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Standing in the Doorway
One
of the big changes Dissent went through, as we entered the new century, is that we moved into a new "home office" that was just an office, and left our office that was a home. Not just any old home, but the home of Simone Plastrik (d. 1999), who was not only our business manager but also, along with her husband, Stanley (d. 1981), one of our founders half a century ago. Simone was one of the few really magical people I have ever known. Her home projected her aura. Her apartment wasn't big, yet we all felt bathed in light and space and fresh air; old and new books vied for space with plants, children's drawings with vintage Abstract Expressionist art, memories of a life that began in interwar Paris with urgencies of New York and America here and now. Everything overflowed here, yet nobody felt crowded out. Militantly different men and women fought and thought here for years, protected in ways they never thought of. As she lay dying, we came to see what a remarkable achievement he...
