Lipton’s Journal/January 31, 1955/347

An interesting confirmation of the S-eating process. While I was having lunch, I stopped at a newsstand to buy a paper. A white-haired lady of sixty-odd was talking to the newsdealer. They were talking about the passing of the Brooklyn Eagle, and in a voice of shock and a little outrage, the white-haired lady said, “But it’s over a hundred years old.” I sensed immediately that it was deeply upsetting to her. She had the psychology of those old people who have been S all their lives. They feel that society should reward them which is why they often are so martyred in their air, and the fact that society changes too and venerable institutions which have become worthless like the Brooklyn Eagle are axed and buried by society itself, or so it seems to them, is terribly painful.

Anyway, I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She wandered away, she came back to the stand, quiet, but close to being pathetic. Finally, after a little indecision and fumbling, she reached forward and chose a piece of candy from the rack. Truly, sweets are the great unrecognized drug, the one which cushions us against disappointment, but exacts the price of leaving the H inert. So, disappointment, fear, even terror are smoothed into depression and flatness by sweets.

I must say the scientist in me leaped when I saw her take the candy. I really feel a little these days like Einstein. I have the feeling that if I go far enough, I will be able to set up an experiment in advance, so to speak. One which might confirm or deny these ideas.