LOOKS QUIET HERE TOO. MARRINER CANCELED P C BUT ELLS MIGHT HAVE
SOMETHING AT THE BRIEFING.
Secretary of State Rupert Marriner usually has a press conference on
Tuesday, but today he was getting ready for one of his trips. Ells is
George Ellsworth, the State Department spokesman.
II, I told Ian, which is teletype shorthand for aye-aye, or OK.
Having read everything on our file, I pulled over the clipboard with
the overseas news. This comes in from WW's London bureau on teletypes
at the other side of the room. Our desk doesn't have anything to do
with that operation except to react to any major story affecting the
United States or the United Nations. The UN machine at my other elbow
was still quiet. Normally nothing happens there till after 10.
There wasn't much overseas news, either, despite the fact that London
is five hours ahead of New York time.
I went through the papers to see if there was anything Charlie Price
had passed up which was worth stealing or following up. _Times_,
_Trib_, _News_, _Mirror_. Nothing. _Wall Street Journal._ Damn good
reading, as usual, but nothing in it for us. _Journal of Commerce._
Nope. _Morning Telegraph_, the voice of the turf. No overseas angles to
the day's quota of horsey news. _Variety_ wouldn't be out till tomorrow
and the advance copies of _Time_ and _Newsweek_ would come in later
in the morning, about the same time as the first afternoon papers. It
looked like one of those days.
The domestic wire service we subscribe to was also in the doldrums. Its
ticker had been silent for an hour except for the occasional CLR it
sent to show it wasn't dead.
The Canadian Press machine was similarly moribund. I made a tour of the
Western Union and cable-company machines at the sides of the news room
to see if our national stringers or South American correspondents had
produced anything the copy boy might have overlooked. Nothing.
"Any coffee?" I said to the boy.
"Heavy on the milk," he acknowledged.
"Thanks."
WW keeps a hot plate in one corner. There's also a kettle, a giant
economy size jar of instant coffee, containers of milk from the Times
Cafeteria upstairs, a five-pound sack of sugar and a dozen or so heavy
army-surplus cups. We take our coffee breaks at the desk.
John Hyatt came in about 9:30. He's WW's general news manager.
"Nothing doing at all, John," I said.
"Well," he said, "the situation can't always be fraught." He went into
his office off the news room.
Nancy Corelli put down the _News_ and picked up the _Mirror_. The belt
went round and round.
"I'm glad they don't pay us by the word," she said.
"Calm before the storm," I said. "You wait."
"I'm waiting." She turned to Walter Winchell.
I brought the portable radio out of the corner and plugged it in at the
desk. Sometimes on a dull day NBC or CBS will dredge up an exclusive of
its own which evokes comment--and a few hundred words of copy--from the
White House or the Pentagon.
I heard the tail-end of _Stardust_ on the independent station the radio
had been tuned to; then, at 10 A.M., switched to NBC, turning down the
volume till it had got the horrible electronic gongs with which it
heralds its on-the-hour news out of its system.
"... aftermath of a freak tornado in Kansas, and then a special report
from Washington on a possible harbinger of the interplanetary age. But
first--this message for Anacin...."
I downed the volume again. The interplanetary item might be something,
but I wasn't too hopeful. An NBC man could have got the editor of
_Missiles and Rockets Magazine_ to lift the tarp a bit on a development
that was common knowledge in the trade but which Defense was keeping
under a secret wrap.
"... and now the news ... twister ... no casualties reported....
We switch now to Washington ... early this morning ... Burning
Tree Country Club's 16th green ... halo of blue flame ... alien
creatures ... completely unsubstantiated but no one has offered
an alternate explanation...."
Well! I scribbled a few notes, then got on to our own Washington people
on the printer:
IM. NBC RADIO SAYS SPACESHIP MAYBE LANDED BURNING TREE. PEOPLE FROM
OTHER PLANET GOT OUT DISAPPEARED AND SECURITY CORDON THROWN AROUND
SHIP. SOUNDS FANTASTIC BUT WHO KNOWS. UNTOUCHING PENDING YOUR CHECK. SK
Ian teletyped back: