Jeat Jet? (Salinger, 1953); Saddamite; OT: AIDS in Africa

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

JEAT JET?

   This citation was mentioned on Google Groups, and it checks out.  I'll
have to go and check the original NEW YORKER story for the original date
(1948-1951?).
   From NINE STORIES by J.D. Salinger (Boston: Little, Brown and Company,
April 1953, paperback edition January 2001), "Just Before the War with the
Eskimos," pg. 67:

   "Jeat jet?" he asked.
   "What?"
   "Jeat lunch yet?"
   Ginnie shook her head.  "I'll eat when I get home," she said.

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SADDAMITE

   I'm increasingly seeing "Saddamite," or the Saddam Hussein spin on the
word "sodomite."
   "Saddamite" was used by some to describe Scott Ritter, the weapons
inspector (and to some, Saddam apologist) who allegedly tried to have sexual
relations with an underaged female.
   "Saddamite" was used by Andrew Sullivan today on his blog.
   "Saddamite" will probably go the way of "Bork," but it's certainly been
receiving a lot of play this month.

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OT: AIDS IN AFRICA (OR, WHY NO HEALTH INFORMATION IN HOTELS?)

   President Bush addressed African AIDS in his recent State of the Union
speech.  I recently did the same during my African trip, but my words
couldn't be published, I guess.  My letter to the FINANCIAL TIMES about the
2012 Olympics corrected a published error, but was much less important.
   I arrived about just before midnight in Kenya's Nairobi Hilton.  The first
person to greet me was a prostitute.
   I'd heard that AIDS was a plague in Africa, so I looked about my hotel
room for AIDS information to read.  There was no AIDS information to read.
There was, of course, a Gideon New Testament.
   A few days later, I stayed in several lodges in remote areas.  There were
mosquito nets over the beds.  I looked around the room for information about
mosquito bites and malaria.  There was no health information whatsoever.
There was, again, a Gideon New Testament.
   My tour ended in Zanzibar.   We had a free day, and then met up with the
tour guide for dinner.  The local tour guide mentioned that the night market
had been closed because of a recent cholera epidemic.  The hotel staff, which
knew about the local cholera outbreak, had told me nothing when I arrived
that morning.
   This was all horrendous.  In the first case, where the Hilton hotel staff
surely gets money from the prostitutes, it's probably something more than
horrendous.  All this has occurred in my other travels, also.
   I go to Traveler's Medical Advisory, on 57th Street and Madison.  I went
there this week (for my next trip), and I told the doctor there.  She wasn't
surprised, but offered lame reasons.  "Hotels don't care," she said.  "Most
people don't get really sick until they get back home."
   The GUARDIAN is somewhat of an international newspaper, and its Notes &
Queries has my responses on "hot dog" and "Big Apple."  I wrote to the
GUARDIAN to be a, well, guardian.  Why is there no World Health Organization
pamphlet or bulletin board in any hotel, anywhere?  Exactly what kind of
plague must occur before they'll tell you anything?  The Gideons are in
hotels; what about the WHO?
   A WHO health pamphlet could give information and even sell ads for local
health providers, such as Flying Doctors.  A simple health pamphlet could
save lives AND make money.
   The GUARDIAN never published the letter.
   I sent the letter to THE NEW YORK TIMES, which never published it, either.
   I'm glad the President Bush is addressing AIDS in Africa.  But the New
York Times and the Guardian (both of which have run many AIDS stories) don't
care, and the Hilton hotel chain will gladly profit from your demise!