The Bob Ryan issue made me think of the last graf I've posted here. The grafs below come from the reprint of a Royko column from about 1966 in "Up Against It," a collection of Royko columns that has a 1967 copyright. The column is satirical, but even so, does anyone think this would make it into a paper today? [Note: The last graf I've posted here is not the end of the column. The stuff here is from the first half; none of the rest makes cracks about spouse abuse.]<p>-------------
Mrs. Tooze is nagging again. It's enough to drive a man to drink when she gets going.<p>Mrs. Tooze, of Evanston, is the president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which is an organization of ladies who nag about liquor.<p>It is one thing when a man is nagged by his own wife about drinking. Then he can reason with her until the neighbors call the police and a judge puts him under peace bond.<p>But there is no way to defend yourself against Mrs. Tooze and her fellow WCTU members.<p>You can't treat them like a wife and offer a calm, logical argument, such as: "You open your mouth once more and so help me, I'll..."
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[After five grafs, there's this]:
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Given their way, this would become a nation of sobriety and twitching nerves. They don't seem to realize that while prohibition might diminish such off-shoots of drinking as wife-beating, it could also increase husband-wife homicides.<p>As a man who lived in the flat upstairs used to say, when his wife lectured him:<p>"This bottle is your best friend. It slows down my reflexes so's I can't deliver a fatal judo chop."<p>[ May 10, 2003: Message edited by: Todd J. Behme ]<p>[ May 10, 2003: Message edited by: Todd J. Behme ]</p>
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