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Printers Stationers Mailers Typesetters High Speed Web Offset Publication Press Counseling Designing . Copy Writing Editing Trade Computer Sales and Services . Complete Computer Data Processing Services 1,0.IED PR IN Thy *FUTURA 70 TRADES UNIONCOUNCIL 0 PRESS AUSTIN TEXAS ILI LURIA 512/442-7836 1714 South Congress P.O. Box 3485 Austin, Texas 78764 CHEESECAKE ON THE RIVERWALK Serving sandwiches to seafood, from 11:30 until 11:30 every day of the week; Open till midnight in the Metro Center, San Antonio, Texas THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21 ing. Thus, zip, zip, zip, bills pass in the final days of a session like cars zipping down a freeway. But every now and then, zip, zip, zap. Senator Ed Howard of Texarkana may explain to his constituents, and even to victims of unjust breaking, entering, and surveillance, that he just didn’t realize that the Governor’s bill, which he sponsored in the Senate and passed, had that gaping loophole in its “protections.” But he will not be able to explain this to history. Appreciations II We spend too little time, we motley scouts of the maybe future, appreciating each other. Phony appreciations, ulterior appreciations, saccharin appreciations abound and betray themselves at once, usually by their excess. Out here on the often lonely plain, hailing each other from time to time across hazy distances, we should take the time to cross over and embrace. Now, take Mike Ethridge of Houston. I stop to salute him only because Barney Rapoport thought he should be appreciated. Most of the time people chuckle a little when they see Mike . . . “Oh, there’s Mike!” “Same old Mike.” Same old Mike, because like as not he’s there at the state convention, or the ragtaggle rally of the liberal Democrats, or the turnout to hear Ralph, or Sissy, or Bob, or whoever with a sign. Not just any sign: a sign he has made himself, knowing he would carry it himself. Mike’s signs! They’re as much a part of the Texas progressive movement of the mid-twentieth century as Ralph Yarborough’s orations or Dave Shapiro’s long memory or Molly Ivins’ howlers. “Absolutely,” says a liberal friend of mine, “without those signs appearing it’s not a Democratic convention. People say `When’s Mike coming?’ Where’s Mike?’ It’s part of our experience of a convention.” I can’t remember even one of those slogans neither can my friend. Mike makes them up about the issues and the candidates and the officeholders. Often he decorates the slogans with pictures of donkeys or elephants. You look at the sign of the day and laugh, and watch Mike moving through the people, sign held high in one hand, handing out cards with the other, and sure enough, this is Texas, and these are the liberals. His latest enthusiasm is a certain candidate he has in mind for high public office. He and his wife are ready to plunk down $1,000 to help get the thing going, then they’ll contribute $100 a month to keep it going. That’s the kind of people. That’s the kind of people. R.D.