SLPAD - 73

[Michael Bailey]

I think Baxter’s wild swing hitting Picnic is meant to be an indication of
his slightly out-of-control tendencies, rather than any deliberate
malicious intent towards Picnic.

After all, Baxter helps Levine carry Picnic back to the truck.

True, Levine enlists him (before taking a polite leave from Little
Buttercup) rather than Baxter solicitously volunteering. But there’s no
demurral, so it seems likely that, in light of his willingness to
un-embrace the delightful prospect of a bar fight, Baxter isn’t cherishing
hostility for Picnic - or, whatever hostility he’s cherishing is
momentarily satisfied.

In fact, since it was Picnic who broached the up-putting of dukes by
referring it to Levine, Baxter (however wittingly, or not so, is left as a
matter for speculation, textually) by knocking Picnic out, may have quelled
an incident a-brewing, and spared Levine a gnarly decision…


“The next morning Levine was awake at seven. He wandered around the campus
for a while
               looking for a cup of coffee and after breakfast came to one
of those spur-of-the-moment
               decisions which it is always fun to wonder about afterward.
“Hey Rizzo,” he said,
               shaking the sergeant. “Anybody comes looking for me, the
general or the secretary
               of the army, tell them I’m busy, okay?” Rizzo muttered
something which might have
               been obscene and went back to sleep.

             Levine hitched a ride down to the pier…”



A grammar stickler would insist on “one of those spur-of-the-moment
decisions about which it is always fun to wonder afterward.”

Does anyone ever consistently remember to do that?


Slack is available from somnolent Rizzo.
Oo - reminds me of Subgenius…
Levine has beaucoup slack & seemingly always knows how to find more.

Yet where does he choose to utilize this slack?