Longtime club members recall a popular feature of our monthly magazine was the Books Section  Mostly it was about what the proverbial “Man About Town” was supposed to be reading and it included  handy phrases a member could employ to give the impression he had not only read the latest best seller  but had inspired the author to write it in the first place .

         Other articles were about this speed : 5 Amusing Things To Say About Hamlet ; If She Brings Up Jane Austen–Flee (Seriously, Even If She Has Amazing Tits) ; All You Need To Know About Tolstoy’s “War And Peace”  In Less Than 300 Words.

       In that ancient era –we’re now talking pre-1995–  saying something smart about books and writers (even poets !) was considered an important social asset . Skillfully applied  it could get you laid in under an hour.  Where now Starbucks and Gap stores line the streets there were not only bookstores but “specialty’ and even “independent” bookstores which were specifically  places to  meet women. There were rules of conduct. And  codes. When  a woman said she liked the latest Cheever , for example , she probably meant “I like to  take it up the ass,”  and so forth.