Poomerang, who was a great admirer of it and knew practically by heart, had once summed up the contents like this:

If a bank robber goes to jail, why do intellectuals roam free?

It should be said that, with banks, Poomerang had a 'suspense account' (the phrase was Shatzy's, she found it ingenious.) He hated banks, even though it wasn't clear why. At one time, he had undertaken an educational campaign against the excessive use of ATM machines. Along with Diesel and Gould he was constantly chewing gum, and he would stick the gum, still warm, on the keypad of an automatic teller machine. Usually he put it on the 5. People would go up to the machine, and right as they were entering their secret code they would notice the gum. If they didn't need the number 5 they would keep going, paying careful attention to where they put their finger. If their code had a 5 they panicked. The anguished need for money had to do battle with the revulsion at the chewed gum. Some tried to remove the sticky substance; they used all types of objects. Usually they ended up plastering the whole screen. A minority gave up and left. Sad to say, most people swallowed hard and then hit the number, their finger on the gum. Once Diesel saw an unfortunate woman who had three 5s in a row in her secret code. She hit the first with dignity, and on the second her mouth was weirdly contorted. On the third she started vomiting.

In this connection: the first thesis of Essay on Intellectual Honesty went like this:

1. Men have ideas

'Clever' remarked Shatzy.

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