We unloaded in an Italian neighborhood and got, if we so desired, posters. We all kept together and reached Bloomfield Avenue. In due time a procession of the usual police and fire attachments and on-the-take politicos came waving past and finally, yes, WALTER MONDALE, looking a bit heavier than I expected. Totally uninspiring. He jumped from the open-body old car and started gladhanding with the adoring masses.

And to make the scene even more surrealistic, we began trailing Mondale along the crowded street, although my Republican leanings kept me from taking a banner and yelling. Finally he got in the car. We followed him down to a speakers stand, and although we could not see him we heard a very brief nonpolitical blurb on the great contributions of Italian Americans to American culture, from Christopher Columbus to Don Vito Corleone.

Retracing our route back down the street, we found GOP VP nominee Bob Dole. My group trailed him from the sidewalk while waving posters and yelling and acting like perfect representatives of the [Democratic] party's symbol. . . .

In the mail today were letters from home and Aunt Charlotte, plus a slip saying a perishable package [from my mother in Mission] awaited me at the Post Office. It included a [birthday] cake, Pop Tarts, one issue of TX Monthly, and an issue of a Southwestern Bell magazine w/ a picture of THE mission. . . .

Last night the 4 of us [my roommates from Hamilton Hall] attempted to hear an Isaac Asimov lecture at McCosh 10. We arrived 30 minutes early but all the seats were taken except in the balcony, where we found fine ones. Unfortunately, people sitting in the aisles and standing in the back of the hall prevented the program from beginning, and repeated pleas for co-operation failed. Alexander Hall, nor the gym nor even the Chapel, were open for us, so to our disgust the meeting was moved to the slightly larger but older McCosh 50, and a mad scramble ensued.

The lecture's main thrust centered on the threat of overpopulation, and the methods of curing it -- persuading women to not have so many children.