European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 13, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes May 1985 columns All this happiness is killing me by Ellen Goodman Moscow in beginning to understand the joke that was told to me my second Day its about a Man who wants to leave the soviet Union because he is too a Friend would you leave if you Are Happy he explains if 1 go to the store for Good meat and i find in so if my television Breaks and i get it i1 n so if i find a shirt in my size and it even fits in so All this happiness is killing one of the Many surprises in this lumbering capital City is the palpable Energy and ingenuity of the people who live the formal soviet system May grumble at change and muffle initiative in blankets of but there is an informal system at one As chaotic and irrepressible As human the spirit of free Enterprise is thriving and not merely in the sem official peasant Market where private farm ers sold their Hothouse tomatoes last week for a it is part of the psyche of a people with rising expectations and Western tastes in a second world in seven Days on these i have seen some of the most passionate shoppers that a mall weary american could its rare for a muscovite to pass one of the stands set up on Street Corners or in doorways with out checking the when a line forms at a there is a Universal urge to find out whats for even my walking our rounds of formal appoint veers automatically into a shoe store that is expecting a and then catching backs out in nearly every private conversation with an Urban russian turns to How much does a shirt Cost in America a Good coat a tape recorder the stores Are not empty of the state supermarkets have enough Staples to satisfy if not relieve a defensive refrain from a soviet com Panion we have too we have the soviet Union makes almost anything made in the rest of the but in quantities that tease the imagination and whet the As an american Friend Here reminds they make toasters a to my Western an extraordinary amount of time and interest is invested in getting hold of something scarce and i am regaled with boisterous stories about the search for food for a a Good pair of boots for tickets to the americans May work to acquire the Money to buy these but in Moscow it is equally important to have to develop a relationship with the to Exchange and stare with to know someone with Access to a be Yushka store where goods Are sold for foreign currency the enormous vitality of this second this Pri vate contradicts the Western stereotype of soviet citizens As dependent and the state May regu late distribute housing and control but in the reality of everyday the struggle to enrich life is met with flexibility and a passion largely lacking in Public if there is a collective spirit in Moscow it snot in the but in the Effort to get something done under the it is the the daily that throw to Gether friends into webs of even As a i catch glimpses of i try to change my hotel reservations and encounter a Barrier of new to change a i must pay for the whole stay All Over this is i Tell the using my most useful russian we smile at each she cuts through the reddest of tape and its one Way to move the immovable is to Appeal directly for the commodity in great in this City at the same i begin to sense and share the muscovites pleasure in personal a woman tells me in great and ironic detail about her monthlong Campaign to get the right travel a Success the third item we try to order from a restaurant menu is actually i i dredge up a Telephone number in this City without directory where Telephone books Are at a and i but its also Clear to this outsider that much too much creative Energy goes into these victories beating a bureaucratic chasing a the Energy siphoned off from work or Public life is As obvious As the sight of government workers standing in grocery lines at 3 Oclock in the i dont envy the new Leader who wants to change these systems in the cause of c 1985 Washington Post writers group lend a hand in getting rid of Veo loan by James Kilpatrick most of my comments on the writing Art concern the work of and most of my horrid examples come from the clippings you Send me from newspapers and we have a right to expect Good writing from the what about the no pros copies of two letters come to one is from the executive vice president of a Large county medical Asso the other is from a Public service specialist for a Federal Agency that regulates to the medical gentleman could not spell he could not spell he spelled it his letter to a woman who had complained of mistreat ment consisted of Only nine six of the nine were awkward example As for the rest of your letter it is directed toward treatment and you have sought Legal in a the letter from the Federal information specialist was this is a fair Sample if you Are experiencing an interference problem from the problem could be due to your proximate to to the two stations close to fam and far from these conditions Are generally caused by the inability of the effected equipment to a operate these two stations when one is much stronger than the in Many this prob Lem can be remedied with appropriated if you arc still have the interference it is suggested you Contact fam and request their wholly personal correspondence Between consenting adults is beyond the realm of my i Luv Yew a vast Deal of is not so letters have an unfortunate Way of being and once having been they have an embarrassing Way of being copied and a proverb reminds us that men Are known by the company they a corollary proposition is that All of us Are Likely to be known by the letters we we  expect flawless prose from persons who Are not in the business of but the taking of pains is not the responsibility of professionals mailbag Mary Ruffer of is bothered by Early she does the phrase have any Virtues websters ninth new collegiate identifies Early on As a British idiom exported to the United states about it seems to have filled a says As a compact substitute for in the Early David Alpren of is irked by Dolphin coach Don Shula and the Dolphin locker he finds these singularly in it May be a matter of the cadence of a i would write Alabama governor Wallace instead of Alabama governor but Dolphin coach Shula causes no the dolphins locker room seems to me better than the Dolphin locker Victor Bess of Indianapolis objects to the incessant use of which adds absolutely nothing to any sentence in which it Suzanne Barnhill of rues the disappearance of to its been almost wholly supplanted by to a note in websters informs us that to loan has been around at least since the reign of Henry but shake Speare would have struck a very Peculiar note if he had put the verb in the Mouth of Marc loan me your id Back a trend to what 50 t05snp so Bonz up 1 sow if ibs6 a today crossword by Eugene Sheffer across 1 minor 5 fabled Bird 8 Price 12 Spanish cattle farm 14 Lily Plant 15 Home of the Bounty survivors 16 campers need 17 ode on a 18 Legal minority 20 Gorge 23 Copper 36 sports award 37 shy and retiring 40 weep 41 Lily Plant 42 fierce dogs 47 River in Arizona 48 school Board members 49 Treyve Paree 50 Diego 51 glut Down 1 French Painter 2 Zebine Monkey 3 Bank 4 blame 5 Check 6 hockey Star 7 indicated 8 forty winks 9 Olive Genus 10 of sixpence 11 head of France aug 80iution time22 min 24 Ashen 25 in a 28 mad wet Hen 29 synthetic fiber 30 period ical 32 top of a Coal Shaft 34 dreadful 35 wealthy 13 injure 19 kind of exam 20 figure head 21 door fastening 22jai 23 Singer Shore 25 practical rules 26 surrounded by 27 Scarletto Home 29 hindu caste 31 hair often 33 capote 34 enters society 36 crowds it 38 new York canal 39 stubborn person 40 Stupey 43 author Levin 513 44 Meadow 45 lease to saturdays 46 Compass 20 37 4t 47 21 32 38 22 39 33 35 13 29 25 23 42 48 50 43 18 40 19 36 14 16 34 51 26 30 44 10 11 45 31 46 513 Hubert  pocket Hwi