F.E.D.S.

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

Those of you who don't see the NYTimes regularly will not have seen
the very long article (with a very large color photo) on p. 1 of the
Metro Section Monday, on a new quarterly journal, F. E. D. S.:
Finally Every Dimension of the Streets.  The journal is devoted to
crime in New York, and other topics of interest on the streets, with
interviews with convicted gangsters.  It seems that most subscribers
are convicts, though its sold on newsstands, too.  It's widely read
on Riker's Island, the city's jail.

We folks are interested because the stories are "all spewed out in
raw slang."  the editor, interviewing a dope-dealer and murderer,
"slips into prison jargon."  The perp endorses the journal, saying "I
talk to them because they talk the language of the street."
Evidently a rich lexicographical source, in short.

Unfortunately, among the news the Times considered unfit to print
was the editor's address or phone number, and the cost of a
subscription.  I'm on the case.  I got the phone number from the
author of the article.  The editorial office is an old car.  The
editor has a cell phone, with voice mail, and uses an unspecified
post office box.  I have a feeling that getting invoices for library
subscriptions is going to be a problem.  A problem that won't arise
unless he returns my phone calls.  I hope that tracking this doesn't
turn into the year-long crusade that the First New Haven Slang
Dictionary has been.  I thought I had run that one to earth last
month, but no.  It's at bay, but not yet taken.

Some of my wife's students may be in Rikers; perhaps I can get a copy
that way.

Those of you who want to read the article through the Times on the
web can search for the name Antoine Clark, the editor.

GAT