The field maneuvers may be different from those in Holmes's day, and the villain is more socially mobile, but since Sir Arthur we ...have not changed the three essential ingredients of the private eye. He must be a bachelor, with the bachelor's harum-scarum availability at all hours (William Powell's marriage to Myrna "Nora" Loy, a wistful concession to the family trade, fooled nobody). He must have an inconspicuous fund of curious knowledge, which in the end is always crucially relevant. He must pity the official guardians of the law. Of course, the twentieth century has grafted some interesting personality changes on the original. Holmes was an eccentric in the Victorian sense, a man with queer hobbies--cocaine was lamentable but pardonably melodramatic--whose social code was essentially that of the ruling classes. He was, in a way, the avenging squire of the underworld ready to administer a horsewhipping to the outcasts who were never privileged by birth to receive it from their fathers. Bogart is a displaced person whose present respectability is uncertain, a classless but well-contained vagabond who is not going to be questioned about where he came from or where he is going. ("I came to Casablanca for the waters." "But there are no waters in Casablanca." "I was misinformed.")LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Since ... six weeks ago, there has been no day in which I have not had letters and visits on the subject of my nomination for the ...Presidency.... I say very little. I have in no instance encouraged any one to work to that end.... I have said the whole talk about me is on the score of availability. Let availability do the work then.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The man of large and conspicuous public service in civil life must be content without the Presidency. Still more, the availability... of a popular man in a doubtful State will secure him the prize in a close contest against the first statesman of the country whose State is safe.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At each stage of development the child needs different resources from the family. During the first year, a variety of experience a...nd the availability of the parents for attachment are primary. During the second and third years, stimulation of language development is critical. During the years prior to school entrance, information that persuades children they are loved becomes critical, and during the school years it is important for children to believe that they can succeed at the tasks they want to master.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Being apart is always experienced by the child, at some level, as the equivalent of being left. There is an unspoken belief, "If y...ou loved me most of all, if I was the most important thing in your life, you would never leave me." The only way to reconcile the child with this unmovable conviction is to provide abundant proof, through emotional availability and responsiveness, that he does not need to be the only important thing in your life in order to be loved well enough and deeply enough.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It was heady stuff, recognizing ourselves as an oppressed class, but the level of discussion was poor. We explained systemic discr...imination, and men looked prettily confused and said: "But, I like women."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »