------ Affirmed: Good Mental Hygiene is Not a Handicap in the Used Book Business ------

Cheap Priceless Editions proposes to organize a public debate, a sort of open forum circulating city to city, on the proposition stated in the title. We think, given most people's experience with high-profile book people in this business, the premise is most certainly being questioned by ordinary customers.

On the left side of the stage you will find the team of local booksellers arguing in the affirmative, i.e., good mental health in the seller is of no harm to self-survival = the 'Darlings'

On stage right, with microphones though hidden behind a brightly-lit scrim, will be the team (again, all local recruits from among this particular city's more colorful booksellers) arguing that good mental hygiene in a bookseller IS a handicap = the 'Dingbats'

We can just imagine Darlings emphasizing personal grooming, the importance of regularly dusting the straight rows of well organised, rationally grouped books . . . the Dingbats comparing their book operations to Shakespeare & Co. in Paris . . .

After the debate is officially closed and the audience has voted the winner in 'Darlings' versus 'Dingbats' if, and only if, the Dingbats win, will the curtain on the right be withdrawn, and refreshments then served to the audience by the debaters, and the whole gang can party hardy for the rest of the night . . .

But if the 'Darling' booksellers win the audience's vote, Thelma Blunt or some other local librarian will take the stage to explain all about her theme: 'Using the Internet to Access Local Library Services'. As Ms. Blunt speaks, county social service workers, assisted by uniformed officers, will quietly escort 'Dingbat' debaters out the rear exit of the auditorium, and the hall will close by 9:45 pm.

(Hey, if I'm not going to apologise to book dealers for that one, how can you expect me to apologise to all the librarians who read CHEAP PRICELESS EDITIONS?)