European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 19, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse A love for Legal pads by Eleanor Blau new York times n the age of floppy disks. Iho Yallow Legal pad holds Ita own. I cannot live we Ghoul Legal pads declares Pat Conroy who writes his novels on them can a word processor draw squiggles demands Richard d. Heffner who writes introductions on them for his open mind program on Public television. A s a tool of the Trade says Judith e. Siegel Baum a lawyer whose Mother made her a needlepoint Legal pad Holder when she graduated from Law school. More Legal pads Are now manufactured in this country than Ever before 10 or 15 percent More than a decade ago Industry spokesmen say. According to the census Bureau nearly 369 million were made last year it you count All sizes and varieties. In new York where words Are everybody s business purists like Siegel Baum demand tradition pads 8 .yby14 inches the Hue of a Canary. Wide ruled with Blue lines. A red ruled margin along the left Side. And a lop binding with perforations just below in that Way the pages stay put when you flip them yet yield if you want to rip them. But Lavender Legal pads have turned up. To say nothing of baby Blue. I would fire anyone who used one warns Herman h. Tarnow a Manhattan lawyer no perforated versions abound Staple them advises Heffner. So do pads of various sizes amid a nationwide trend toward letter size Torii to twi Phoi Judith Slegal Baum has a need Point pad cover. Documents instead of the Long ones letter size yellow pads 11 it inches with the binding Are Selling better than the Long manufacturers say. Am pad the Holyoke company that makes the most Legal pads in the country but won t say How Man also made the first according to Jerre Hoffman an am pad vice president. In the Early 1900s, in seems a Baltimore Printer and supplier for Law firms asked for a Legal length pad that would t come apart. Yellow would stand out in a pile of White and a left Side margin would allow for scribbling. Even non urints Wax rhapsodic. Hefner who favors the b i by 1 a variety they fit better in his tile Cabine tand who can t create on a machine says when you look at a pad of yellow paper the juices Low. I squeeze a Little word in Here a Little word in there it s tactile holding the Pencil to pad occasionally turning the Pencil around and Glendon Swarthout the author of the Shoolis and where the boys Are and who writes on White letter size White is More dignified notes that once you be torn pages from a no perforated pad the overlapping binding at the top is easily torn off with fingernails or Teeth. Something to do while you think he explains. Conroy author of the Greaf Pantiru and the Prince of tides says he goes for years using the Short yellow then for years with he Long. I write nicer about my family during Short insists Conroy. Who is now in a Long period. Law librarians have their own views yellow pad paper is horrible says James l. Hoover of Columbia University Law school explaining that it is Lull of acid with a life of no More than 20 years a Nightmare to manuscript touching All bases Campbell Geeslin a senior editor of life Magazine who writes fiction on the outside the Way most people do starts longhand on a Long yellow skipping every other line for corrections. I than go miserably enough to the typewriter he says and i edit Wilh tiny Little pen scribbles until you can t read it anymore. And then i put it into a word processor every time i see the material on the Page in a different typeface or on the screen in a different color it looks Frash i thought everybody did Why second marriages often fail associated press he High failure rate of second marriages is caused largely by the persistence of traditional male and female roles that encourage stepparents to discipline their stepchildren a therapist says. Betty Carler director of the family Institute of Westchester in mount Vemon by said Stepfather who try to assume the traditional role of disciplinarian and stepmothers who try to become their stepchildren s primary caretaker will not succeed. The resulting unhappiness can break up the marriage. Carter who Calls herself a feminist family therapist said . Census figures show that 60 percent of the second marriages among people in the Post world War ii generation will end in divorce. That is in a group of people in which remarriage is common. Ninety percent marry once 50 percent of those divorce and 60 percent to 70 percent of those go on to remarry Carter said. One filth of you in your 30s can expect to experience not one but two divorces she told an audience at the annual meeting of the american association for marriage and family therapy. The mistake generally made by people who marry a second time is to set up the family Asil they re a traditional family Carter said in an interview. In thai Case the Stepfather will be expected to discipline his new wife s children but said Carter it s never going to work because the kids Are going to say you re not my fatties " a better solution would be for the Mother to assume the disciplinarian role for her children thus leaving the Stepfather free to develop a Friendly relationship Wilh Tutein Stepfather do not have As hard a time As stepmothers however. The father is saying to the Stepmother ii you were a Good Mother the kids would be Happy " furthermore Stepfather who have difficulty with the role of disciplinarian can pull out by spending More time at work for example. Ii you re the Stepmother you move in because that s what you re raised to do Carter said suggesting that the problem arises from the Mother s traditional role. For the slept Amily to work out it requires a restructuring of the roles. H they re his kids he should discipline them. She should t scream at them to clean up their she can however act As a consultant to the father because she s probably More experienced at child rearing than he is Carter said. Stepparents who try to assume these traditional roles have an additional problem because they Are excluding the other natural Parent irom his or her role Eft a Rombeck what Parent has not heard the term borrow ii is usually preceded by can i and followed by everything you own. To borrow As parents know it is a temporary condition where you obtain or receive a loan of something with the Promise of resuming in or its equivalent. To a child borrow is the first Slage of ownership. I have seen my Tennis Racket go from a sheltered place on the lop shelf of my closet to extra tape on the grip and nakedness on a Tennis court in the rain All night. To loan a Blouse to your daughter is to say goodbye to your Blouse and your daughter. To have your son borrow an ice Chest Tor an Outing is to live the rest of your Lile without an ice Chest. This a not to say things Are never returned. It is to say when you press for their return they Are never quite he same As when you loaned them. Our sleeping bags never smelled like pizza before we loaned them to our kids. The blankets we loaned them to wrap their furniture when they moved looked like place Mats when they came Back. Which happens when you put Wool into hot water in the Washer. Sometimes they get very defensive about in. When our son returned our camera it made a Gritty noise every Lime it advanced. He said you should be tickled to death it advances. If i had dropped in on the pavement instead of in Sand it would t Advance at i had one child who borrowed a piece of Luggage and when he returned in snarled "1 Hope you Are satisfied the lock almost gave Way on the Carousel. This is a piece of junk. You should get rid of ii. The Zipper gets stuck and the handle is ready to come for a minute i thought he was going to ask for his Money Back. They Barrow cake pans to Drain the Oil irom their wednesday november 19, 1986 cars bread knives to Cut ropes in half Beach towels to soak up the overflow from a stopped up toilet and tools to conduct experiments in rust. Sometimes i Iee them standing in the Middle of the House their eyes dancing their lips moist with excitement contemplating what to borrow next. It is a look usually reserved Lor a lottery Winner. Of course the favorite item to borrow is your car. Within 15 seconds after they climb into in the Mirror and the seat Are adjusted the radio can be heard by flying aircraft and something Slushy is sliding Down the seat covers. Ii will not be returned to you until it needs Gas Oil tune up Battery tires or new plates. The other Day one of our kids said can i borrow some firewood for a Camp out by our definition firewood is something that can t be borrowed because it can t be returned. By their definition anything is possible. 0 a aim to Tom Syi the stars and stripes rage 17
