Consulting the "Writer's Almanac" and "A Book of Days for the Literary Year," we find that October 2 is the birthday of Wallace Stevens, writer of memorable if impenetrable poetry ("The Emperor of Ice Cream"), and who, like composer Charles Ives, never gave up his day job at an insurance company.
It is also the birthday of Graham Greene, whose many novels and essays and plays deserve re-reading. Greene was frequently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but there was one (unnamed) member of the Swedish Academy who had taken a vow never to allow Greene the honor. Greene did achieve a dubious sort of fame when, as a film critic, he was sued by the nine-year-old Shirley Temple.
And it was October 2, 1950, that the comic strip "Peanuts" first appeared. What springs to mind is a Downtown East Side performance of the musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," with the young Brent Carver of Cranbrook in the title role, a few years before he went to Broadway and won two Tony Awards.
Finally, we are at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. We want to join the celebrations, but we're reminded of a day when we were lunching with Bill Phillips at the now sadly vanished Rubin's Delicatessen. Gerry Altman appeared behind us, and said, "It doesn't matter how much bagels and lox you eat--it won't make you Jewish."
Happy New Year anyway.
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I also remember Gerry bursting into laughter when I mentioned that I was drivng a Corvair ("unsafe at any speed") Monza. "Monza is Yiddish for 'bastard'," he declared. Later,in Winnipeg, I retold the story to Jack Shapira. "No-no-no!" Jack said."It's Momzer, not Monza." You can imagine my relief.
ReplyDeleteAnd if Graham Green were remembered for nothing else he'd be immortalized for Our Man In Havana.
שנה טובה (Shanah Tovah) to all.