Year of the Jackpot 13

"FASTER-THAN-LIGHT WEAPON PROMISED"
"TYPHOON DOUBLING BACK ON MANILA"
"MAKBIAGE SOLEMNIZED ON FLOOB OF HUDSONNew York,
13 July, In a specially-constructed diving suit built for two,
Merydith Smithe, caf6 society headline girl, and Prince
Augie Schleswieg of New Vork and the Riviera were united
today by Bishop Dalton in a service televised with the aid
of the Navy's ultra-new"
As the Year of the Jackpot progressed Breen took melan-
choly pleasure in adding to the data which proved that the
curve was sagging as predicted. The undeclared World War
continued its bloody, blundering way at half a dozen spots
around a tortured globe. Breen did not chart it; the head-
lines were there for anyone to read. He concentrated on the
odd facts in the other pages of the papers, facts which,
taken singly, meant nothing, but taken together showed a
disastrous trend.
He listed stock market prices, rainfall, wheat futures, but
it was the "silly season" items which fascinated him. To be
sure, some humans were always doing silly thingsbut at
what point had prime damfoolishness become common-
place? When, for example, had the zombie-like professional
models become accepted ideals of American womanhood?
What were the gradations between National Cancer Week
and National Athlete's Foot Week? On what day had the
American people finally taken leave of horse sense?
Take transvestismmale-and-female dress customs were
arbitrary, but they had seemed to be deeply rooted in the
culture. When did the breakdown start? With Marlene Die-
trich's tailored suits? By the late forties there was no "male"
article of clothing that a woman could not wear in public-
but when had men started to slip over the line? Should he
count the psychological cripples who had made the word
"drag" a byword in Greenwich Village and Hollywood long
before this outbreak? Or were they "wild shots" not belong-
ing on the curve? Did it start with some unknown normal
man attending a masquerade and there discovering that
skirts actually were more comfortable and practical than
trousers? Or had it started with the resurgence of Scottish
nationalism reflected in the wearing of kilts by many
Scottish-Americans?
Ask a lemming to state his motives! The outcome was in
front of him, a news story. Transvestism by draft-dodgers
had at last resulted in a mass arrest in Chicago which was
to have ended in a giant joint trialonly to have the deputy
prosecutor show up in a pinafore and defy the judge to