit for women has been banned and that in Peru the Ministry of Education attempted to band 15 allegedly "horrific and brutal" comic strips, including Superman. The public forced the Ministry to change its educated mind.

To citizens who open their door to anyone knocking, we might report that the Los Angeles Times recently had a front page warning from the L.A. Board of Supervisors to the public to be wary of allowing men knocking on their doors into their homes, even though the men may present what appear to be authentic badges from the health department. They may be salesmen for termite killing companies or they may be looking over the house to burglarize later.

REVERSED SITUATION

The San Francisco Chronicler Merla Zellerbach tells her readers about the Citizens News (not the Hollywood one, which has been

Fone

sold to the Valley Times) recent issue which does a take-off on the Life article (June 26th). The News entitled its article, "Heterosexuality in America," and had big pictures with appropriate captions. For instance, an ordinary picture had the caption "These healthy looking young men and women in their gray flannel suits and cocktail dresses are practicing heterosexuals. They are part of what they call the 'straight' world, which is actually not so straight and narrow, but often crooked and twisted, sordid and sadistic." Another picture is explained thusly, "Heterosexuality shears across the spectrum of American life. In Hollywood, after the bars close for the night, the streets everywhere become a dark promenade for heterosexuals. San Francisco offers established heterosexual societies such as the Clara Lane Introduction Services, the 'Guys and Dolls' organizations, and lately, even such flagrant meeting places as the Whiskey a Go-Go, where propositions can be made by phone to others in the bar. Thereby you can survey the others' desires and reactions without ever boing seen or recognized as a

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