Confucius Say

When last we reported on Marion Barry, the capital’s mayor, he was skipping town for two weeks of”spiritual recovery” time and quoting “To thine own self be true” as Biblical wisdom. Well, he’s blown back into D.C., greeting his subjects with a 25-minute effusion of New Age oratory and psycho-emotional exhibitionism.

“I didn’t realize how fatigued I was,” he said, pledging “no more 16-hour work days.” (That’s a common complaint about the District’s government: It just works too hard.) He took umbrage at the suggestion that he had taken a vacation: “I was going to work,” he said — “on my body, my mind, and my soul. So why be dishonest?” He cited Aristotle; he dispensed dietary advice (no ” fast junk food,” because “the body needs carbohydrates and proteins and vegetables and fruit in terms of food”); he discoursed on the Greek word kairos; he outlined a new personal schedule (including “talk to Cora [Mrs. Barry], if she’s there”); he declared himself “powerless over the media” (which have treated his recent diffculties with astonishing gingerliness); and he confessed that the vice that has been tempting him is . . . cigarettes.