Miniskirt Rising Topic for Capp, Forum Speakers

"I have nothing against Joan Baez," Al Capp said Saturday night. "I'd send her some flowers tonight, if I knew what jail she was in."

Capp joined satirist Henry Morgan and former Punch editor Malcolm Muggeridge, in a living-room discussion of "The Miniskirt Mentality" before a Law School Forum audience.

Commentator A. James Casner, Acting Dean of the Law School encouraged a free-wheeling discussion by apologizing for the topic. "I was unaware that the miniskirt had risen to such heights," he said.

The panel dissected everything from hostile questioners to Hugh Heffner. Muggeridge suggested that the effect of Playboy on sailors is that when they married, they were amazed to discover that their wives didn't fold up.

Free Pills

Muggeridge, who recently resigned as Rector of Edinburgh over student demands for free birth control pills, also said that he would only allow certified promiscuous girls to have them. Morgan asked him, "Wouldn't you give just one to a nice girl?"

Muggeridge also played the straight man when he asked Capp what he thought to be the effect of a miniskirt on the observer. Capp prefaced his reply with, "I see what you're reaching for."

The range of topics was unlimited with the exception of Vietnam. "We will not discuss the war," said Capp, "but we will discuss either sex or educational TV. You can take your pick."

Political comment was not lacking. Capp said that it took him a half hour after hearing Nixon to hate him.

The trio entertained the Sanders theatre audience for two hours before deciding that they had run out of the their marvelous irrelevancies.