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Message-ID: <1fi02d5.1lu6hff1qhqiedN%spog@jwgh.org> Subject: A story from my used book store days, with kook content. From: "Jacob W. Haller" <spog at jwgh.org> Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002 19:11:32 -0400
Back in the day, when I was broke and working part-time at a used bookstore, one of the regulars at the bookstore came in and asked me if we had anything by Wilhelm Reich.
The name didn't ring a bell, so I asked what kind of stuff he wrote. He gave some kind of vague response, based on which I looked in the science section of the bookstore and one or two other sections, but no go.
I asked him for more information, and he said that Reich had developed the theory of orgone.
Immediately I remembered all about Reich from Martin Gardner's "Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science", which I head read the previous week, and which has a big section on Reich and his Orgone Theory.
My reaction was immediate and instictive. I started to blurt out, "OOOOH! You mean the KOOK!" But I managed to suppress my natural urges and instead said, "OOOOH! ... Let me look one other place."
I then proceeded to the occult section, but there wasn't any Reich there either, which wasn't too surprising since the FDA burned all his stuff in the late 50s.
So the guy went away with his Wilhelm Reich needs unfulfilled, but at least I didn't insult him to his face.
-jwgh
--
The trouble is that things *never* get better, they just stay the same,
only more so.
- (Terry Pratchett, Eric)