Read Online Overdrive by William F. Buckley Jr. - Free Book Online Page A

orders drinks and he says, 'That guy's good,!' So he signals to the headwaiter to come over, and he says to the headwaiter, 'What's the piano player's name?' And the waiter says, 'Mussolini.' And Al says, 'What did you say?! And the waiter says, 'Mussolini. Romano Mussolini.' Al turns white, and says, 'Any ... relation?' And the waiter says, 'Yes. Son,' and off he goes. And so Al looks at me as if he was seeing a ghost, and orders another drink. Well, two or three drinks later, there's just the two of us, and old Romano playing away, all the songs requested by Al. And by now we're seated right up against the piano. Al orders a last drink. And suddenly he turns to the piano player and says, 'Romano, you know something? That was a hell of a thing they did to your father!' " Archie was never funnier.
    Norman Lear says a lot of things, and encloses some material, but concretely tells me I was wrong in saying that he, Lear, had produced a great extravaganza on behalf of Jerry Brown during the 1980 primary campaigns. His efforts had been in behalf of John Anderson. 1 answer: "Dear Mr. Lear. That was a silly mistake I made, and I apologize for it. I remembered the large spectacular in favor of Jerry Brown and it was only after receiving your letter that I researched my memory to find it was Mr. Coppola who put it together, not you. Thanks for the enclosures. I will let you know when I feel threatened. Cordially."
    My classmate McKinney Russell—we had come to know each other better in Moscow in 1971—writes to me pleasantly from Rio. He had to give cover in the embassy to Henry Kissinger for three hours, until a hostile crowd dispersed. In the course of the affair he met my son Christopher, who is traveling with Vice-President Bush as speechwriter. In Moscow, you are not allowed to designate anyone on your staff as the "Cultural" Affairs officer (sometime, somebody in the Kremlin decided that any such designation implied that there was less than sufficient culture already in the Soviet Union), so McKinney was called something else, though that was the job he executed. His special genius is in language. A few years ago he returned from a three-week vacation in Sweden speaking the language fluently. In Rio, he is probably moonlighting by teaching Portuguese.
    A correspondent reacts to the column in which I register dismay that the documentary on the North American operations of the KGB is not being aired. What happened was that two young Canadian producers became interested in the KGB and were astonished to learn that no treatment of the KGB's operations had ever been aired, so they set out to do one, using Canadian capital together with money put up by ABC for an option to air it in America. But after the three-hour documentary was completed, ABC backed down—not giving a reason. The Canadian people asked me, through Bill Rusher, if I'd have a look;
    and so, mounting the cassette, one night I did so: and saw some of the meatiest spy stuff I'd ever seen on a screen, including reminiscences from one or two people who had worked with Alger Hiss within the Communist Party-pretty sensational fare. Also, a great deal about activities of the KGB in Hollywood.
    On impulse, I made a copy and a few days later when Ronald Reagan (Jr.) and his wife were staying with us, whence they were heading for Camp David, I pressed the cassette in his hand and said his father ought to see it. A few days later, El Presidente called to say how much he had been impressed by what he had seen. In the course of discussing it, it transpired that he had seen only the first hour, missing entirely the section on Hollywood, among others. I couldn't understand why the tape had been defective, but discovered the following weekend, on looking at it again, that the delay between the first and succeeding segments is about two minutes, giving the viewer the impression he has seen it all.
    I don't know whether Mr. Reagan ever got to see the balance, but it seems plain that