Our daily paper when I was growing up in the sixties would publish on alternate Saturdays an entire page of opinion pieces, reviews, comics, etc., by teenagers. While I can’t remember the exact topic of my piece – the unfortunate phrase “the rising tide of communism” for some reason sticks in my mind – I do remember my pride of authorship. For maybe the first time ever, I felt avenged on the adults who had undervalued me. I proudly showed the clipping, with my name and age, 13, in boldface at the bottom, to Mr. Eakely, my eighth-grade English teacher. His reaction was immediate. “What’s that?” he said, pointing at the number. “Your IQ?”
INSTANT NOODLES 