Stein on Oakland

It’s too bad Gertrude Stein didn’t live to see the A’s make it twice in a row to the World Series as she would have been happy to know Oakland did, indeed, have something there.

A group of us visited her in Paris while we were waiting for our division, the 82nd Airborne, to be shipped home. Several of us were sent to the Sorbonne for a course in the French language and civilization.

When she found that one of our group was from Oakland she said, “ Il n’y a rien la .” Her French, of course, was excellent but to us it translated “there is no there there.” So started the meaningless phrase and its thousands of explanations. Sacrebleu ! Maybe her “rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” can be explained the same way.

JOHN G. WATKINS

San Juan Capistrano