William Gaddis - J R

— from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and…

— I think the school phone is ringing there Senator, could you reach the…

— Oh yes. Yes hello…?

— Yes this is Mister Whi… what? Yes no not at the bank right now no, no I… No no yes it is the bank telephone line yes but… yes I have another call that, just a minute…

— He says it is urgent, he says to tell you the Constitution is two hundred and four feet long.

— Two… just a minute. What?

— Hundred and four. He says do you want the beam too? Forty-four feet eight…

— No no no just, hello? Yes just hold on a minute, let me…

— Built of live oak and red cedar…

— No just hang up yes, tell him never mind, thank no no not you, hello? Yes hello? Yes… yes well of course we saw it in the paper too but digging up a minor building variance he got three or four years ago just to make the point that he was represented before the town board by Gangan… and Peretti yes, his attorneys, yes they just seem to have dug it up in an attempt to… Yes but of course the variance itself is so minor that… yes a matter of eight inches one way or the other can’t be that… what? Oh. Oh yes no I didn’t quite get your ahm… Yes I never heard that one, it’s quite funny yes… Yes well as a matter of fact Mister ahm, Assemblyman Pecci happens to be right here, I think he… Pecci, yes, his law form, his former law firm that is to say represents the builder who… yes I think he wants to say something…

— crimes, except in cases of…

— Hello? You’re calling about this smear story in the paper look, these lies they print to smear me because they try to smear somebody higher up, you understand what I mean? This little variance they say the builder saved six hundred dollars every house, that’s a lie. Twelve hundred houses they say, that’s a lie, they print them to smear me because they try to… what? No, ask Whiteback the correct figures, Mister Whiteback. Here.

— them aid and comfort. No…

— Hello yes? Yes I just wanted to say that… what? Oh those yes, yes those figures are right here somewhere I just, Dan could you look under those ahm… Yes no but of course in terms of the ongoing situation down to the bank the inferences of a story like this one are ahm… Yes the suggestion of ahm, of an overabundance of bad home improvement loans and mortgage risks calculated to undermine confidence in terms of the ahm, investment confidence on the part of investors that is to say which is hardly fair to… and yes well in the case of home mortgages like these which are insured by County Land and Title there should be no… no yes I know the premiums are high but of course the element of ahm… Yes no I wasn’t going to say risk of course but County Land and here, here are these figures and apparently the builder saved only ahm, yes only saved five hundred and seventy-two dollars on each of one thousand one ahm, eleven hundred thirty-six houses that ahm, homes that is to say that ahm… Yes well no, no I would have called you of course if you… yes well no we wouldn’t want anything like that to… no, no, yes thank you for calling, yes…

— Who’s that?

— Yes well that was ahm, that was Mister Fedders Senator he just ahm, he just needed reassurance on this home mortgage situation because of course if anything suddenly precipitated a ahm, touched off a strike that is to say and forced the union to raise a strike fund by liquidating its ahm, trying to retire its home mortgage investments right after this ahm, this smear, this smear to use your phrase about this minor stud variance of course the ongoing situation down to the bank could become quite ahm, Dan, I think Dan was going to look into this, Dan? did you get a chance to feel out your ahm, feel things out?

— Yes by tapping, I couldn’t really feel anything but by tapping along the baseboard I could hear where the studs were and then I measured between them last night, they were twenty-four inches apart but maybe the…

— Yes well of course your house is ahm, is your home that is to say but your wife ahm, I think you were going to feel her out in terms of her position activationwise in the ongoing strike situation and the ahm, with the idea that she might be a little less active activationwise that is to say if she had the opportunity to expand her, to use her ahm, utilize her talents in more constructive school programs in terms of her own interests that is to say, her ahm, yes I think you mentioned B’hai and some artistic Kashmiri ahm, India I think that is, yes, things they do in…

— Well she, she she has been working on that yes but she, but I thought Mister Vogel was going to…

— Yes well of course Coach Vogel is ahm, we don’t want to improach on his preserve even though I understand she just took a group of youngsters to a basketball game but of course if she enjoys basketball I’m sure that Coach wouldn’t ahm, that no one would object to her taking over as curriculum specialist and implementing the program to ahm, to help actualize the cultural aspects of the arts in depth for our, if we can find a place for our Spring Arts Festival in our ahm…

— against domestic violence. Article five…

— Yes well no he what did he say? Twenty-five…?

— Meant to ask you about that Senator, when you start looking around for a site to put up this Cultural Center of yours there’s a nice location out there past the Dunkin Donuts, right there on the border with District thirteen. Nothing but some scrub pine and a couple of new little ranch houses would have to go and we had some blockbusting out there so the acreage ought to come cheap if you can get your condemnation proceedings…

— What do we want that, we already got condemnation proceedings, you don’t read the legal notices? right in the paper? Plenty of parking, they just blacktopped it up there right across the street for the new shopping center fourteen acres, Sundays the Catholic church, nights the Cultural Center parks, plenty of people you need plenty of parking.

— Yes well of course I didn’t mean a place to ahm, I meant a place in the budget that is to say without a continuing grant from the State Arts Committee the Festival can hardly ahm, when the Committee learns that our composer in residence is no longer in ahm, in residence, the grant that’s been helping with our little Ring presentation would ahm, could…

— Look Whiteback what do you want to rip your knickers on him again for. If nobody can find him there goes their excuse for a strike, am I right?

— Yes well the pressures to fire anyone of course are ahm, of course if someone as active activationwise as Dan’s wife here was busy with ahm, Dan?

— Yes but I think she thinks Mrs, Mister Pecci’s wife is interested in doing it.

— Doing it?

— Yes well of course I believe Janice Pecci was in the original production Senator? of this Rhinegold that is to say this Ring, yes, but it probably doesn’t really matter exactly whose Ring we see because there can’t be that much difference, we’ve all seen Miss Flesch’s that is to say and if Dan’s wife wanted to do it for us I thought ahm, I thought that was probably why you stopped in, Dan?

— No it was, I wanted to ask about the equipment, all the teaching equipment that I…

— Yes well those were major budget items of course and in terms of ahm, of resubmitting the budget to the voters some of them may have to ahm, that paper the Citizens Union people sent around in an effort to embarrass the ahm, we just had it here somewhere and I think some of your equipment is ahm, your talking typewriter yes I think they found thirty-five thousand dollars for the Edsel Responsive Environment a little, what did he say there?