The Bible of American Social Strata. Do you dress up to ride on planes? Are your clothes always new? How about your car? Is it usually a newer model? Do you routinely use words like interface, lifestyle and bottom line? Do you display “collectibles” in your home? And does it have wall-to-wall carpet or hard wood floors? If the latter, are your oriental rugs threadbare or new? In his 1983 non-fiction book Class, Paul Fussell, the professor, polymath, author, WWII veteran and wit who died last month at the age of 88, wrote a tongue-in-cheek marvel and satire on American manners that is funny, nasty and true. Upper classes, in Fussell’s world, drink Scotch on the rocks, and say “Grandfather died”. Middles: “Martoonis” or “Teenies” and “Grandma passed away”. Proles: beer in a can, and “Uncle Tommy was taken to Jesus.”
