From: Jerrydutch@aol.com
When the New Yorker
was founded in the Twenties their motto was "Not for the little
old lady in Dubuque." Yet the magazine was founded by midwesterners
and in its prudish language etc that's exactly who it was for. The irony
is that I went out of my way about 10 years ago to visit Dubuque Iowa
(on the Mississippi) and it's ten times as soulful as the New Yorker-
a still-born St.Louis. A would be river port that foundered and now
has all the beauty of failure and wreckage- I loved it- (But I grew
up in the Bronx so I'm prejudiced.) I was thinking something might be
done with this- a search for "the little old lady from Dubuque"
that the NYER was not written for? I heard a few years ago that the
denizens of the town were trying to find a way (through the arts?) to
bring tourists back to their town. I hope they haven't torn down all
the old buildings. The town was haunted- seemed to be depopulated- in
a time warp- Beautiful- a real little city aborted-
Jerry Rosen