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and their six childrenis soon to be enlarged by one. Twenty-year-old. Sharon \(Tina her parents, informs her father and mother that she is pregnant. She refuses to reveal the man responsible and to consider an abortion. The Snapper traces the effects of this revelation and of the eventual arrival of Sharon’s mewling pink snapper on the Curley clan, cludes in a freeze frame portrait of the Curleys that affirms the endurance of the family unit, even when babies lack legal fathers. Initially confused and distraught by news of his oldest child’s pregnancy, Dessie rallies to her support. He defends her against the scurrilous neighborhood gossip, and he scoundrel who took advantage of his daughter in a parking lot when both were soused. George is old enough to be Sharon’s father, as he is in fact the father of one of her best friends, but he is smitten by the younger woman. He leaves his wife and beseeches Sharon to go off with him to London and marry. Disgusted by George and determined to face her fate alone, Sharon refuses. Pace Dan Quayle, she joins the gravid sisterhood of Murphy Brown and Angie Scacciapensieri. Director Stephen Frears \(My Beautiful Launderette, Prick Up Your Ears,The immerses us in the pubs, markets and living rooms of Barrytown and orchestrates his drama with the cadences of the Irish capital’s working class. Unlike Angie, Sharon never visits a museum and certainly never lights out for the Lone Star State. Anchored in the emotional development of zesty Dessie, the solid pater familias whose paternity is enriched by his daughter’s pregnancy,The Snapper neither patronizes nor romanticizes its passionate proles. If the obstetric ward has now become a familiar stage set, it is in part because of a demographic bulge. The screen holds a mirror up to those of prime moviegoing age whose own bellies are swelling. Though neither offers evidence of the contemporary epidemic of babies having babies, both Angie andThe Snapper reflect an increase in births to women without husbands. In Leslie Harris’s Just Another Girl on the IRT, an underclass teenage black carelessly conceives, painfully miscarries, and callously discards the lifeless fetus. By contrast, Angie and Sharon are both old enough to know better, and both can count on emotional support, from their families and their directors, for unwed maternity. Concerned about how to break the news of Sharon’s new condition to her five other children, mother Kay Curley convention: “I think we should tell them it’s better to be married if you’re pregnant.” Yet, without glamorizing single motherhood, neither Angie nor The Snapper brands it illegitimate. No scarlet letter colors either film. If Robert De Niro had been cast as either Angie or Sharon, the zealous actor might have endeavored to induce his own pregnancy in order to represent the condition most effectively. Though neither Davis nor Kellegher has had a child, both rely on prosthetic makeup to simulate convincingly the stages of gestation. Both. Angie andThe Snapper engage their viewers in the inherent drama of human birthits terror, torment, absurdity, and glory. The spectacle of a tiny person’s entrance into the world is almost as compelling as an insolent outlaw’s brutal departure. CLASSIFIEDS ORGANIZATIONS WORK for single-payer National Health Care. Join GRAY PANTHERS, intergenerational advocates against ageism and for progressive policies promoting social and economicjustice. $20 individual, $35 family. 3710 Cedar, TEXAS AIDS NETWORK dedicated to improving HIV/AIDS policy and funding in Texas. Individdal ‘membership $25, P.O. Box 2395, Austin, D\( 78768, LESBIAN/GAY DEMOCRATS of Texas Our Voice in the Party. Membership $15, P.O. Box 190933, Dallas, 75219. SICK OF KILLING? Join the Amnesty International Campiiign Against the WORK FOR OPEN, responsible government in Texas. Join Common Cause/Texas, 1615 Guadalupe, #204, TEXAS TENANTS’ UNION. Membership $18/year, $10/six months, $30 or more/sponsor. Receive handbook on tenants’ rights, newsletter, and more. 5405 East Grand, Dallas, TX 75223. CENTRAL TEXAS CHAPTER of the ACLU invites you to our noon Forum, the last Friday of every month, at Wyatt’s, Hancock Center, Austin. For informaLIBERTARIAN PARTY Liberal on per sonal freedoms, but conservative in eco NATIONAL WRITERS UNION. We give working writers a fighting chance. Collective bargaining. Grievance procedures. Health insurance. Journalists, authors, poets, commercial writers. Forming Austin local. Noelle McAfee, 450-0705; Bill Adler, 443-8961. PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS. Join The Texas Civil Rights Project, 227 Congress #340, Austin, Texas 78701. $20/year. Volunteers also needed. Contact Jim Harrington BOOKLETS PROOF JESUS FICTIONAL! $5 Abelard, Box 5652-C, Kent, WA SERVICES LOW-COST MICROCOMPUTER ASSIS-TANCE. Tape to diskette conversion, statistical analysis, help with setting up special projects, custom programming, needs assessment. Gary Lundquest, Austin, Texas 78703. PHOTOGRAPHY Reality is us. 20 years for the Texas Observer and he will take a few for you. Alan Pogue, 1701 478-8387. MARY NELL MATHIS, CPA, 20 years experience in tax, litigation support, and other analyses. 400 West 15th, #304, YELLOW DREAM MACHINE, computer bulletin board system. Telephone subject matter. PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP in the human ities. Dr. Reed Harp, the harbor, Port HOUSEBUYERSThe Consumer’s Agent. Our allegiance is to the residential buyer. 201 Jefferson Square, GRANTSGrants writing and research services available. Reasonable rates. 462-3870 , MERCHANDISE OINK! IF YOU LOVE RUSH. Bumpersticker that says it all. 2 for $5. Hard Response, P.O. Box 845-T, Seabrook, TX 77586. PUBLICATIONS WEIRD NEWS AFICIONADOS: The wildest, funniest, most bizarre news items are found in “Strange, But True News” Texas Rural Legal Aid, Inc. seeks paralegal for its farm worker office in Plainview. The paralegal will serve as advocate for farm workers with employment, civil rights, housing problems. Must speak, read, write Spanish and English fluently. Demanding job; travel and weekend and evening hours required to serve needs of clients. Duties include interviews, investigations, client representation before administrative agencies. Salary begins at $15,600, with excellent fringe benefits. Mail resume to Texas Rural Legal Aid, P.O. Box 1658, Plainview TX 79072. Resumes accepted until March 31. For more information call Doris Garcia, 1-800-369-0585. Equal opportunity employer. PROGRESSIVE UNION hiring organizers for Health Care Campaign. Long hours, rewarding work. Automobile required. Send resume to SEIU, 1106 Lavaca, Austin, Texas 78701. Women, people of color encouraged. to apply. EEO Employer. MISCELLANEOUS ATTENTION LIBERALS! Respond to Rush Limbaugh. Pick a current issue or just give your perspective on Limbaugh. Selected commentaries run on a national 900 number updated weekly. Call Nowl 1-800-591-1885 CLASSIFIED RATES: Minimum ten words. One time, 50 cents per word; three times, 45 cents per word; six times, 40 cents per word; 32 times, 35 cents per word; 25 times, 30 cents per word. Telephone and box numbers count as two words, abbreviations and zip codes as one. Payment must accompany order for all classified ads. Deadline is three weeks before cover date. Address orders and inquiries to Advertising DireCtor, The Texas Observer, 307 West 7th, -0746. newsletter. Dozens of weird news items per issue. Sample copy $2. Write to: SBTN, 7522 Campbell Road, Suite 113, Room 162, Dallas, Texas 75248. EMPLOYMENT 22 MARCH 11, 1994 wew eew ..s ex. as rewelbee ,e1Kew ‘ e keete teer ie,-,