Vidal and Mailer Write Off Feud

--Publicly burying the literary hatchet were writers Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal. They put aside one of the most famous feuds in modern literature to take on some common enemies--President Reagan, the arms race and taxation. Mailer once punched Vidal and threw a drink in his face, but this time he was nothing but complimentary toward Vidal at a lecture in New York. “Tonight we make up feuds and mend the fences--all the things I’m not good at,” Mailer said. “One gets turned into a fool by the media,” Vidal said. “It is terribly important that you (the media) think about Mailer and me as two vain people who are engaged in a literary feud.” Mailer and Vidal said they decided to speak together because they believe the country is being run by a wealthy few who put their concerns before the common good. The most prolonged applause of the evening came when Vidal said he was tired of being attacked as un-American for criticizing his country. “I’m in absolute agreement with him,” Mailer said. Among those paying $1,000 to hear them were writers Kurt Vonnegut and Gay Talese, actor Paul Newman and newsman Morley Safer.

--A computer that selects cases for Broward County’s judges in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has been condemned by the jurists. They have complained that capital offense cases weren’t assigned fairly, with some judges getting more than their share, said chief Judge Barry Stone. So the judges have decided not to wait for the new and more powerful computer due to be installed next year. Instead, they will rely on the Marble System to distribute casework. When any case, no matter how serious, comes before the court, the clerk of the court will dip into a box of 12 marbles--each with a judge’s name on it--and that man will be in charge.

--David Soibel’s Old Town isn’t like any delicatessen you’ve ever been to--or any water-bed store, either. For eight weeks, he’s been selling sandwiches as well as water beds at the same downtown Clinton, Iowa, building. He thinks it’s a natural: “I felt it would tie together--the concept of eating and sleeping.” Soibel said he came up with the idea when he was operating his Waterbeds Unlimited store and needed a quick lunch. He called his wife, Mary, and asked her to bring him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Thus, Old Town was conceived. The Soibels converted the front half of the water-bed store into a deli-style restaurant. The water beds were moved to the back of the 3,600-square-foot building. “We have had quite a few people who will eat lunch and then lay down a few minutes and relax on the water beds,” Soibel said. And it’s paid off. “One who did yesterday bought a water bed.”