In early 1961, in New York City, a six-pack of Pepsi-Cola cost 49¢ plus 12¢ for the deposit on the bottles. When you returned the bottles to the store, you got your deposit back. Who remembers collecting “pop” bottles as a kid? Recently–in 1961–Pepsi decided to give consumers a choice, now offering a no deposit bottle. A six-pack will cost more–67¢– but people won’t have to go to the trouble of returning the bottles. The guy that writes the Advertising column, does the math.
The odd thing is Pepsi-Cola gives you your choice, and if you look a little closely you will notice that by buying the deposit bottles and throwing them away, you will save six cents on a six-pack. It may seem morally indefensible to throw away bottles that are worth twelve cents at the corner store, but we must face the fact that you save money that way, and to be frugal is the housewife’s morality.
pg. 118
Different times!
THE UGLY AMERICA by Peter Blake. Its skies are still spacious, its purple mountains still majestic–but the fruited plain is becoming an eyesore from sea to shining sea.
ABOUT-FACE IN POLALD by Dore Ashton. In a youthful rebellion against stodgy formulas, Polish art has no become as adventurous as any in the world.
EVENINGS AT THE BRIDGE by Terence O’Donnell.Beginning at the Colored Mountain in the Bakhtiari ranges of western Persia, the river Zayandeh Rud flows eastward beneath a score of humpbacked bridges…. But it is at the oasis and city called Isfahan … one of the most remarkable bridges in the world, the Khaju.
THE MAN WHO NEVER STOPPED PLAYING by David Cecil. Sir Max Beerbahm–English caricaturist, essayist, novelist, and wit–and his library.
MONUMENTS FOR OUR TIMES by Marshall B. Davidson. Their makers face a challenge: since old forms do not reflect life today, to create new ones that will. (Me: Some remarkably hideous buildings.)
A FLOURISH OF STRUMPETS. A gallery of talented ladies of the theater who have been impersonating, if not outright doxies, at least wanton creatures.
THE MOVIES MAKE HAY WITH THE CLASSIC WORLD by Peter Green
THE ROMANTIC REVOLT by Harold Nicolson. Young rebels turned against Europe’s Old Order to fight its restraints and artifice in the cause of boundless self-expression and reform. Although their passions led many to an extreme, their legacies have served to enlarge the individual spirit of the Western world.
AN INTERVIEW WITH EUGENE IONESCO by Rosette Lamont. Owing something to Kafka but more to Marx (the Brothers, not Karl), his plays are startling, often hilarious, and always bewildering. Is he talking nonsense or offering a meaningful comment on life?
ON STAGE: ANNE MEACHAM, MILES DAVIS by Gilbert Millstein
CAMELOT by William K. Zinsser. Though two wizards brought it to Broadway, the magic of it lies all in visual splendor.
MOVIES: SAMURAI, WITH SWORD, WON’T TRAVEL by Jean Stafford. Critique of The Magnificent Seven. Me: The review isn’t entirely uncomplimentary but thinks the film has “lost the essence” of Seven Samurai. To make matters worse, he likes Horst Buchholz. ReallY?
BOOKS: OUR MAN IN PURGATORY by Gilbert Highet. Critique of Grahma Green’s A Burn’t Out-Case.
ADVERTISING: NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN by Stephen White. Introduction of the non-deposit bottle by Pepsi-Cola.
ESCOFFIER: GOD OF THE GASTRONOMES by Bernard Frizell. Georges Auguste Escoffier, “the king of chefs and chef of kings.”
