Now, The Dumbing Down Of The So-Called Intelligensia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  Now, girls, I never considered Sally Quinn an intellectual world beater.  But I had read some of her pieces in The Washington Post, and the lady could write.  When she made her debut, along with Hughes Rudd, on the CBS Morning New, on August 6, 1973, "TIME Magazine" called it "the year's most ballyhooed fizzle."  I always felt she got a raw deal.  I mean, she was no dimwit, like that Deborah Norville!

                                  And Sally bought, owned, then sold Grey Gardens!  Too bad I could not have bought it, or that she converted it into a museum, which would have served as a shrine for gay men.  The Lourdes of The Hamptons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  I always had respect for Sally--until now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  I love the "By The Book" column "The New York Times" runs, covering noted people and their reading tastes and habits.  I don't need The Times, dears.  They can find out all they want about me, simply by reading these posts.

                                   In this column, Sally was profiled yesterday.  Within a question regarding classics, she stated having recently read "Middlemarch," by George Eliot.  Then came the comment that shook me.

                                  She said, "I liked it.  I did not LOVE it."

                                   Sal, hon, are you crazy?  Do you have any intelligence, at all????????

                                   Any reader who is of serious literary bent, reveres "Middlemarch."  Its narrative is compelling, as are its character studies, and Eliot's prose is among the most gorgeous in the English language.  What is there not to LOVE??????????????????

                                   I was scandalized by this remark!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not to love "Middlemarch"--why it is practically a desecrating remark about all of English literature!!!!!!!!!!!!  The nerve of her to say this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    Sally, I will tell you right now, you may look good for 76, but your mind is going putrid.  If I were you, dear, I would hang it up, now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    Stick to your Grey Gardens profits, and read Beverly Cleary.

                                    That is about as much sophistication, as you can handle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!