Gross Clinic post-mortem
Richard Carreño really nails the scammy Jefferson/Christie's Gross Clinic caper (see “The auctioneer’s song”). But I also deplore the cracker-baiting of Carreño’s sneering at Alice Walton. Noah's Ark, indeed. Were the millions of Mellon, Rockefeller, or Getty amassed more cleanly than Sam Walton's? Have no Philly eggheads ever visited Bentonville?
In my Appalachian lit phase, I spent weeks in Arkansas and its adjacent states. Except for their birthright racism, I found those locals more attractive humans than most Ivy snobs. And the presumption that Ozarkies are contemptible slobs ignores the Southern literary renaissance as well as great architects like Sam Mockbee and E. Fay Jones.
One sad side story of the Gross affair is the stupid snobbery of the Philly clerisy. Albert Barnes had them down straight. And they haven't improved much since.
Patrick D. Hazard
Weimar, Germany
January 5, 2007