European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 09, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 the stars and stripes monday september 9, 1985 columns today s crossword the downfall of Roger the roofer Russell bake or Niv York Roger the roofer could t believe it was happening. Be serious or. Rulmyr he said. Tuss your roofing tools into the Back of car then get in i Here and lie face Down on the eat said or. Bulmer preying the gun against the roofer s ribs to emphasize his seriousness. We re going for a Little Ndoc " climbing into the Cir. The roofer saw a body face Damn on the floor. Be gods and Leaky shingles he cried. You be got a body in that s not a body said or. Bulmer. That s pal jumbo the the prostrate plumber said careful what you say to him Roger he s precisely cackled or Bulmer slamming car doors sliding behind the wheel and starting the Geta Way. Mccline thoroughly kidnapped the roofer and plumber could Only lie silent listening to the pounding of each other s hearts As Well As the pounding of a third heart which seemed to come from behind the Back seat. It s me. Milton the Mason said a muffled voice. He s got me locked in the trunk with Mason s he s going of kill us said Roger. Worse than that said the plumber. I be got a feeling he s going to make us finish the jobs we started Al his this dread sentence Drew groans of despair from the roofer and the Mason Roger s entire life passed before his a is. And he could not choke Back a sob As he remembered his Youthful triumphs at roofing am where he had taken honors in leaving the Job unfinished 101. Me thought too of his wife Reba and of How proud she was when someone asked just who do you think you Are to reply i am Reba i Flo Roger the he thought of the Awe in the voices of strangers when they gasped no that Roger the roofer who has roofed these 20 years past without once finishing a roof Job yes that was he. Always leave enough of the Job unfinished to drive the customer up the Wall his professors had taught. He was proud of never having let Down the old school. Of course he could t have done it without Reba. His marriage proposal had not sounded romantic. Reba he had said Don t get the idea i love i feel the same Way Roger she had said but i be just got to have a Man i can answer the Telephone for when people Call up mad As hornets to ask if he s Ever going to come and finish that roofing Job or the plumbing or the Concrete so you Promise you la always Tell them i la Call them Back Only when you be got no intention of calling them yes Reba had been Well educated at Slithery eel Fina gling school. They had been made for each now ,. Now captured this madman Bulmer and borne relentlessly toward the Bulmer household Roger the roofer saw no Way to escape the Ignominy of being forced to finish repairing Bulmer s Leaky Chimney Flash ing a Job he had started eight months ago. Could Reba have betrayed him yesterday Bulmer would have phoned As usual in a rage demanding As usual to know if Roger was afraid to stand up and roof like a Reba was supposed to reply he had logo to Washington or. Bulmer for a big re roofing Job on the Capi Tol but suppose there had been treachery in her heart. Might she not have told Bulmer the truth the Only Way you re Ever going to get that flashing fixed if you get Over Here at Dawn and take him at Reba would l have done that. Could t have. It was unlikely that Reba and Melva the wife of Milton the Mason and Pearl the wife of Palumbo the plumber had All sold their husbands out at the same time. The truth was known that evening after the three workmen were forced to finish their jobs at bulmers and then were tarred feathered and Ridden Home on a rail fellow workmen who fell their trades had been disgraced. Al Home the three found the notes their wives had left. Reba s note like the other two said after thai Cra?.y Bulmer threatened to get me convicted for Tele phone perjury i figured the fun was All Over so Why not go someplace new and Start looking for love c new York Tolmei woe of he who a quote fhe nose James Kilpatrick the president of the United states held an Impromptu press conference just after a surgeon removed a Small skin cancer on his nose. The thing had started As a pimple. I violated All the rules or. Reagan confessed. I picked Al it and i Stio a it and so Forth and messed myself up a quo a where did our Noble Leader find that verb form i Doutt that he made it up himself but i can t recall Ever running across it before. In any event the usage put in motion a recurring train of thought about the charming and sometimes maddening vagaries of the English language. The past tense of sneeze i a necked. We have whee a . Breeze breezed and tweeze twee cd. Why then fryc a froze in the Portland oregonian this summer a police learn snuck into a House. Webster s ninth new collegial unflinchingly authorises the usage As an alternative past tense but other diction Aires Call it dialect or disdain in. Most of the Cak verbs Are regular leaked peaked squeaked streaked. Then you get speak spoke. How come i Don t know How come. The verb forms Are play played and stay stayed. Why the slay slew pay paid and most perplexing say said it s no problem to conjugate dry cry and Fry. What about Fly who invented flew All languages 1 suppose have their irregular verbs bul ours must be More irregular than most of them. A couple of readers have inquired about the distinction Between May and it s a Subtle distinction but we ought to hang on to it. The difference Between "1 May go and i might go is that might carries a greater degree of uncertainty. In an entirely separate confusion. He May have Hurt himself carries one meaning and he might have Hurt himself carries another. In this construction May connotes uncertainty we do not yet know what has happened. If the fellow might have Hurt himself the incident has passed he might have suffered harm but he escaped intact. Distinctions matter. The associated press recently provided an item out of Portsmouth va., about a 60 fool Ketch that floundered in a storm off the North Carolina coast. There s nothing wrong with flounder if the meaning has to do with stumbling or slipping or struggling Over a difficult sentence. Bul when that Ketch Sank in did t flounder it foundered. It went to the Bottom. Horses also founder but that s different. In an account of the marriage of Bruce Springsteen and Julianne Phillips one of the wire services informed us that the two were wed in a Clandestine ceremony Early wrong word. The wedding was kept secret from the press but Clandestine implies some thing More than privacy or secrecy. It implies something illicit. If a Man and a woman meet for some Clandestine purpose they arc up to no Good. In another Story about these nuptials we Learned that the Bride s parents regretted the arrangements the Phillipss said they fell badly that secrecy had to shroud the Well no. They Feld bad about it. The verb to feel is among the verbs thai old style Gram Marians used to Call Copula Tive the More Gen Teel term is linking if we say Hal someone feels badly we Are saying that something has gone wrong with his sense of touch. C Una Crul Preti Eugene Stieffer across not Vert 4ciyvehii-lt s 9 explode suddenly12 Chanres " wins 13 suppose14 american humorist10 Mountain Dew?17 Goto deteriorate 18 explore Johnson in glowing cools 21 halo24 scorch 25 who am judge 26 As easy 43 delineated45 Caner Al material47 High note 48 witness Box words 49 Romanti Illumin ation54 Fastener 65 wrathful56 " miss brooks"57 Simone s summer58 valuable violin Short. some down1 Ark Pas senger2 old in spain3 Vintage car4 an even chances loss of speech6 lunch time?7 scottish antiquarian 8 appeared b it s Only 9-9 Hubert cwrlin6. What Porto fax did1cuhv/e?
