To: His Coy Mistress

Grub Street, New York

“No, he is not a true ‘personage.’ But then, he was not meant to be. He is an amateur Teapot—no, the President is—one arm held out, one bent; the handle this, and that the spout; New York here, Washington there. Only this Teapot has sub-metaphorical plumbing, against which we defy anyone to take arms. It is also an economist, our economist. (Oh, you know who we are.) It is also imaginary, all so imaginary.”

Nevertheless, the possibility remains that people in the provinces might like, in fact, in their less peasantish moments, to learn something. So whatever syllable you may be seeking, speak it. Please. It’s rather discourteous to leave us hanging this way, straining to overhear what one side of the mouth is mumbling to the other.

James Scully

Highland Park, N.J.

This Issue

February 20, 1964