European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 29, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 blur fir the stars and stripes monday december 29,1986 Good intentions poor pm no ii and Rooney i was sitting at my desk pushing pieces of paper around in Landing i was working when he phone rang. No Mailer How Good the connection you usually can Tell a Long distance Call. This was one. Or. Rooney the voice inquired. i did in a nol very Friendly Lone. I m Gruff with Calls from strangers because they re usually a waste of time and i m Seldom pleased 10 get one. The next words the woman spoke abruptly changed my Altitude toward the Call Cary Grant would like to speak to you. Wilt you speak to him will t speak w Cary Grant would 1 be Loo Busy if Katharine Hepburn called could i spare a few min utes for Jimmy Stewart gosh sure i said because inc. Woman spoke in a manner that suggested the Call was the real thing. She sounded More like a wife than a Secretary Loo. Or Rooney the familiar voice said this is Cary i m not easily impressed with celebrities but Cary Grant was a special person and 1 was mildly flabbergasted to actually be talking to him. He sounded More like Hii Milf than his Best imitator. Good to Lalk to you i mumbled weakly groping for something gracious or Clever to say. Say he continued Why Don t you do something on All this packaging i s getting so difficult to gel into these packages a All receive. They have All this new kind of ape. Very difficult la s a Good idea 1 said. "1 appreciate your calling. Thanks very thai s the extent of my personal Friendship with Cary Grant la was one of the Best Telephone Calls i Ever got and certainly the least expected. I be been nervous Ever since about who s out there watching. Now Cary Grant is gone and i feel sad. For what reason i Don l know bul i never got around to doing the packaging piece he suggested. 1 thought about it and figured thai someday 1 would do it perhaps this year at Christmas but i never did. It in t the first time i be had the feeling i let some one Down. There Are a few haunting memories of limes in my past when i be disappointed people closer to me than Cary Grant. In 1949 i was out of work. I d spent much of the previous year with no income writing a Book about postwar Germany thai did l sell. We had our first child and in was a terrible feeling not to be Able to support my family. I be never forgotten Hal. I m sure my Mother and father would have Given me Money if i d asked them for it but i could t. It seemed As though it would have disappointed them too much. Instead i went to my Uncle Bill and asked it i could borrow j500. He must have been disappointed Hal i had to ask too but if he was he never let on. He gave me the $500 and i made Loo much of a Point of saying and repeating that it was a loan i intended to pay Back every cent within a year. Three years went by. 1 was in belter shape by then and although 1500 was t going to be easy i decided in was time 1 restored Uncle Bill s Faith in me by repay ing he loan. Uncle Bill died thai week. In still hurls me to write Hal. Uncle Bill must have died disappointed even though it is unlikely he would have accepted the $500 if i d offered it to him. Even though in cannot really be compared Cary Grant s death reminded me of Uncle Bill and my unpaid debt to him. I waited too Long again. I wish now that i d done something with the idea Cary Grant gave me on the Telephone two years ago. He must have been just a Little disappointed every time he Waich cd me. Correct Spe my is vital to writing by James a thick manuscript came to my desk the other Day from a gentleman in Wyoming. He had written a novel Laid in ancient Egypt and it was evident from the most cursory glance that he had Laboured like a Tomb builder on his Book. Even so he had garnered nothing but rejection slips from publishers. Would i take a look and Tell i m what was wrong ordinarily 1 Bounce manuscripts Back by return mail not because i Lack feeling for would be writers bul because my working hours Are Loo crowded. This was a slow Day. I took a look. On his first Page three words were misspelled on his second Page two More. Riffling through the rest i spotted 20 or 30 others. He had confused if a and its Over and Over. As gently As possible i responded that until he cleaned up his spelling no editor would look very Long at his work. Many of you want eagerly to become published writers. May t suggest from the Bottom of this aging heart that Correct spelling is an essential part of the writer s Craft this is a threshold requirement. Every thing else All the Little dog Iricks of the Trade comes later. An occasional error in spelling May be forgiven. None of us is a perfect. Pervasive misspelling is a certain route to reprimand or rejection. The mail brings some horrid examples. Time mag Azine in november quoted a jubilant Paul Kirk National democratic chairman the voters have written a Forward to a new Book tonight fiddlesticks the word is foreword not Forward. The 111. Journal carried an obituary on a retired stationery Engineer maybe he designed letterheads the word is stationary. The Suffolk a news Herald in an editorial blasting a proposed ordinance on Yard sales complained Hal in would require each of the permit hold ers to troupe to the commissioner of Revenue s office each week to obtain their permits never mind the confusion of each Holder obtaining their permits. The word in t troupe a group of theatrical performers. The verb is troop to move in Large numbers. A feature writer in the Bellevue Wash journal american had real problems. He interviewed a local food columnist who appears to have become a Cele Brity. He wrote of the objects d Art thai Grace la Stewart he wrote of mull Beny Trees and Mullberry he Dweller upon his subject s literary she believes Hal life is meant to be enjoyed and she Hopes to preach that Gislle to her biggest audience Ever with a television Pargh he wanted objects d Art mulberries and Persona. Heaven and the author alone know what was meant by preaching a Gislle. If he meant Missal he had the wrong word. Gospel maybe who knows another threshold requirement is that we put the elements of 8 sentence m sensible order. The associated press recently reported from Elizabeth n.j., about a Man who was released after spending eight years in prison after being convicted of rape. The Case against Walker was dropped based on the results of a sperm Sample taken from the victim s body which had Sal untested in the Elizabeth police depart ment since the crime 12 years thai body Sal m the police department an awful Long time. The Cleveland Plain dealer reported that common pleas judge Fred j. Guzio sentenced a two time killer to die in the electric chair a second maybe cruet certainly unusual punishment. On station Koin to in Oregon a newscaster provided a delicate insight into teen age behaviour teen agers Don l Lalk about sex with their 1 incest we can do better. Today s crossword by Eugene Sheffer across i wonder 4 Pui Irh inv Nirry la nyquil chllil12 la inv 1 Urr 13 worship 14 Kumia Ibl n Lucirn 40 in on a a Iii word 47 i a Caim a i 48.lii in m Down i Gnu lilith i Inri in stir 4 i routes i 20 Alibi of 21 kqiial22 in huh ii Stylc Rev Law 2.1 kind of in inner mix Lucre 29 ii might la guided30 in pm a Lars 32 use for kill la of i Waken 12-29 Hubert
