A modest proposal

[RUTHSINGS at aol.com]

Since davemarc has alluded to a theory I've been tossing around for a few
weeks, I might as well make a go of it.

I would like to suggest the possibility that a certain person on this list
well known for his prolific and acerbic posts might indeed be the author, or
one of several co-authors, of the Wanda Tinasky letters.

What, you well might ask, is my evidence for this theory which is mine?
 Well, it's pretty slight, but allow me to elaborate.

1. I'll be the first to admit that I haven't read many of the Wanda letters.
 In fact, all I saw was the publicity sampler that was circulated about a
year and a half ago; davemarc showed it to me. Still, I recall that a number
of the letters were filled with acid-toned literary allusions that remind me
very much of Steely's posts and not at all of TRP's first-person writings
(Slow Learner, liner notes, intro to Been Down So Long).  TRP is actually
quite humble and self-deprecating in his non-fiction.  Why, he's downright
civil.

2. His good friend Alexander Cockburn is connected with the Anderson Valley
Advertiser, as well as its Tinaksy spin-off.

3. In a recent post, Steely quoted Wanda quoting Voltaire's "Ecrasez
l'infame!" and failed to even hint at questionning the authenticity of the
letters as TRP's.  Would someone as skeptical as Steely normally accept TRP's
authorship so readily?

4. Steely would enjoy nothing more than fooling people, especially those whom
he holds in contempt. And whom does he hold in more contempt than academics
and members of the mainstream press, who were the most likely audience for
the Tinasky caper?

5. Tinasky is an anagram for NY sitka, as well as KY saint.  Steely's last
name, as we have learned from a previous post, is Saint Clair.  Don't know of
any connections to these two particular states offhand, but I wanted to have
my shot at Nabokovian wordplay.

Well, there you have it.  But what do I know?  I'm just another lunkhead on
aol.  Plus I spent two and a half hours rehearsing the Fourth Symphony by
that bland and bourgeois Brahms the other night.  Yes, I'm an amateur
musician, and we all know what G. B. Shaw said about us.  BTW, shaggy-headed
Johannes once remarked that if there were anyone in the room whom he had
failed to offend, he was truly sorry.  Does that remind you of anyone?

Discuss amongst yourselves at the D.C. gathering.