All the Facts You Need
dr george pollard

Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. .... Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir! .... In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!

... from "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens (1854)

Dickens records life among the 19^th century working class. Their lives were short, stark and brutal. Among the elite, life was longer, nuanced and genteel. Phantasies masked the drudgery of work, then as now. Look busy. A busy person is a good. A busy person is patriotic. Keep busy until you die. A balanced life is suspect. If you're not busy, you're a miscreant. Dickens wondered about life and work in his day. The larger question is why we ponder the same issues, if not the same details.


"Hard Times" is an aptly titled Dickens novel. It's hyperbolic, if only by half. In the 19^th century, few women saw their 35^th birthday, few men, their 45^th. Infant mortality was 20 fold what it is today; one in three children lived fewer than ten years.

Life was short, stark and brutal in working families. Among the political, business and upper social class, the elite who live on the hill, life was good. Their lifestyle and expectancy differed only slightly from today.

Factories exploited workers, forced into wage slavery to survive. "As soon as you're born, they make you feel small." Saving two pence wasn't likely for a factory worker. His or her hope was to live another day. "By giving you no time, instead of it all," life on the edge was brief.

Need breeds innovation. Extreme poverty and exploitation inspired novel ways to earn money. Innovators, who worked on their own, had some control of their lives, which factory workers did not. In a sense, innovators were autonomous.

The "wader" was an innovative job. Waders roamed the sewers of London, chest high in raw, septic sewage. Waders searched for anything they could tidy up and sell in the streets. Life was stark.

A lucky wader might come on a "stiff uns," a body floating through the sewers on its way to the Thames, which supplied much of the water for London. A "stiff uns" could fetch twenty guineas. In 1830, a silk weaver was a top job that paid 16 guineas a year. One "stiff uns" set up a wader for a year or more.

Burking, supplying bodies for medical research, was a regular and innovative, if ghoulish, line of work in the 19^th century. Demand for cadavers was high, but the supply was unsure. A "stiff uns" had a ready market.

In 1827, a medical student discovered his fiance, on a table, in anatomy class. An Edinburgh court convicted William Burke and William Hare of her murder, and 15 others. Intoxication and suffocation was the Burke and Hare method. It was easy and sure, if slow.

This ghoulish work became known as burking, a homage to the personable William Burke. Also known as, "resurrection men," who dug up the recently buried, burkers were a wily lot. High rewards made them eager to help supply meet demand. A good life was only a "stiff un" or two away. Times were brutal.

There's an ironic slant to most state of affairs. After 1650, England became the most tolerant society in Europe. A free press, parliament and scores of reforms fell into place. Fairness, common sense and good manners were a way of life, writes Ian Burman. The English had liberal views, good humour and lived by law.

Then, there were poorhouses, which were often, as today, populated by working poor. Workers toiled, dawn to dusk, from age six to an early death before age 40. Labour laws didn't exist. Crowding, disease and addiction were widespread. Liberal reform was for some, the folks on the hill, and not all.

There's an eleventh commandment. It reflects social class relations. 'Stomp the weak or disadvantaged,' it goes, 'for they know not how to defend themselves.' Worker abuse lasted, "Till the pain is so big, you feel nothing at all."


Phantasies masked the drudgery of work. "There's room at the top, they are telling you still." Work hard, consume and don't ask what or why and especially who. This is how to act, these are the facts you need to know, "If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

Act as a child. Do what your elders, the folks on the hill, tell you and copy what they pretend to do. It's best to be invisible, hard working and not too smart or too dumb. They "hate you if you're clever and ... despise a fool."

A strong back is better than a strong mind. Despise the strong of mind and ridicule the dumb, to paraphrase John Lennon. There's no winning. Go to school, they say; learn to use your mind, but leave it at home when you go to work.

Above all, be busy. "An idle mind is the playground of the devil," they say. The "busy ethic" is a phantasy contrived by industry, and approved by religion. The point is to distract you, keep you from thinking.

If you're not working, overeating or not getting enough sleep, be busy buying the newest products. It doesn't matter if you need to use these products. The act of buying is what counts. It's your duty to help keep the circulation of goods and services going. The faster goods and services circulate the better; the rate can never be too fast.

A moment of contemplation may lead to questions. No answers may lead to unrest. Answers may lead to conclusions. Conclusions will lead to more questions. Eventually, questions and conclusions may lead to resistance or, worse yet, rebellion. The folks on the hill want to keep their good life going, so they distraction you from thinking. Buy, don't think; that nips the problem in the bud.

Busy is strongly associated with good. Inactivity, contemplation and quiet time are suspect. Busy is a basic, heavily underlined value. Learn while you sleep claims the seller of self-help CDs. In a coma, Tony Soprano was busying living a straight life. City parks, once a place to spend lazy, hazy days, are now beehives of activity.

Cultures and societies that prefer to balance busy and non-busy are unproductive; that is, un-American. These societies are candidates, some believe, for economic colonization. These people want to be busy, working and spending. Let's invade and make them busy. That way, they won't notice when we steal their natural resources.

Children have day timers. They're on a schedule: school, the dentist, violin lessons followed by soccer, homework and bed. This is good preparation for exploitation in the workplace, but not for living life. Later in life, medication will mask the lingering results of an inadequate childhood.

The busy ethic extends in to retirement. Used to a lifetime of busy, busy, busy, retirees can't sit still. When they should be enjoying life, they feel pangs of guilt for not being busy, all the time. Retirement homes plan busy days for residents. There are sports to play, malls to shop and casinos.

We're here for a reason, and it's not to be always busy. Time to play helps children learn to get along and have fun; the results echo across a lifetime. Must retirees, who've been too busy for fifty years, remain so? As with everything else in life, balance is best, sometimes busy, sometimes not.

If you take a moment, from being busy, to wonder, you'll realize we're where we are because some people stopped being busy and wondered about this or that. T. Conrad Gilliam didn't break the human genome code in a relentless flurry. He broke the code in those hours of contemplation about the results of his busy time.

Students stumble when they stop researching - being busy - and try to decide what their effort means. They're at ease scurrying about, looking for articles, chapters from books and such. Finding and expressing meaning is intellectually, not physically, busy; the variant freezes them. It's typical to read 20 pages of outstanding research that doesn't draw one conclusion. A blank stare is a usual response to any question about what the research means. The sense of inactivity, which thinking and writing evoke, degrades notions of usefulness.

"When," wonders Margaret Hefferman, "did you last have a conversation - a real conversation - with a colleague or a friend, while paying them the compliment of your full, undivided attention? When did you last read a book and give yourself time to think about what it meant and whether you agreed with it? When did you last analyze the themes of your career to find out how you could achieve more?"

Hefferman goes to the heart of the busy phantasy. When did you last step off the treadmill to spend a few moments with you? She took to walking alone for 30 minutes, three times a week, and found what was most important. "Thoughtfulness," she decided, "beat multitasking." The appointment with herself didn't change her life; it changed how she lived her life and succeeded.

The busy ethic is a neatly packaged phantasy. It doesn't give you a chance to think, only do. Thought and action comprise a full life. Action is not enough. If you had a moment to think before you last voted, would your decision have been the same?

The busy ethic turns workers into Gerbils on exercise wheels. The folks on the hill can rest easy, and comfortably. Karl Marx would understand, all too well, although he was a workaholic. The most subtly effective phantasies are not sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, but being busy, overeating and pharmaceuticals. That is, not having time or encouragement to think. In quiet and solitude, you find yourself, and this is not good for the folks on the hill.


The eon of "should be" was dawning, when Dickens wrote. You should do your duty, that is, work hard for little pay. You should buy stuff. You should go into to debt for goods you don't need. Being busy keeps economy and society humming along.

Give your blood, sweat and tears. Keep busy. Spend every cent you earn; savers are unpatriotic. Carry as much debt as possible. You must help keep the goods and services circulating, fast. This is what you should do.

This is for the greater good, they say. A thriving economy benefits everyone. A growing economy is hope for the future. A healthy economy increases happiness. The greatest good, the most benefits and the strongest hopes remain with the folks on the hill, if you do as told.

Health care is a benefit for doing your duty. Nearly half of all families in America are without enough health care. In Canada, it's nip and tuck, a high wire balancing act, to preserve health care benefits for all. If you're busy being busy, you don't have time to think about such matters, until it's too late.

For those on the hill, the elite, life is always easier. Chiefs dole out goods and services, such as jobs and food. The best predictor of whom gets what job or how much food is the long-term interests of the chief; those who help advance his or her interests go to the front of the line. As a result, elites and their sycophants always have ready access to nutrition and better sanitation; their lives are healthier and longer for it. "And you think you're so clever and classless and free." These facts, if not the details, are as true today as in the time of Charles Dickens.


If you're not a member of the elite, life is more difficult. A few current examples show these facts are a matter of degree, not time and place. Poverty and exploitation fall along a gradient.

During the 1990s, middle- and low-income families in Canada barely managed to stay even. Their average annual incomes did not change, and in many cases declined. These families hung on, with little chance to look forward or back.

The average yearly income of families in the high-income category increased over the same period. The average income of families earning more than $100,000 a year increased 14.6% during the 1990s. These families moved forward, never looking back or down from the hill.

In the USA, 40 million workers each keep a credit card balance of $8,000 or more. Guess puts the monthly balance closer to $12,000. Regardless, each month, the first $100 or so goes to pay interest. Personal saving is at a near all-time year low: 1% compared with 12.3% fifty years ago.

Nearly half of Wal-Mart employees can't afford health benefits. Their salaries average $1000 below the poverty line. The only place Wal-Mart employees can afford to shop is Wal-Mart.

There are also mortgage and car payments. Don't forget food. In a typical family, loss of work or illness can flip life from hanging on to out of luck. The life of a worker is stark, in every century.

Paul Krugman, Princeton University economist and op-ed columnist for the New York Times, makes a relevant point. He ties the income gap to political rancour. A big income gap means nasty politics. This is the case today.

Why, asks Krugman, did the last three USA elections dwell on terrorism, and a bit of religion? Why overlook all the equally pressing economic and social issues? The answer is clear. When party policies favour the folks on the hill, distracting the workers, the voters, is vital. A good way to distract the voters is to claim the other party is unpatriotic or godless.

"In 2004," writes Krugman, "Bush ... ran as ... defender against gay married terrorists. He waited until after the election to reveal ... what he really wanted to do"; that is, privatize Social Security. Distracted by faux or brassy issues, voters didn't notice the folks on the hill stealing their pensions.

Now you see it; now you don't. The "it," of course, is your life. "But," you say, "they promised." Yes, they did promise, and pigs can fly.


The eon of "should be" coincided with the era of "you will." You'll marry. You'll divorce. You'll need three minimum wage jobs to pay for your marriages and divorces. You'll barely keep up, and, most likely, fall far behind. You'll elect leaders unable to understand issues that face you, but might be fun to see at the pub.

Still, you'll be content knowing you're busy doing your duty. You must "learn how to smile as you kill." Do the cutthroat bidding of those on the hill. Grab what you can, while you can. Life is brutal, in many ways.

A strong, silent social hero is your lot in life. The life they decide for you is deceitful, delusional and illusional. A working-class hero is not something to be.

Smoking is one of your few pleasures. "Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV" is the aim. Why care about what smoking will do to you in thirty years, you can barely make it through today. Life can be shorter than you believe, and sour not sweet.

Roughly 1 in 5 Canadians smoke. Aboriginals, in Canada, have one of the highest rates of smoking in the world: 56%. Regional poverty varies with smoking rates: about 24% in the Atlantic Provinces, 19% in Ontario and 16% in British Columbia. Smoking links with relative poverty and general disadvantage.

There's another way to think about smoking. It's more than a disgusting habit that causes avoidable illness and premature death. Smoking is largely an artifact of social class, and social class reflects income gaps.

Carve up a population into 10 income groups. As you move from the lowest group to about the eighth, the rate of smoking drops. Average incomes are lowest in the Atlantic Provinces and much higher in British Columbia. The smoking rates are 24% and 15%, respectively.

As income increases, smoking decreases, but only to a point. The smoking rates increases, again, in the top two income groups. There's no consensus on why this happens.

One reason the smoking rate goes down as income goes up is more income implies more years of education. Higher paying jobs usually call for more or special training. More education increases awareness. The vicious effects of smoking, short or long-term, are part of the greater awareness.

Millions continue to smoke. There must be more to it than income and education. Smoking seems influenced by autonomy.

Autonomy is a sense of control. It's the belief you have at least some say in how you live your life. Autonomy is relative. Parents have more than do their children. Workers have less autonomy than do owners of the company.

Total autonomy is chaos. Imagine if everybody could do whatever he or she wanted to do. There'd be no laws, no sanctions, no conscious.

Advertisers suggest you'll have more autonomy if you buy a product. A pension plan implies financial autonomy when you retire. "Freedom 55" implies autonomy sooner than later.

Those in poverty or disadvantaged seldom sense they've much control of their lives. On the job or on the dole, success means doing what others say. Don't arrive late or leave earlier. Keep busy or at least look busy. Be grateful and don't sass. Don't even consider deciding what's good for you.

Lack of autonomy defines the lives of those in poverty or at a disadvantage. The decision to smoke is in their control. Save for universal limits, such as not smoking on the bus, they may smoke when, where and as much as they wish. Although they'll suffer, egregiously, each cigarette is an expression of control, rewarding on many levels.

Lack of life control increases stress, often to fatal levels. Unyielding stress ups the chance of disease and shortens life span, almost for sure. Autonomy works against stress. Managers sense they're in control and experience fewer stress effects than do clerks, who sense little or no control of their lives and are more often ill.

Smoking creates a sense of autonomy. This, in turn, reduces stress, to some degree. After a cigarette, a typical smoker may experience a brief sense of social well-being as well as a physical high. The double dip makes it hard to kick the habit.

Those in poverty or at a disadvantage smoke more than do others, for many reasons. Some of those reasons, the most compelling reasons, go unnoticed. Autonomy seems one of the overlooked reasons for smoking.

The life of an industrial worker in 19^th century Britain was not that much different from workers in the developed countries in the 21^st century. Food isn't a main concern, today, and workers have more stuff. The prevalence of digital games and high-definition plasma televisions certify this fact. Diversions are plentiful. Yet working class life remains a matter staying of busy; working, consuming and smoking, but not thinking.


When baby boomers hit the workplace, in the 1960s, early retirement was the goal and pensions were a given. "Freedom 55" was the slogan. Work and retire on a pension you paid into for 40 years. To lure workers, employers promised attractive retirement benefits.

A waggish colleague suggests it's now, "freedom 95." Work as long as you can, and die. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."

"Come work with us and we'll save for you," was part of the message in the 1960s and 1970s. "A pot of gold awaits you at the end of the rainbow, we promise." The deal was simple, work for us for 40 years and we'll take care of you for the rest of your life. The average "rest of your life," by the way, was 42 months after forced retirement.

As boomers flood the ranks of the retired, hope vanishes: pensions are uncertain. In May 2005, Judge Eugene Wedoff gave United Airlines the right to end four pension plans. Analysts expect a domino effect; other airlines will close down pension plans.

Jerry Shuck, 60, piloted Boeing 777s at United Airlines for 26 years. He retired in October 2004 and now expects to lose 80% of his pension. Tom Close, 62, worked at United for 36 years. He expects the Wedoff decision to cost him 70% of the pension benefits he earned. Corporate leaders retire, their pockets lined with gold.

Corruption, ineptitude, negligence or all three make it impossible for employers to live up to their promises. Those who toiled, paid into pension plans and, most of all, believed, are out of luck. A flip of the corporate finger, backed by the courts, is at the end of the rainbow for too many boomers.

Not having to live up to pension commitments is good business. The decision will save United Airlines "billions of dollars" and give it "a huge competitive advantage." If I decide not to pay our big bills, I lose what I own or maybe go to jail for fraud. "And you think you're so clever and classless and free."

Shuck and Close can expect to live 20 or more years. Can they afford it? The stress of lost retirement income, which they earned and paid for, is a loss of autonomy, which may contribute to premature death.

In the future, few defined-benefit pensions will exist. That conclusion refers to USA airlines, but seems likely to apply across all industries. Companies carrying a heavy legacy load, such as carmakers, want to act on the Wedoff decision. Top managers are likely to continue to get solid pension plans, whereas workers will get nothing.

The messages for new workers are simple. Save as much as possible as fast as possible. Don't get old. Don't get sick. Don't believe promises about the future. Find other ways to ensure autonomy, maybe smoking, so the health industry can flourish. The life of the worker, today, is not much different from 150 years ago.


Yes, life is now longer, more than twice as long as for workers in 1854, when "Hard Times" appeared. Living long is solace for hardship. Never mind that you'll have to work until you're 95 years old to pay the bills.

Medical science will keep you alive as long as you can work and spend, as long as you're a commodity and a consumer. A few years ago, I watched the staff of a hospital emergency room fall all over themselves to help a well-known bureaucrat. Other, not prominent patients went untended. One of the ignored patients slipped away during the hubbub, and no one noticed. As it turned out, the bureaucrat had an acute case of self-pity.

"Writers make choices," says Grady Tripp, in the movie, "The Wonder Boys." The staffs of hospital emergency rooms also make choices. Tacitly, they favour social contribution over need. The boss gets attention before the worker and the former worker, regardless of affliction.

At 95, you'll pass away from a preventable cause, such as smoking, too much unnecessary medication or a lifetime of excess stress, the result of keeping busy, busy, busy and working hard for the benefit of the folks on the hill. Although it seems a long way off, it isn't. Maybe you'll get a plot of gold. If nothing else, it clarifies the appeal of religion, and notions of a beneficent gawd.


Religion and elite interests have always made strange, if effective, bedfellows. An exchange of everlasting happiness for exploitation, in the here and now, is compelling. The gates of heaven open wide for the price of compliance and a strong back. There's no surcharge, no coat check charge and gold card seating for all. The image is seductive.

If you think or question, resist in any way, you're in trouble, here and in the life after. They hate you if you're clever and despise you if you're dumb, in heaven as on earth. Walk the narrow path. Don't veer. Do as told, though you know better.

If anything bad happens to you, it's your fault; accept the results and keep busy. If your pension evaporates, it's because you weren't paying enough attention. If you're paying attention to your pension plan, you are not busy or focusing on work, and that's almost treason.

Having written these words, I'll freeze in hell for eternity; at least the cold will save my natural good looks. You, for reading my words and thinking about what I write, will do time in Purgatory, where flames purge you of the sins I made you to commit. When you arrive at the door of heaven, a member of the elite will welcome you. She or he will hand you a mop, and tell you to go through the kitchen to their cloud, which you're to clean. Your eternity is keeping busy, busy, busy cleaning the cloud of an elite saint.

There are no pensions or benefits for heavenly workers. Start saving currency as soon as you arrive. Don't expect heavenly interest rates. Everlasting retirement is yours, if you do as told, work hard, don't question or look out for you, in heaven as on earth.


If you're content with the current state of affairs, are not sure a change is as good as a rest or that life should be fuller, if not necessarily better, than stop reading. Thanks for hanging in this long. Thanks for forming an opinion. That's good thinking, but you're in trouble with the folks on the hill.

What's it all about? Social wariness best expresses my purpose. When you're distracted, the folks on the hill rob you of a full life and bill you for their services.

This isn't an invitation to rise and depose the exploiters. More, and probably worse, exploiters would replace them. Drastic action is rarely a lasting solution. Violence begets more violence.

The current state of affair isn't horrific. Competitive capitalism under a democratic umbrella is a good, basic way to organize social life. Best there has been, so far, mused Winston Churchill. The point is life can be better.

Wariness helps limit wrong turns and allows for corrective action, as soon as possible. Believing there can always be a better tomorrow keeps us moving forward. The message is not revolution, but mutually favourable social progress.

We can all move ahead. Some of us can race ahead as long as most don't fall farther and farther behind. A little effort leads to hefty rewards.

The urge is to act. Just say no. Don't succumb to the wishes of the people on the hill. Don't be a constant motion machine, busy, busy, busy all the time and for the good of the folks on the hill. Don't believe all you can be is a Gerbil on an exercise wheel. Don't let the folks on the hill slide; make them share the wealth and health.

A few years ago, the president of the USA signed a $200 billion tax cut. The 2% of Americans who were most wealthy benefited the most from the tax cut. Given the hundreds of trillions of dollars of wealth in the hands of the richest 2% of Americans, the tax cut was a pebble in the ocean. If half the tax cut had gone to workers, the effect would've been significant and fewer women and men would be working three minimum pay jobs, today. Nonetheless, re-election was his, largely on the belief he was more fun loving than his stuffy opponent.

Some women and men are good at leading, organizing and managing or taking risks. Not everyone wants to or feels comfortable performing these tasks. Let those who can and want to assume these roles and reap extra rewards for their efforts. Leaders perform duties few others wish to do. Nonetheless, they need oversight to ensure they work for us, not the other way around.

Wariness ensures those entrusted and amply rewarded to decide for us have our best interests firmly in mind. You shouldn't fear losing your pension, health care or other privileges. You paid for these benefits over a lifetime; these are your rights. The air must be safe to breathe. The streets must be safe. Doing your duty shouldn't include being in a permanent state of busy, busy, busy or over medicating as a way of handling the routine ups and downs of life.


The facts favoured by the Dickensian character in "Hard Times," were diversionary. These facts were an opiate, intended to distract from the folks on the hill. These facts offered a little knowledge to fool you into thinking you're in the game.

The delivery of the facts in "Hard Times" carried a message, accept or lose. You need these facts. Accept only these facts, if you wish success. Peace, order and a good life through intellectual sterility was the leitmotif.

The facts of "Hard Times" meant a life of servitude, little fulfilment for most and huge rewards for a few. Those who live on the hill didn't accept such limited facts, and prospered. Little or no autonomy for the accepting, boundless autonomy for those who knew there was more.

Notes

Thanks to Dr. Denise McConney, University of Saskatchewan, for comments on an earlier draft.

Although not fictional, this work uses fictional dialogue, characters and locations as exemplars for elaboration of ideas, concepts, theories and activities intended for educational purposes. Unless specifically stated as extant, in the narrative or notes to the narrative, such dialogue, characters and locations are the product of the imagination of the author or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, industries, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

A "phantasy" is an especially unrealistic or improbable mental image created in response to socio-psychological need; it's often delusional and dominating. A "fantasy" is the imaging of something or somebody not copresent; it's generally pleasant or whimsical and often creative.

John Lennon lyrics are from "Working Class Hero," published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 1970.

For more on 19^th century ruthlessness, see Sarah Wise (2004) The Italian Boy: a tale of murder and body snatching in 1830's, published by Metropolitan.

For more on England post-1650, see Ian Burman (1998) Anglomania: a European love affair, published by Random House.

For more on how the busy ethic extends into retirement, see Henry Fountain (2005) "No, You Can't Just Dodder," in the New York Times. 15 May.

For more on taking time to think and know yourself, see Margaret Hefferman (2006) Naked Truth: a manifesto for working women, published by Jossey-Bass (Wiley). Quotes are from an excerpt published the Ottawa Citizen, on 10 June 2006, page D12.

Income and tax data adjusted for inflation by Statistics Canada.

For more information on Wal-Mart, see Simon Head, "Inside the Leviathan," in the New York Review of Books for 16 December 2004 as well as Steven Greenhouse (2003) "Wal-Mart, Driving Workers and Supermarkets Crazy," in the New York Times: 19 October. In 2003, Fortune named Wal-Mart a most admired company (sic).

For the full commentary, see Paul Krugman (2006) "Class War Politics," in the New York Times for 19 June. His comments are in the guise of a review of "Polarized America: the dance of ideology and unequal riches," by Nolan McCarty, Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal; published in 2006 by MIT Press. Details about "Class War ..." are available at MIT Press.

For more information about smoking, see Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada on smoking. For more information on work, stress and health, see Michael Marmot (2004) The Status Syndrome, published by Times Books.

Reference to freedom is from Kris Kristofferson & Fred Foster (1971) "Me and Bobbie McGee," published by Combine Music EMI Blackwood.

For more information on collapsing pension plans, see Micheline Maynard (2005) "United Air Wins Right to Default on Its Employee Pension Plans," in the New York Times for 11 May. Also see Bruce V. Bigelow (2005) "United's Pension Bust See as a Bellwether," in the San Diego Union Tribune for 14 May. Also James Bernstein (2005) "A Judge's ruling to Allow Termination of United Airlines Pensions May Become ...: a strategy that takes off," in the New York Times for 12 May.

Steven Kloves wrote the Wonder Boys (2000) and Curtis Hanson directed the Paramount release.