The July 31 Chronicle of Higher Education headline read: Academic Warns Americans Against Taking Positions at Australian Universities" and on a nearby page is the story, "New Zealand Urges Student Drinkers to 'Just Say Forget It': Universiteis use ad campaigns to combat a long-standing tradition in the country"...I might ask "what's going on down there? Is there some truth to scottie's teasing?" But when I put that shoe on my foot I don't want to be seen as an "American" or "Coloradan" or even (and I say this with great hesitation since it's really something my accent and heart won't ever really let go of) "New Yorker." One of the most remarkable things about mr. salinger's fiction for me is that it transcends geographic limits...I've known young black women worlds away from Holden's Pencey Prep world zoned into what he goes through there as clearly as most (ellen's last post about wanting to answer her friends in catcher terms shows at least holden is not gender bound!), and I think the confluence of religious "creeks and streams" into his east-west spirituality continues to show the way mr. salinger's fiction goes beyond most cultural layers to things in us that are even more, (here it comes matt and sonny) universal. No aussie jokes for me but glad that teasing can happen and that maybe some of the flowing goes mr. salinger's way, will